Who will win the Giro d'Italia 2025? The GC contenders vying for the pink jersey

With two or three top-line GC riders angling for the pink jersey in Rome and not a Tadej Pogačar in sight, this year's Giro d'Italia is every fan's favourite kind of Grand Tour – one that's wide open.

Close behind the big three favourites – Juan Ayuso (UAE-Team Emirates), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) come British brothers Adam and Simon Yates. The latter in particular will consider the race unfinished business after leading it for 13 days back in 2018.

And bubbling away beyond these five will be a layer of intrigue involving comeback rider Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) – finally starting to look like something close to his old self after his devastating crash in January 2022 – and young home hope Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), who was fifth last year and winner of the young rider competition.

With GC blows being landed as early as the stage two time trial in Albania this year, the potential is there for a thrilling battle for the pink jersey lasting the whole three weeks. Make sure you're across our guide to how to watch the Giro d'Italia to keep up with it all.

Juan Ayuso (UAE-Team Emirates-XRG)

22, Spain
Previous Giro starts: 0
Best GC result: n/a
Best stage result: n/a

In the absence of three of the 'Big Four' Grand Tour riders of the moment, the young Spaniard has to be considered one of the top favourites to pull on the maglia rosa in Rome, in what will be his first participation at the race.

Ominously for his rivals, the 22-year-old reckons he is putting out more power than ever before this year – by a significant margin.

"The leap I've made this winter has been the biggest, by far, of all the ones I've made in the pros," he told Spanish sports outlet AS.com. "I think I still have a margin, and this was my most relaxed winter."

Those extra watts seem to be getting the results for Ayuso, too. He has already won four races – on top of the GC win at Tirreno-Adriatico (the biggest victory of his career), as well as the young rider competition there and at the more recent Itzulia Basque Country stage race.

Given his tender years, Ayuso does not have a great deal of prior Grand Tour experience – two Vuelta a España finishes and a DNF in last year's Tour de France after a positive Covid test.

But those two Vueltas yielded a third and fourth overall, and any "leap" in his performance will worry his rivals. The most dangerous of those will surely be Primoz Roglič – a rider who, unlike Ayuso, knows from experience exactly what it takes to win the Giro d'Italia (he was the victor in 2023).

Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike)

32, UK
Previous Giro starts: 5
Best GC result: 3rd (2021)
Best stage result: 1st (2018, 21, 22)

Alongside Roglič, Carapaz, Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana and Jai Hindley, Yates is one of only six former Grand Tour winners in the starting line-up. It wasn't this one though – rather it was the Vuelta a España, taken in 2018 as a consolation prize after coming so close in the Giro a few months before – leading the race for 13 days before a spectacular collapse on stage 19.

While he hasn't quite matched the feats of that season since in Grand Tours, he did ride to third place in the 2021 Giro.

This year, enjoying new impetus at Visma-Lease a Bike, Yates has said the general classification at the Giro forms his main goal for the season.

“A lot still feels new and different since my move to a new team — the first time in my professional career," Yates has said, "but I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress over the past few months."

A steady start to the season saw Yates register 14th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico followed by ninth at the Volta a Catalunya.

Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

35, Slovenia
Previous Giro starts: 3
Best GC result: 1st, 2023
Best stage result: 1st x4, 2016-2023

There will be no Slovenian showdown this May, and all the better for Primož Roglič, who will have the full support of his country as he defends the title won last year by his compatriot, Tadej Pogačar. Absent from that edition, Roglič was busy instead plotting bids at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, a race he went on to win for the fourth time in six years.

Fans won’t have to think back far for a time when Roglič was the Giro’s sweetheart. In 2023, to the chagrin of British cycling fans, the Slovenian overturned a deficit to Geraint Thomas, pinching the pink jersey for his own shoulders in a penultimate day time trial for the ages. It was a late swoop for victory that Roglič’s Giro rival this time round, Juan Ayuso of UAE-Team Emirates-XRG, also knows well: the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider took the leader’s jersey from him on the final day of the Volta a Catalunya this March.

At 35 years old, age is not on Roglič’s side in his clash with Ayuso, but experience is. The former has raced 15 Grand Tours, to the latter’s three, and rarely falters in the final week – the 2020 Tour de France coming as a famous exception.

“Primož never lines up at a race just to finish second - he always races to win,” Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director Enrico Gasparotto recently said. But there is a risk of tension inside the squad. Lining up to support Roglič will be Jai Hindley, another previous race winner, returning for the first time since his victory in 2022. “Primož is the main guy for the Giro, so we'll see,” Hindley told Cyclingnews. “But it's a long race, and you have to always expect the unexpected.” Could opposition come from within the team’s own ranks?

