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Thursday, May 8, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
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Upcoming racing:
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
- May 9: Tour du Finistère
- May 10: GP du Morbihan
- May 11: Tro-Bro Léon
- May 13 - 18: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
- May 17:
Veenendaal - VeenendaalCancelled - May 18: Rund um Köln
Latest completed racing:
- April 27 - May 4: Tour of Turkey
- April 29 - May 4: Tour de Romandie
- May 1: Rund um den Finanzplaz Eschborn-Frankfurt
- April 27: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- April 24 - 27: Vuelta Asturias
- April 21 - 25: Tour of the Alps
- April 23: La Flèche Wallonne
- April 20: Amstel Gold Race
- April 20: Tour du Doubs
- April 15 - 18: Giro d'Abruzzo
- April 18: De Brabantse Pijl
We posted team rosters on both May 6 & May 7.
Here’s the Giro preview from Richard Carapaz’s Team EF Education-EasyPost:
Richie [Carapaz] is aiming to add another maglia rosa winner’s jersey to his collection. With Kasper Asgreen, Georg Steinhauser, Alexander Cepeda, Owain Doull, Mikkel Honoré, Darren Rafferty, and James Shaw at his side, the former Giro champ, Olympic gold medalist, and reigning Tour de France King of the Mountains will ride into the 2025 Giro with a strong squad. EF Education-EasyPost is ready to go on the offensive across all terrain, from the Grande Partenza in Albania all the way to the grand finale in Rome.
Richard Carapaz after winning the Giro d'Italia in 2019. Sirotti photo
This year’s race course is especially mountainous and that suits Richie well. He and his teammates will attack the hills around the Med in Albania, the strade bianche in Tuscany, the Apennines, and the Italian Alps. They can’t wait to put on a show for the Italian fans, whose knowledge and passion for the sport is unmatched.
Get ready for three exciting weeks of racing at the Giro d’Italia. The flag drops this Friday in Albania.
Read our riders thoughts before the Grande Partenza.
Richard Carapaz:
"The Giro is a very important race for me and my sports career because it was the first one I was able to win as a three-week rider. I have prepared for this one well and my ambitions are very big. This will be my fourth Giro. The last three were very good, and I hope this one will be the same, or even better.
"I spent some days in Ecuador, where I trained well. I hope everything comes together as planned and as hoped.
"The team is very prepared. We all know our plan. We’re bringing all of our experiences to make the Giro ours. We can’t hide our ambitions: we want to win the race.
"We have had this intention for months. We want to win. It’s the main focus for the team right now. The staff and riders know what’s up. We want to do it well and we are hoping for the best."
Kasper Asgreen:
"I'm feeling good. I'm really happy. I haven't done the Giro before. It has always been one of those races that hasn’t fit in with the schedule I usually race.
"With the sickness I had this spring, the opportunity came up to go. I am really, really excited. The Italian fans, like the Belgian ones, are just super knowledgeable about cycling. Cycling is ingrained into their culture and they like to celebrate the champions of cycling. That is a really nice environment to race in.
"Richie is going really well, so it will be my role to keep him safe through the first stages until we arrive in the mountains. If opportunities come up, I will definitely take them, but the first priority is definitely Richard.
"I’ll be a road captain, keeping him out of trouble and helping him with positioning. That’s not something I have done before, but I am looking forward to it!"
Georg Steinhauser:
"The history and tradition of the Giro in Italy is something special. It is one of the grand tours, and racing with all of the Italian fans is always cool.
"I will support Richie and if I get the opportunity and have the legs to have a similar Giro like I did last year, that would be amazing. My preparation this year didn’t go as planned, and I missed some races, but it is going to be really cool to ride for Richie. He is a nice leader because he is super experienced. He knows what he has to do. He knows what calls he needs to make and you know that he is always going to be in the right position at the right moment. That makes a lot of the work we need to do easier.
"First, we have the start in Albania. I have never been to Albania before, but it is always cool to race in new and different countries. We are in the hotels a lot and spend a lot of time on the bike, but we still get to know the country a little bit. This is something I really enjoy. Albania probably wouldn’t have been one of my top go-to countries, but to experience it here now is awesome."
