For many the 2025 Giro d’Italia really kicks off today, with stage seven’s feast of climbing in the Apennines a likely place for opportunistic GC riders to make a difference.
Stage seven is a 168km run from Castel di Sangro to Tagliacozzo, featuring a category three climb right out of the gate, two category twos in the middle of the day, and a fearsome category one to conclude – including a first summit finish in this year’s race.
There’s also plenty of uncategorised climbing too in the 3,500m of elevation gain packed into the stage, so this is likely to mark the end of Mads Pedersen’s time in the leader’s pink jersey and see the real climbers come to the fore.
It’s a perfect stage for a breakaway but could go two ways: either the general classification hopefuls keep their powder dry ahead of upcoming, more mountainous tests, or they look to make a difference on what is the first of only two summit finishes in this Giro.
The kick of the final climb – 12km reaching highs of 14% from an average of 5.4% – might inspire some of the big guns to try to force gaps and gain an early advantage in the overall standings.
The final 2km average 10.1% before tapering off to a false flat finishing straight – dream Primoz Roglic territory.
Today’s Red Bull kilometre is right at the foot of the final climb, an interesting point to hand out six, four and two bonus seconds to the first three riders. If there’s a breakaway those won’t matter, but could a GC rider make a dig there to steal some time, before attacking onto the climb itself? Whatever happens, it should be a fascinating end to an exciting stage.
Route map and profile
Start time
Stage seven is set to start at 11.50am BST (12.50 local time) and conclude at around 4pm BST.
Prediction
This is definitely one for the climbers, but could the steep uphill finish tempt the GC favourites, particularly Primoz Roglic, into making a statement? The Slovenian is clearly full of confidence and his relaxed demeanour bodes ill for his rivals.
Antonio Tiberi and Michael Storer look strong too, while KOM leader Lorenzo Fortunato climbed well yesterday but went down in the major crash. But let’s go with French veteran Romain Bardet for the nostalgia factor, as the Picnic PostNL rider looks to complete the set of Grand Tour stage wins in his final year on the road.
