The 2025 Giro d'Italia is three stages deep, and two of them have been won by Mads Pedersen. The Dane won the final sprint on the Giro's final day in Albania on stage three to reclaim the pink jersey.
Pedersen's Lidl-Trek team had controlled the peloton for most of the stage, looking to manage the gap to those in front to save the Dane's legs and setting up a reduced sprint at the finish in Valona (Vlorë).
The former world champion benefitted from a strong lead-out from his team-mate Matthias Vacek and held off a fast-finishing Corbin Strong. Venezuelan Orluis Aular was repeated his third place from stage one for Movistar.
Pedersen came into the stage with a one-second deficit to Primoz Roglič in the overall. The bonus seconds awarded move him back into the lead ahead of the Giro's first rest day.
There was a feeling of the unknown coming into the stage, with questions circulating as to whether Pedersen and other fast men could make it over the 10km Qafa e Llogarasë climb which peaked with 40km to go. Pedersen was grateful for the work of his team-mates as they expertly navigated the balancing act of distancing other sprinters while keep their leader in with a shot of the stage win.
"This was the plan for this morning, to put a good pace on the long climb, to control it for ourselves and give me a breather there so I didn't have to go over the limit," Pedersen told the TV interviewer after the finish.
"Everyone from the team just did super amazing on the climb and also before. And then from the climb on it was controlling as far as we could and then we hoped for some drag race and it was exactly as we wanted.
"To have two stage victories already and now back in the pink, that's exactly what we wanted today," he concluded.
Pedersen now has a nine second lead in the GC ahead of Roglič, with team-mate Vacek in third a further five seconds behind.
How it happened
On the final day in Albania, the Giro d’Italia peloton headed south for a hilly 160km stage starting and finishing in Valona (Vlorë). It’s the final stage before an early rest day, when the Giro caravan will travel across the Adriatic sea before restarting in Alberobello on Tuesday.
Similar to the opener on Friday, this stage had a whiff of mystery to it as to who might be able to survive the final 10km climb and compete for the win.
An undulating opening section of the stage saw a move of six go up the road, including stage two winner Josh Tarling, who was the best placed of the sextet on General Classification, Q36.5’s Mark Donovan and experienced Belgian Dries de Bondt.
The strong group built and held a lead of around three minutes for most of the opening half of the stage ahead of the big test of the day, the second category Qafa e Llogarasë, which topped out with 40km left.
Before that, Alessandro Tonelli claimed 12 points in the points competition in the opening sprint in Gjorm to move himself provisionally in to second place in that classification. The first climb of the day, the fourth category Qafa Shaellës, was then taken by Donovan.
It was Lidl-Trek and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe controlling things in the peloton through Jacopo Mosca, Gianni Moscon and Nico Denz for much of the day. Both teams appeared keen to keep a tight leash on the break.
The Red Bull KM was taken uncontested by De Bondt, before another regular intermediate dash was won by Chris Hamilton in Gjilekë. Italian Tonelli was edged into second, but moved virtually into the lead of points classification.
Following shortly after, the break rolled towards the foot of the Qafa e Llogarasë which would decide what sort of finale would play out on the road to Valona. Their advantage had been chipped away to just over a minute as more teams moved towards the front of the bunch.
Soren Kragh Andersen and then Daan Hoole took up the pace-making in the early stages of the climb as Lidl-Trek looked to ease Pedersen over the top and set him up for a second win in three days. The likes of Wout van Aert and Ethan Hayter were struggling early-on down the back of the peloton before being dropped.
With 7km of climbing left, attacks began to pepper off the front of the bunch. Pello Bilbao, Lorenzo Fortunato and Gianmarco Garofoli made a break from the bunch as Tarling was gapped up front. Behind, Lidl-Trek were seeking to manage things through Patrick Konrad to save Pedersen’s legs, rather than chasing the attackers with intensity, trusting that they may be able to chase the leaders down in the 40km of descent and flat after the climb.
Fortunato was pushing on with his ambition set on scoring points in the mountain classification, dropping Garofoli. He and Bilbao caught and passed the remnants of the original break with 4km still to climb.
Just before the top, Tom Pidcock put in a speculative move from the peloton, followed by Giulio Ciccone, possibly tempted by the technical descent to follow. The Yorkshireman was pulled back as UAE Team Emirates took the lead into the descent, guiding their favourites Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates. The peloton were 50 seconds in arrears of the leading duo over the top.
Coming off the descent with 25km to go, the gap to Fortunato and Bilbao was down to 25 seconds with Lidl-Trek on the front. Things looked almost certain to be heading for a sprint in Valona as the attackers were caught with 19km left.
The GC teams moved to the front on the run-in to keep the favourites safe as the slightly reduced bunch ripped along the Adriatic coastline towards the finish.
Lidl-Trek re-assumed their position at the head with 2km to go, with two riders ahead of Pedersen. The other faster finishers who survived the climb were fighting for the wheel of the Dane on the narrow, twisting approach to the line.
Vacek took over the front to guide his leader with 750 metres to go, releasing Pedersen with perfect timing. The Dane launched a powerful sprint, but had to keep his feet on the pedals to resist a fast-finishing Corbin Strong. Aular claimed his second podium placing of the race ahead of Brandon Rivera of Ineos Grenadiers.
Pedersen moves into the lead and will likely hold onto pink for a few days, with three flat stages to follow when the race restarts in Italy on Tuesday.
Results
Giro d'Italia 2025 stage three: Valona (Vlorë) > Valona (Vlorë) (160km)
1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, in 3:49:47
2. Corbin Strong (NZl) Israel-Premier Tech
3. Orluis Aular (Ven) Movistar
4. Brandon Rivera (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
5. Edoardo Zambanin (Ita) Bahrain Victorious
6. Stefano Oldani (Ita) Cofidis
7. Andrea Vendrame (Ita) Decathon-AG2R la Mondiale
8. Martin Marcellusi (Ita) VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
9. Filippo Fiorelli (Ita) VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
10. Christian Scaroni (Ita) XDS Astana, all at same time
General classification after stage three
1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, in 7:42:10
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, +9s
3. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +14s
4. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +21s
5. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +25s
6. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +26s
7. Max Poole (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +33s
8. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious, +34s
9. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling Team, +36s
10. Guido Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, +40s
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