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Here's the Giro update from Team Arkea - B&B Hotels:
Didier Rous, sports manager of the Arkea-B&B Hotels team, outlines the objectives for the red and black team in Italy. Here's a look at the squad.
Didier Rous, Sports Manager:
The objective set for the riders in the Arkea-B&B Hotels team for this Giro 2025 is to win a stage. Luca Mozzato will be our leader for the sprints, and after that the other riders will have carte blanche to get into the breakaways that are likely to go all the way. We'll have a young team with Embret Sevstad-Bårdseng, Martin Tjøtta and Gisouè Épis, all three of whom have distinguished themselves at the start of the season and shown great qualities. They will be joined by more experienced riders such as Michel Ries, Laurens Huys, Simon Guglielmi and Luca Mozzato, who will accompany and guide them throughout the three weeks of racing. We want to liven up this Giro and come away with some good results. As we've seen since the start of the season, it's the offensive riders who are often rewarded.
Luca Mozzato:
2025 will mark Luca Mozzato's very first participation in his National Tour, the Giro d'Italia. Luca will be the leader of the Arkea-B&B Hotels team in this event because of his status and experience. On the stages on offer that match his qualities, he will have to take them on as classics, his field of reference. He will also be our sprint leader for the grouped finishes.
Luca Mozzato (in front) checking out the 2025 Tour of Flanders course earlier this year. Sirotti photo
Giosuè Epis:
Gisoué Épis is about to discover the Giro, its fervour and its tifosi. He'll be full of ambition at the start of his national tour. But beyond the discovery, the role we expect him to play is to be a support and an asset for Luca Mozzatto during the mass finishes. Why not also see him in the breakaways?
Alessandro Verre:
Alessandro will be taking part in his 3rd Giro d'Italia in a row. He now has experience of this Grand Tour. He had three interesting weeks in this race in 2024, and we're expecting him to step up another notch this year in the Giro d'Italia. He'll be one of our assets for the mountain stages. He'll have to get into the breakaways, and play for victory when the stages get tough.
Laurens Huys:
His start to the season was disrupted by injury, but Laurens has been coming back well in recent weeks. We're expecting him to be more active in the third week of the race, during the difficult stages. He should act as a relay for the climbers and help the team in its quest for stage success.
Simon Guglielmi:
Simon has sprinting qualities. He can make an impact in a small group, and last year he put in some fine performances in the Vuelta, taking places of honour in various stages. His role will therefore be to get into the breakaways, but his sense of positioning and his ability to rub well could also help Luca Mozzato in the massive finishes scheduled for this Giro 2025.
Michel Ries:
Michel is a regular rider who goes from strength to strength season after season. He rode a good Giro in 2024, demonstrating such qualities. Like Alessandro, we're expecting him to step up a gear again this year, and to come away with a result either with a good overall classification or on a mountain stage.
Martin Tjøtta:
Since the start of the season, Martin has shown that he is capable of doing some great things, particularly on hilly, off-road stages. He'll be taking part in his first three-week Grand Tour, and he should be able to focus on the medium mountain stages, which are more suited to the more adventurous riders.
Embret Svestad-Bårdseng:
A climber, Embret will also be discovering the Giro d'Italia. This Grand Tour, which is often favourable to this type of rider, could give him the opportunity to discover himself and be discovered by the general public. He demonstrated his climbing skills in the Tour of Oman at the start of the season, competing with the best in a summit finish. We expect him to repeat that kind of performance at the Giro.
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Here's the news from the team:
Ahead of his first participation in the Giro d'Italia, the 26-year-old Belgian sprinter Gerben Thijssen has extended his contract with Intermarché-Wanty until the end of 2027.
Since joining in 2022, Gerben Thijssen has come into his own with Intermarché-Wanty on the international sprint scene, securing his first professional victory at the 2022 Four Days of Dunkirk. This marked the beginning of a series of nine successes, including his first World Tour win at the Tour of Poland, as well as victories in classics such as the Bredene-Koksijde Classic, Ronde van Limburg, Gooikse Pijl, and Omloop van het Houtland, beating top sprinters like Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen, Caleb Ewan, and Dylan Groenewegen.
