Latest news with #GiulioCiccone
CNA
21-05-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Carapaz solos to Giro stage 11 win, Del Toro stays in pink
Richard Carapaz won stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday with a solo ride in the last nine kilometres and leader Isaac Del Toro came second in a sprint to the line, finishing 10 seconds behind the former Olympic champion. The stage was a challenging 186km ride from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti which had the most punishing sector on the Giro this year - the Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 per cent. Although a breakaway group led by nearly a minute with 15km to go, EF Education-EasyPost's Carapaz left the peloton behind and attacked to reel them in, overtaking them with nine km left. The Ecuadorean powered to the finish with a lead of 18 seconds in the final kilometre while Del Toro led the chasers, beating Giulio Ciccone who completed the podium. Del Toro retained the pink jersey while his UAE Team Emirates team mate Juan Ayuso is in second place in the general classification.
Reuters
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Carapaz solos to Giro stage 11 win, Del Toro stays in pink
May 21 (Reuters) - Richard Carapaz won stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday with a solo ride in the last nine kilometres and leader Isaac Del Toro came second in a sprint to the line, finishing 10 seconds behind the former Olympic champion. The stage was a challenging 186km ride from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti which had the most punishing sector on the Giro this year -- the Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20%. Although a breakaway group led by nearly a minute with 15km to go, EF Education-EasyPost's Carapaz left the peloton behind and attacked to reel them in, overtaking them with nine km left. The Ecuadorean powered to the finish with a lead of 18 seconds in the final kilometre while Del Toro led the chasers, beating Giulio Ciccone who completed the podium. Del Toro retained the pink jersey while his UAE Team Emirates team mate Juan Ayuso is in second place in the general classification.
France 24
20-05-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Del Toro holds Giro lead as Hoole wins rainy time trial
The 6ft 6in (1m98) winner Hoole timed 23min 27sec to bag a fourth stage from 10 for Lidl Trek, who's leader Giulio Ciccone is eighth overall, while Mads Pedersen won three stages for them in the first week. "I'm so happy and there are son many people I need to thank. I just can't believe it," Hoole said after his second major win. But rain fell heavily on the Tuscan course as the main favourites started coming down the starter's ramp making the individual speed effort even more of a minefield than usual. The 21-year-old Mexican Team UAE rider Del Toro who took the overall lead on the white gravel test on stage 9, lost 48sec to his team leader Spain's Juan Ayuso, who is now second overall at 25sec. Italian home hope Antonio Tiberi of the Bahrain team is third at 1min 01, while Simon Yates of Visma looked delighted when his chrono lifted him to fourth overall at 1min 03sec with Primoz Roglic in fifth at 1min 18sec. Red Bull rider Roglic lost 1min 15sec on Sunday and fell on his recon ride of the time trial Tuesday, so his performance at Pisa drags the former Giro and Vuelta champion back into contention.