A small foray into Slovenia on stage 14 will only make Roglič’s drive for victory stronger. The route’s brace of time trials, too, though short in length, play in the favour of the former Olympic champion. Generally, when Roglič targets two Grand Tours in a year, he wins the second one. This year, he’s after the Giro and the Tour. If it’s not meant to be in Italy, he won’t be disappointed to see his habit hold true in the summer.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)

31, Ecuador
Previous Giro starts: 4
Best GC result: 1st (2019)
Best stage result: 1st (x3)

Tenacious and attacking, Carapaz has not won a Grand Tour since he triumphed in the Giro back in 2019, but has never looked like he has lost the will to succeed again. In the years since that Giro victory, the 31-year-old has podiumed in all three Grand Tours. His calling card is to fly slightly under the radar before launching repeated and persistent attacks against his rivals, not unlike his EF Education team-mate Ben Healy.

Carapaz has not enjoyed the flying start to the season that Ayuso has, although that's not to say he won't be on top form come May 9.

So far this year his best result would probably be counted as 10th overall in the Volta a Catalunya, and his 22 race days have generally been a story of mid-pack finishes. This year's fellow GC contenders at the Giro will write him off, however, at their peril. "I go there to win," he told his team website.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

32, UK
Previous Giro starts: 1
Best GC result: 9th (2017)
Best stage result: 4th (2017)

Adam Yates is a fine GC rider in his own right – witness his third place overall at the 2023 Tour de France. But he is rather hamstrung by the fact that he tends to serve as a domestique de luxe to his team leaders – in the case of this Giro Juan Ayuso, who is a steadily improving young gun and will be regarded as one of the out and out favourites for the overall.

However if the Spaniard should falter Yates should, in theory, be there to step into his shoes and vie for the pink jersey himself. He may not even need Ayuso to capitulate to achieve a high placing – that third place in the Tour came in the service of Tadej Pogačar, as did sixth in the same race last year.

Expect a pair of UAE jerseys to be buzzing around the leading groups in the mountain stages and making life generally rather irksome for the other GC riders.

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious)

23, Italy
Previous Giro starts: 1
Best GC result: 5th, 2024
Best stage result: 3rd, 2024

Most fans will know Antonio Tiberi as the rider who shot – and killed – a cat belonging to the San Marino tourism minister. The incident in 2023 earned the Italian a hefty fine at the time, and he was later dropped by his then team Trek-Segafredo. Fortunately for him, his cycling career has only kicked on.

Fifth at last year’s Giro, and winner of the white jersey as the race’s best young rider, Tiberi enters this edition as the home hope. His form this season suggests he’s ready to tussle with the big guns – he finished third at Tirreno-Adriatico, just 36 seconds off UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Juan Ayuso.

By his side, Tiberi will rely on Giro veteran and 2021 runner-up Damiano Caruso, as well as Pello Bilbao, who has twice finished fifth at the race. The young Italian’s GC dream could well become reality with their support in the mountains.

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)

28, Colombia
Previous Giro starts: 1
Best GC result: 1st, 2021
Best stage result: 1st x2, 2021

A resurgent Egan Bernal has been one of Ineos Grenadiers’ brightest sparks this campaign. Wins in both the time trial and road race at the Colombian National Championships were backed up with a solid seventh place at the Volta a Catalunya in March. But with only 10 race days in his legs this season, the 28-year-old remains an unknown entity for the Giro.

There was a time not long ago when Bernal was billed to rule over the Grand Tours. He won the Tour de France at 22 in 2019, and the Giro two years later, before a training crash in early 2022 left him in a critical condition and fighting for his life. Almost miraculously, he returned to racing that August, but has not hit the same heights.

The Colombian’s best GC placing since is 29th at last year’s Tour, and his recent National Champs victories brought his first wins in four years. A top 10 would be good going.

Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech)

27, Canada
Previous Giro starts: 1
Best GC result: 22nd
Best stage result: 2nd x 4, 2023

Two years ago, the Giro d’Italia was all about Derek Gee. The then unheralded Canadian was in the breakaway on seven separate stages, and while he could never quite finish off his efforts - he finished second four times and fourth twice - he certainly captured heart and minds with his gutsy rides that year. The Canadian proved that wasn’t a fluke with a successful 2024, which included a stage win and third overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné and third place on a stage of the Tour de France - as well as ninth overall.

His Giro d’Italia will be interesting, with the 27-year-old likely targeting general classification rather than breakaway wins again. He won O Gran Camiño in February, before finishing fourth at Tirreno-Adriatico in March, and third at the Tour of the Alps in April, so a top-five in May isn’t out of the question. He’ll be supported by solid climbers in Marco Frigo, Jakob Fuglsang, and Jan Hirt.

General classification wildcards

There is likely to be home talent knocking on the door of the top 10. Jayco AlUla’s Filippo Zana, for example, who scored his best GC result in the 2024 edition with 11th. He returns with more experience this year, as do Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) and Davide Piganzoli (Polti Kometa), last year’s 12th and 13th best riders.

On his final Grand Tour appearance, Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL) is likely to be up to his usual GC consistency, provided he doesn’t go hunting for stages instead. A top 10 could also be on the cards for Intermarché-Wanty’s Louis Meintjes, who hasn’t raced the Giro since 2020, but, at 33, remains one of the peloton’s most steady climbers. You can't discount Mikel Landa at Soudal Quick-Step either, or Giulio Ciccone at Lidl-Trek, and it is a first foray to Italy for Groupama-FDJ's David Gaudu.