Mads Pedersen played off the hard work of his Lidl-Trek team and claimed the opening stage of the 2025 Giro d’Italia in Albania to move into the first maglia rosa of the race.
The Dane held off a late charge from Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in second and with Orluis Aular (Movistar) a surprise presence in third.
The sprint came from a peloton shattered by the furious pace of Lidl-Trek on two ascents of the Surrel climb in the last 35km, distancing GC hopefuls like Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers).
Lidl-Trek lead-out man Mathias Vacek brought Pedersen to the front ahead of the final turn and it was almost a foregone conclusion that the Dane would win.
More to follow…
The break of the day included Alessandro Verre of Arkéa-BB Hotels, Sylvain Moniquet of Cofidis, Taco van der Hoorn of Intermarché-Wanty, Alessandro Tonelli of Team Polti VisitMalta and Manuele Tarozzi of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè (Image credit: Getty Images)
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