New York Times
27-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Liege-Bastogne-Liege: Tadej Pogacar unstoppable again as Kim Le Court wins for Mauritius in Femmes race
World Champion Tadej Pogacar soloed to a decisive victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday, continuing a season in which the 26-year-old Slovenian has dominated the sport. Italian rider Giulio Ciccone outsprinted Irishman Ben Healy to finish second, while home favourite and two-time winner Remco Evenepoel failed to compete with Pogacar in front of the Belgian crowds. Advertisement In the women's race, Kim Le Court became the first ever Mauritian to win a Monument, timing her sprint perfectly to overcome a high-class lead group which included Dutch pair Demi Vollering and Puck Pieterse. Jacob Whitehead dissects the key moments of the day. First run in 1892, Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the most venerable of cycling's five Monuments, its history betrothing it with the moniker of La Doyenne — roughly translated as the Old Lady. Closely following the Amstel Gold race and Fleche Wallonne, the trio are collectively known as the Ardennes Classics, with Liege-Bastogne-Liege its jewel. The 260km route passes through the short, sharp hills of southern Belgium (French-speaking Wallonia) towards Bastogne on the Luxembourg border — a location initially chosen so 19th-century race organisers could hop on a train to staff a midway checkpoint. A succession of climbs intensify in frequency — five categorised in the final 50km — as the riders return on a far more winding loop towards Liege. Known popularly as an elimination race, in the three previous editions, the eventual winner had separated themselves from the peloton with around 30km to go. 'Liege is a race that creeps up on you,' former winner Simon Gerrans once described. 'It gets tougher and tougher as the day goes on.' The women's race begins in Bastogne, before matching the majority of the men's route for 153km back to Liege. Liege-Bastogne-Liege has a reputation for being played out amid the changeable Wallonian weather, but the bright sunshine of Sunday's edition brought the feeling of high summer instead. With the average pace as high as the mercury, the day's breakaway never seriously threatened. Though INEOS attempted a move with Bob Jungels and Tobias Foss midway through the race, the peloton was together until 35km remaining. It was there, at the base of Cote de La Redoute, the race's most famous climb, that Pogacar attacked. He quickly opened a gap without leaving his saddle, holding a 10-second lead over the top of the 1.6km climb. 'Actually, there was not a plan,' Pogacar said at the finish line. 'But there was a hard pace before that, I saw that a number of teams don't have a lot of team0mates anymore, and so I said: 'OK, I'll test my legs and see if I can get a gap at the top.'' Behind, a chase group formed of Q36.5's Tom Pidcock, Tudor Cycling's Julian Alaphilippe, EF Education First's Ben Healy, and Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone. Evenepoel was stuck in a fourth group after positioning himself poorly on La Redoute. Advertisement All four chasers, as punchy climbers with good sprints, would have fancied their chance of overall victory had they bridged to Pogacar, but the gap continued to grow. It was over one minute with 20km remaining, before the chase group splintered entirely, Alaphillipe in particular paying for his early efforts. Pogacar's victory was never seriously in doubt. Ciccone outsprinted Healy for second place, 1.03 behind Pogacar, with the pair managing to hold off a quickly closing larger chase group. What is there left to write about Pogacar? In winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege, he became the first man in the sport's history to finish on the podium of six Monuments in a row. The Ardennes Classics are meant to be the point in the season where climbers overtake powerhouses as the favourites, but the 26-year-old has been dominant for two months. He has won one Monument (the Ronde van Vlaanderen), finished on the podium in two others (Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix) and won two other high-profile events (Strade Bianche and Fleche Wallonne). Any sign that his increased mastery of the cobbles has affected his climbing? Not a bit of it. On Wednesday, Pogacar celebrated the return of the season more suited to his skill set with a demolition of his rivals at Fleche Wallonne, blowing open the race with an unprecedented early attack from the base of the Mur de Huy. Sunday's victory means he has become the first rider since 2017 to do the Fleche-LBL double, and just the third, after Eddy Merckx and Ferdi Kubler, to do the double while wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey. HE MADE IT LOOK EASY 😎 Tadej Pogacar cruises to victory on the Mur de Huy – nobody else ever looked close to challenging the world champion! — Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 23, 2025 'I wish Pogacar would just take a bit of a break and give us all a chance,' INEOS Grenadiers' Geraint Thomas had joked pre-race, himself a former Tour de France winner riding his final Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Merckx was the last rider to enjoy this type of dominance across both the Monuments and Grand Tours. The only thing that stopped him from winning five straight editions of Liege-Bastogne-Liege was when the De Vlaeminck brothers reportedly blocked him in the closing kilometres in the 1970 race. Advertisement Pre-race, the mood among the peloton was that a similar manoeuvre might be their only chance of stopping Pogacar. But after all, it was only two years ago that Pogacar lay on the floor, his wrist fractured, after crashing in this race with just 80km of it ridden. The injury ruined his preparation for the 2023 Tour de France, where he would go on to lose comprehensively to Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard. He came back to win in Liege last year, but this victory was arguably even more dominant. The ease of his decisive attack, remaining in the saddle and putting one minute into his chasers at will, underscores the reality facing cycling. 🚀 @TamauPogi part en solo dans la côte de la Redoute ! 🚀 @TamauPogi goes solo on the côte de la Redoute ! — Liège-Bastogne-Liège (@LiegeBastogneL) April 27, 2025 As it stands, just two riders are able to regularly challenge Pogacar: on the flat, Mathieu van der Poel, and in the mountains, Vingegaard. At top form, Evenepoel could potentially join them. Since the 2022 season, Van der Poel (8), Pogacar (8) and Evenepoel (4) have won 20 of the 23 major one-day races (the five Monuments, the Olympic road race and the Worlds). Between them, they continue to hoover up the sport's honours, with Pogacar its most commanding force. Historically, one of the sport's greatest assets has been the variety of its champions — now, the flowers invariably fall at the feet of one unassuming Slovenian. Dominance can be exasperating, but Pogacar's style is currently holding that at bay. He rides with the freedom of an athlete who wins because he is utterly unafraid to lose. On the rare occasion that he is caught and beaten — as he was at Amstel Gold last weekend — he shrugs and attacks from 5km further out on the next occasion. Whether exasperation ever emerges from Pogacar's supremacy remains to be seen, but there is a common assent that this is a rider whose legacy will sit alongside Merckx — and possibly even exceed it. 🎙Écoutez les premiers mots de @TamauPogi après sa victoire. 🎙️Tune in to the interview with the winner of #LBL 2025 — Liège-Bastogne-Liège (@LiegeBastogneL) April 27, 2025 Liege-Bastogne-Liege was Evenepoel's first appearance in a Monument since a horrible training collision with a postal van in December. It left the Belgian, fresh from winning two Olympic gold medals that summer, with a dislocated shoulder, lung contusions, and lingering nerve damage — but the mental burden was equally gruelling. The 25-year-old said he 'probably would have stopped (his) career' without his wife's support, while periods of silence left his team concerned. Advertisement Soudal Quick-Step reacted by launching a bright yellow kit at Liege for their team presentation and reconnaissance rides — part of a Shine For Safety visibility initiative, which will see fluorescent trim added to their race jerseys from next season. Liege is known as la cite ardente (the fervent city), and at that presentation, Belgium's expectations for its superstar were palpable. Their hopes had been raised by Evenepoel's win at De Brabantse Pijl nine days before, as well as an impressive ride in finishing on the podium at Amstel Gold last weekend. He won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in both 2022 and 2023 — his only two appearances at the race — and sounded confident in stating he 'knew every pothole on the road'. However, the challenges of recovering to take on Pogacar were underscored at Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday, where he was well-beaten by his rival, and the current gap between the pair was even larger on Sunday. On this day, Evenepoel's legs never appeared to have him close to overall victory. It meant he was poorly positioned at the base of La Redoute — that element of racing potentially only slowly returning after his crash — and was even too far back to join the main chase quartet. Post-race, he admitted that the emotion of the week had also taken its toll, but the psychological hurdle of his return is now complete. He will compete at the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland on Tuesday, before a high-altitude training camp in Spain next month to begin preparations for the Tour de France, where he will battle against Pogacar once more. Liege-Bastogne-Liege often takes time to unfold, its length serving to whittle down the riders' wills and legs until the threads holding the peloton together fray in the closing kilometres. This was the final tilt at La Doyenne for several retiring riders, including Thomas, 40-year-old Jakob Fuglsang, who won this race in 2019, and popular Frenchman Romain Bardet, who finished second last year. Only Bardet featured at the business end of the race. The peloton will be a very different place next season, although it looked slightly different on Sunday already. The Norwegian team Uno-X wore