Gerben Thijssen wins the 2023 Trofeo Palma.
His development continued with his first participation in a Monument race at Paris-Roubaix 2023, which he finished, and his debut in the Tour de France last summer. At the start of 2024, he reached a new personal milestone by winning a points classification for the first time at the Tour of the Algarve, thanks in particular to his victory on the opening stage. His growing number of top placings each year reflect his consistency in mass sprints, with 24 top-ten finishes in 2024. Thanks to this contract extension, the Walloon World Team can continue to rely on its Belgian finisher for at least two more seasons.
"The trust that Intermarché-Wanty shows in me, from my teammates, the staff, and the management, is an important factor in my sporting development, and that's what makes this contract extension so valuable. We form a great group of friends, and the professional approach of the Performance Team allows me to continue to progress. Last winter, I made concrete progress in the area of nutrition thanks to the advice of Astrid Roekens and Jemme Terryn, and my training was optimized by Adriaan Helmantel. The investment put in place to allow each rider to excel is palpable in all areas.
"A perfect example is the targeted preparation for the Giro, with a high-altitude training camp for the climbers and specific sprint training on the coast for Gijs Van Hoecke and myself. Coming out of a consistent 2024 season, where I often came close to victory, I have continued to work hard to get closer to the best sprinters. I hope to be rewarded for my efforts at the Giro, to be able to achieve my ambition with a prestigious victory to start a new chapter in my career." - Gerben Thijssen
"Gerben Thijssen is a rider who focuses on all aspects of his performance with great discipline and hard work: nutrition, training, and muscle strengthening. His confidence in the approach of our Performance Team is essential to his progress. He took advantage of the winter to gain physical strength. It's a shame that the spring hasn't yet yielded the expected results, with bad luck playing a major role in important races like Bruges-La Panne and the Scheldeprijs. However, with the experience gained in recent years, including his first Tour de France, it's only a matter of time before his hard work translates into new results. We clearly see the physical progress he has made and therefore continue to invest in him with confidence. With his nine victories in less than four seasons, he has become an important pillar at Intermarché-Wanty, and we believe he still has a lot to offer. We look forward to seeing what he can show at the Giro d'Italia and in the second part of the season." - Aike Visbeek (Performance Manager)
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Here’s the news from Landa’s Team Soudal Quick-Step
The Basque will be a member of the Wolfpack until the end of 2026.
Having joined Soudal Quick-Step ahead of the 2024 season, Mikel Landa brought a wealth of experience to the team, but also climbing prowess, which he has shown on numerous occasions. In the 16 months spent in our jersey, the 35-year-old from Murgia has racked up numerous impressive results: from finishing runner-up at the Volta a Catalunya to his maiden Critérium du Dauphiné top ten and from a remarkable fifth at the Tour de France while in the service of Remco Evenepoel to a solid eighth on the roads of the Vuelta a España.
Mikle Landa signing autographs at the 2024 Vuelta a España. Sirotti photo
A multiple Grand Tour stage winner, Landa has most recently finished fourth overall in Catalunya, his last race before an altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada, from where he travelled to Albania. The Balkan country hosts the start of the Giro d’Italia, and Mikel is ready to lead Soudal Quick-Step there, after inking a deal that will keep him with the team through 2026.
“I’m really happy to continue with the Wolfpack. I feel one of them and really at home here after one season and a half and I’m looking forward to fighting for new goals. I already have many beautiful memories, from my first outing for the team, when I helped Remco win Algarve to finishing runner-up in Catalunya and then supporting Remco at the Tour de France, where he concluded on the podium after a great team effort.”
“Looking ahead, I would like to be on the podium of the Giro d’Italia! That’s my dream and I will fight for it! It’s been three years since my previous Giro presence and I’m excited to be going there again. I have a love-hate relationship with the race, with many beautiful moments and also some difficult ones, but this doesn’t stop me from dreaming that I can do something nice there. After the Giro, I will then go with a lot of motivation to the Tour, hoping that my experience and effort can help Remco be again on the podium”, Landa said after extending his deal with Soudal Quick-Step.
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