Juan Ayuso beats Primoz Roglic in the first mountain finish of the Giro d'Italia

Once, a high finish, with a small group arriving, was a sure victory for Primoz Roglic. But today the tables have turned in the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2025. An ambitious Juan Ayuso did not want to miss the opportunity to mark his territory and return the damage inflicted on the Slovenian in the time trial on the second day. The Slovenian, however, regained the pink jersey.

The first face-off between the favorites of the Giro d'Italia ends with Juan Ayuso's victory

The mountains arrived at the Giro d'Italia with the dispute of the 7th stage between Castel di Sangro and Tagliacozzo. 168 kilometers in the always tough region of Abruzzo in the heart of Italy. The day started directly with a climb to Rocaraso, a third category climb. This was followed by ascents to Monte Urano, a very tough wall with sustained ramps at 10%, the endless climb to Vado de la Forcella, 24 kilometers long, and the finish in Tagliacozzo, an 11-kilometer ascent, mostly gentle except for the last 3 kilometers where the road steepened above 10%.

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There was a lot of fighting in the initial climb to form the breakaway of the day, but Red Bull decided to control this first part, preventing any attempts. Especially when, after cresting the climb, a dangerous man like Jay Vine managed to get into a breakaway. Finally, the Australian was dropped and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe gave the green light to the breakaway which would eventually include 7 cyclists: Nicolas Prodhomme, Gianmarco Garofoli, Paul Doublé, Gijs Leemreize, Alessandro Tonelli, Manuelle Tarozzi, and Crhistian Scaroni.

From there, the stage was just a matter of passing kilometers until the arrival of the final climb since we did not see any movement in Monte Urano or Vado de la Forcella. The breakaway arrived at the final climb with less than a minute's advantage and on the first ramps, they were caught in a vain attempt to reach the finish ahead of the favorites.

Behind, INEOS Grenadiers started setting a hard pace with Egan Bernal showing good sensations. A little further ahead, they were relieved by Bahrain-Victorious, who tried to keep Antonio Tiberi in the best position possible, and Lidl-Trek also appeared, with Mathias Vacek holding up well in the group despite not being a climber by any means.

With the breakaway caught, they reached the extremely tough final ramp where INEOS Grenadiers and Lidl-Trek tried to force the pace but without any attacks. However, it was not until 1.3 kilometers from the finish when the first attack came from Giulio Ciccone. The Italian was easily countered by Egan Bernal and gradually the rest of the group arrived.

The next to launch his attack was Bernal himself, already at 800 meters from the finish, coming out with great strength. An attack that left Primoz Roglic behind, a situation that Juan Ayuso saw as he latched onto the Colombian's wheel and counterattacked. The INEOS rider once again showed his good legs by sticking to the wheel of the Alicante rider, but the latter still had one more gear and managed to drop him and sprint to the stage victory.

Just 5 or 6 seconds behind came his pursuers, with a great Isaac del Toro who managed to take second place, with the time bonuses that implies, and Egan Bernal finished third. Primoz Roglic, glued to his wheel, did not lose any extra time, although that 4th place meant he did not get any bonus.

In any case, there was a change in leadership with the pink jersey returning to the shoulders of Primoz Roglic, who leads the general classification with only a 4-second advantage over Juan Ayuso.

Stage 7 Classification

1. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 4h20'25''
2. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +04''
3. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +04''
4. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +04''
5. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +04''
6. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +04''
7. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) +04''
8. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +04''
9. Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) +08''
10. Michael Storer (Tudor) +08''

General Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 24h32'40''
2. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +04''
3. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +09''
4. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +27''
5. Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) +30''
6. Michael Storer (Tudor) +33''
7. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +34''
8. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +37''
9. Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) +39''
10. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +39''