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Wednesday, October 15, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. - Muhammad Ali
Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Giro d'Italia, A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy, Vol 2: 1971 - 2011 is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- October 14 - 19: Tour of Guangxi
- October 14 - 19: Tour of Holland
- October 15: Giro del Veneto
Upcoming racing:
- October 19: Veneto Classic
- October 19: Japan Cup
- October 19: Chrono des Nations
Latest completed racing:
- October 12: Paris-Tours
- October 11: Il Lombardia
- October 9: Gran Piemonte
- October 7: Binche-Chimay-Binche
- October 7: Tre Valli Varesine
- October 6: Coppa Bernocchi
- September 28 - October 5: Tour de Langkawi
- October 5: Coppa Agostoni
- October 4: Giro dell'Emilia
- October 3: Mûnsterland Giro
- September 21 - 28: World Cycling Championships
- September 17 - 21: Tour de Luxembourg
We posted the report from stage winner Paul Magnier's Team Soudal Quick-Step with the results.
Here's the report from second-place Max Kanter's Team XDS-Astana:
The opening stage of the final UCI WorldTour race of the season, the Tour of Guangxi in China, ended with a bunch sprint. In the last 500 meters, a massive crash occurred, but fortunately none of the XDS Astana Team riders were affected.
XDS Astana Team’s Max Kanter delivered a strong sprint and finished second, just behind Paul Magnier at the line.
Paul Magnier wins Tour of Guangxi stage one.
“We expected a sprint finish today, so the main goal was to stay calm all day and save as much energy as possible for the finale. The team did a great job protecting me, keeping me well-positioned in the bunch, and bringing me water. In the final two kilometers, we managed to move up and enter the last corner in a good position. Then I launched my sprint and finished second. I think it’s a good start to the race for us”, – said Max Kanter.
And here's the short report from Team Picnic-PostNL:
The Tour of Guangxi got underway on Tuesday with four laps of a circuit that started and finished in the city of Fangchenggang. Despite there being a few short climbs along the route, it looked destined to be a day for the fast-men in the peloton, with Team Picnic PostNL aiming to set up Pavel Bittner for the sprint.
Coming into the last 15 kilometres the break was caught and the battle for position began. The team moved up late in the finale but it was chaotic in the bunch on the wide roads, and a touch of wheels saw a large crash. Unfortunately the team were caught up behind it and couldn’t compete for a result on the day, but thankfully no one went down in the fall.
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Here's the team's news:
Isaac del Toro to lead Emirati squad at the Giro del Veneto, before the Chrono des Nations and the Veneto Classic end the season on Sunday
After nine months which have yielded a remarkable tally of 94 wins for the Emirati squad, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is ready to announce its squads for the final races of the season.
Isaac del Toro wins this year's Gran Piemonte. Sirotti photo
Across Italy, China and France, the No.1-ranked UCI WorldTeam will contest its final events of the year this week, with the seven-man squad for the Tour of Guangxi announced on Monday.
In China, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will race the final WorldTour stage race of the year, whilst across Italy and France, the Giro del Veneto, Chrono des Nations and Veneto Classic await. This trio of one-day races will see the Emirati squad bring its most successful season to date to an end, beginning with the Giro del Veneto on Wednesday, 15 October.
Ready for its fifth edition since the race’s revival in 2021, the 2025 Giro del Veneto is actually the 88th instalment of this semi-Classic since the race began in 1922. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, it is a happy hunting ground, having won the race back in 2022 with Matteo Trentin.
This time around, the Emirati squad will be headed up by Isaac del Toro, with the Mexican joined by the freshly-crowned gravel world champion, Florian Vermeersch. The Belgian finished on the podium here in 2023 and will come into the race with huge confidence after his win at the World Championships on Sunday.
The Giro del Veneto will be Del Toro’s final race of the season for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, having accrued 15 victories across a season that has seen the 21-year-old join the sport’s elites. In just his second year as a professional, the young sensation finished runner-up at the Giro d’Italia in May, and has won six races in the past month in Italy.
Having helped his teammate Tadej Pogačar to victory at Il Lombardia on Saturday, Del Toro is pleased to bring his year to a close in a country which has brought many special memories in 2025.
Del Toro: “It’s special to finish my season here in Veneto. It’s been a long year with a lot of learning and great experiences, and I’m proud of the progress we’ve made as a team.
“The atmosphere here in Italy is always incredible, and I want to give my best one last time before taking a good break. I’m really motivated to close the season in a good way and carry this momentum into next year.”
Built for the puncheurs, the Giro del Veneto certainly appears to suit Del Toro’s characteristics, with 1,490m of climbing spread across 161.2km. Although this does not sound too challenging on paper, the circuit that awaits the riders on the outskirts of Verona looks ripe for aggressive racing from the pack.
The one climb on the route is 3.5km long and averages 5.6%. This will be tackled five times throughout the afternoon, with the final ascent topping out just 8.5km from the finish. From here, the riders will descend into the city for a flat final 4km to the line.
Led by Sports Directors Fabio Baldato and Marco Marcato, the full UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad for the Giro del Veneto is as follows:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– Isaac del Toro (Mex)
– António Morgado (Mex)
– Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
– Pablo Torres (Spa)
– Florian Vermeersch (Bel)
– Tim Wellens (Bel)
Jay Vine will hope to go one better at the Chrono des Nations
With the Tour of Guangxi set to end in the early hours of Sunday, owing to the time difference between China and Europe, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will end its season with the Chrono des Nations and the Veneto Classic on Sunday afternoon. The two races pose distinctly different tests for the Emirati squad.