throwback jerseys in the colours of 7-Eleven, commemorating 40 years since the now-defunct American team made their debut in the Monuments. Uno-X's current sponsor Reitan has links with the supermarket chain in Scandinavia. Advertisement On the road, INEOS' attempted move through Jungels and Foss was a proactive move which highlighted the tactical bravery the British squad has shown this season, while Bahrain Victorious made a similar attempt by putting Jack Haig in the day's breakaway. Outside those teams, there were few signs of innovation in an attempt to win the race. Some of this is undoubtedly down to Pogacar's strength, but many simply sat in, content to ride for a podium in a bunch sprint. While it may be each team's most realistic chance of some form of success, this passivity is not good for cycling. But Pogacar's post-race comments were both instructive and damning of his competition. Right now, his command is such that he does not need a plan to win. Unlike their male counterparts, the elite of the women's peloton are each capable of taking chunks from the others on any given day. The field whittled down to an outstanding quartet with 15km left: pre-race favourite Vollering, world champion Lotte Kopecky, Pieterse, who had won Fleche Wallonne on debut on Wednesday, and Cedrine Kerbaol, a rising French star. Surprisingly, it was Kerbaol who broke clear, but she could not break the chasers. Vollering and Piertse began to bridge the gap — by this stage, Kopecky had been replaced by Kim Le Court, who hauled herself back into contention on the day's final climb. The catch was made with 8km remaining, with the lead quartet entering the barriers together. Vollering opened up the sprint, but was quickly passed by the power of her Dutch rival Pieterse, before Le Court, who had drafted Pieterse perfectly, timed her explosion perfectly to win by a bike length. Le Court is used to bridging gaps. She thought she might never make it as a road professional, having almost quit bike racing as a 20-year-old in 2016 due to the financial repercussions of several serious injuries. Le Court kept competing in mountain biking, but it was only last year that she made her debut as a full professional on the road, winning a stage of the Giro d'Italia in similar conditions. Advertisement At Liege-Bastogne-Liege, grit delivered the biggest win of her career. 'I have no words,' Le Court said post-race. 'I tried everything I could to come back to the group. I never gave up, kept the rhythm, the confidence in myself, and saved a bit of energy for the sprint. I just went all out and did everything that I could.' 2021 — Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) / Demi Vollering (Netherlands) 2022 — Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) / Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) 2023 — Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) / Demi Vollering (Netherlands) 2024 — Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) / Grace Brown (Australia) 2025 — Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) / Kimberley Le Court (Mauritius)
Straits Times
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Ciccone win put in the shade over sunglasses celebration fine
FILE PHOTO: Cycling - Giro d'Italia - Stage 15 - Rivarolo Canavese to Cogne, Italy - May 22, 2022 Trek - Segafredo's Giulio Ciccone celebrates after crossing the line to win stage 15 REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini/File Photo Italian rider Giulio Ciccone claimed his first stage win in almost two years at the Tour of the Alps but may consider changing his signature celebration after receiving a fine for throwing his sunglasses into the crowd. Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to victory in Monday's opening stage and, overjoyed at his first success since 2023, launched his sunglasses as he crossed the finishing line in San Lorenzo Dorsino. He has previously celebrated in a similar manner when winning stages, including at the Giro d'Italia, but this is the first time he has been punished by the rule introduced in 2021 over disposing of objects in a careless or dangerous manner. "For me it was something, I don't want to say ridiculous, but I accept the fine," Ciccone told reporters on Tuesday before stage two. "In the end it's hard to say something because the rules always change every year, so my mistake was to not study the rules and now I know." Ciccone's enthusiasm cost him 250 Swiss Francs ($307) and 15 UCI ranking points, but he was not completely convinced about changing his style when asked if he would use the same celebration if he won stage two. "It's really hard to say because it's always strange to receive a fine when you win the race," Ciccone said. "I don't agree honestly but it's like this, we can do nothing." In the end, Ciccone came home fifth in the second stage and is third in the general classification. The five-stage race concludes on Friday. Cycling celebrations were also hit by governing body the UCI toughening up its rules for the sprint zone earlier this year, outlawing riders celebrating in the bunch when a teammate wins a sprint finish. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
