Giro dell'Emilia 2025

October 4, 2025 The final phase of the season begins in Mirandola with the start of the Italian one-day classics leading to Il Lombardia. The Giro dell'Emilia is in it's 108th edition and has names like Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali, and Francesco Moser as prestigious former winners. The route covers nearly 200KM from Mirandola to Bologna with the finish at the Sanctuary of San Luca on the Colle della Guardia. The first 65KM of the race are flat as the riders head towards Bologna. There are two category two climbs and a category one on the run in to the city which are difficult but they come with 90KM still to go which is likely too far out for fireworks with how difficult the finale is. The bunch arrive in Bologna with 44KM to go and start the circuit which features the climb to San Luca, following the 666 arches of the portico for 2.1KM at over 9%. The 1.2KM, 5.5% Monte Albano comes just over the top before the true descent back to the bottom. There are five total ascents of San Luca which will make for a highly attritional race. Unlike last year, the weather was beautiful with dappled sunlight shining through trees of autumnal foliage. Pablo García of Polti-VisitMalta, Sinuhé Fernández of Burgos-Burpellet BH, and Enzo Leijnse, Jacob Bush, and Gijs Leemreize of Picnic-PostNL were the members of the early break but only Bush and Leemreize were still out front with 43KM to go. They reached the circuits around Bologna but the bunch were bearing down just 20 seconds behind. Every team would have been at the front of the peloton if there was space on the road because of how narrow the entry onto San Luca was. It was like a sprint finish as the bunch barreled toward the turn on to San Luca, catching Bush and Leemreize. Decathlon AG2R, EF-Education EasyPost, and Bahrain Victorious were best positioned as the road ramped up but it was Jay Vine of UAE-XRG who led up San Luca and Monte Albano. Mikkel Honoré of EF-Education EasyPost attacked and had a maximum lead of 12 seconds but was caught the next time around on the steepest section with 1KM to climb by Rafal Majka who had taken over for UAE-XRG. Majka carried on over the top with fewer than 45 riders still in contact. Vine assumed the front on the third time up and the favorites group shattered. Only 15 riders were at the front when Adam Yates accelerated for UAE-XRG and got a small gap. Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, Tom Pidcock of Q36.5, and Cian Uijtdebroeks of Visma-Lease a Bike responded but more came across and the situation was reset when Vine arrived back at the front. On the penultimate lap, Uijtdebroeks attacked from the bottom with Martinez on his wheel. Uijtdebroeks and Martinez went through 1KM to the top as UAE-XRG ran out of resources and Isaac del Toro was forced to ride on the front for his own chances. Pidcock decided to take over and close the gap all in one effort with del Toro, Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe sitting on. The six riders were together at the top but with all leaders and no workers, they stalled on the Monte Albano which allowed a handful of dropped riders to come back. One of those was Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost who went straight through the group and attacked. He caused a few gaps on the descent but by the bottom with 3KM to go, the group was back together. Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ led the group under the Arco del Meloncello for the final 2KM ascent of San Luca. Pidcock rode hard from the bottom, dropping the others, and had 15 seconds as he rounded the corner under the final kilometer to hit the steepest section. Del Toro attacked the group as Pidcock was swinging left to right to flatten out the steep gradients. Pidcock and del Toro were together at 700M with Pidcock on the front. Del Toro waited and waited until 200M from the line when he started his sprint. He was quickly over the top of Pidcock and held off the Brit to the line to take his 14th win of the season in a very cool, confident, and controlled manner. Martinez won the sprint for third place 5 seconds after del Toro crossed the line.