The Chrono des Nations is an individual time trial which takes place in France each year, and sets out to crown the best time trialist over a long course. As the years tick by and time trial opportunities only dwindle elsewhere, the event is growing in status year on year.
Now in its 43rd edition, the Chrono des Nations counts the likes of Tony Martin, Chris Boardman and Vasil Kiryienka on its winners’ list, all of whom were world champions in this discipline. Offering up a course 45.5km in length, the French one-day race will take place in Les Harbiers and challenge the riders with the same route as in 2023 and 2024.
Guided by Sports Directors Fabrizio Guidi and Manuele Mori, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will take three riders to this year’s race, with Jay Vine, Mikkel Bjerg and Rune Herregodts all preparing to go well against the clock.
Vine was runner-up here last year, missing out by less than half a second to the day’s winner, Stefan Küng. The Australian missed out on a time trial victory at this year’s Vuelta a España by the same margin, and will have all eyes on going one better this Sunday.
The Chrono des Nations is a race in which Bjerg historically performs well, having taken the runner-up spot in 2017 and 2018, whilst reigning as the under-23 world time trial champion. He comes into this year’s race off the back of a strong performance at Sunday’s Paris-Tours.
As for Herregodts, the Belgian will be making his second appearance at the Chrono des Nations, with his debut four years ago yielding sixth place on the day.
Elsewhere on Sunday afternoon, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will bring the curtain down on the season with the Veneto Classic, where the Emirati squad will look to add to its wins from 2022 and 2023.
Those two victories were particularly special for the team, with Marc Hirschi and Davide Formolo taking a win apiece and sweeping home in a 1-2 finish for UAE Team Emirates on both occasions. This time out, Fabio Baldato and Marco Marcato will have the following seven-rider team at their disposal:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– António Morgado (Mex)
– Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
– Pablo Torres (Spa)
– Florian Vermeersch (Bel)
– Tim Wellens (Bel)
– Adrià Pericas (Spa) (Gen Z)
Beginning in Soave, the Veneto Classic will end in Bassano del Grappa some 178.7km later. Across the course, the peloton will be challenged by 2,374m of elevation gain, making this a guaranteed tough day in the saddle.
The route is not straightforward, with the riders looping over and around the nearby hills of Bassano del Grappa, before an explosive finale that will take the riders into the centre of town.
With 11km to go, the route features a 1.8km-long climb that averages 7.7%, before a kilometre-long climb at 5.6% tops out with just 4km to ride. The riders will have a look at this final ascent when they descend its slopes on two occasions, between 95-75km to go.
All in all, the Veneto Classic promises an entertaining affair which will bring the season to a close in style. For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the hope will be to add to its record-breaking tally of 94 wins by the week’s end.
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Here’s the team’s news:
As has become tradition, the cycling calendar in our latitudes concludes with a double appointment on Veneto soil. Team Polti VisitMalta will line up the same formation for both events: Mattia Gaffuri, Davide De Cassan, Alex Martín, Davide Piganzoli, Ludovico Crescioli, Davide and Mattia Bais.
Davide Piganzoli at the start of stage five of the 2025 Giro d'Italia. Sirotti photo
Tomorrow, the Giro del Veneto will call upon the most daring attackers: riders will tackle the Torricelle climb five times, the last of which comes 10 km from the finish near the renowned Arena. Sports Director Stefano Zanatta: “Over half of the route will be flat, then we’ll enter a circuit made famous by several World Championships. We’ll have three riders coming from Il Lombardia (Piganzoli and the Bais brothers) and four from the Tessile & Moda trophy (De Cassan, Crescioli, Gaffuri, Martín) all ready to crown a fine end to the season.”
On Sunday both the distance and elevation gain will increase, with over 2000 metres of climbing at the Veneto Classic. Here the flat section will last just fifty kilometres, followed by a demanding menu: two ascents of the Rosina wall, six of the cobbled Tisa and, in the final 10 km, the uphill gravel sector of Diesel Farm and the Contrà Soarda ramp, -4 from the finish.
Sports Director Jesús Hernández: “We know this race well — it mixes different terrains and can explode at any moment. You’ll need not only strong legs but also full attention on every centimetre of road, giving everything to conclude 2025 on a high note. We have a well-balanced squad in which we place our utmost trust.”
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Here’s the team’s news:
With Jarrad Drizners, Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe confirms its seventh new signing for the next season. The experienced Australian will strengthen the team as an important part of the sprint train.
Drizners spent the past four professional seasons with the Belgian team Lotto. The former Australian U23 champion has established himself in the peloton as a lead-out rider with outstanding qualities: fast, resilient, and with a strong tactical sense in hectic finales. With these skills, the 26-year-old will play a key role in supporting Jordi Meeus and Danny van Poppel in next year’s sprint finishes.
Jarred Drizners. Getty photo
Zak Dempster, Chief of Sports at Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe: “Jarrad is a rider with a very clear sense of his role and a sharp tactical instinct – someone who brings stability to the team who can position our fast men perfectly. His commitment, experience, and mentality fit our team extremely well. We’re excited to welcome him from next season.”
Jarrad Drizners: “I’m really excited to be joining Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe in 2026, and thankful for the opportunity and belief from the team. I am ready to take the next step in my career and looking forward to working for such incredible leaders.”
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