The 'Extra' the Giro Gives You: Pedersen, Del Toro, Ayuso and an Amazing Late-Season

Several great protagonists of the Giro d’Italia have been able to use their magnificent performances on our roads in recent weeks as a launchpad for an impressive final stretch of 2025. Several of them have done so in the recent Vuelta a España, some repeating or improving on their results from the Corsa Rosa.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is undoubtedly the one who has worked the hardest for those good results. He has achieved a feat that is difficult to match, collecting overall points titles in both Italy (the Maglia Ciclamino) and Spain (the green jersey). And he did it with consistency and audacity, not just looking for stage win. Victor on day fifteen of the race on Galician soil, in Monforte de Lemos, he got into a host of breakaways with which he cemented his triumph in the points classification against none other than the final winner, his compatriot Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike). A rider who, with his final victory, only needs the Giro d’Italia to complete the Grand Tour treble…

In a very similar situation, although with a different approach to the one he was going to have in the Giro until his abandon, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) fought hard again. The talent from Alicante added two stage victories to his tally with ambition and class on display, crowning two high-level breakaways in Cerler and Los Corrales de Buelna. He almost never hid his ambition to race for different goals than those of the Corsa Rosa, and although he sacrificed himself for his teammate Joao Almeida in the final days, he built his successes in the home Grand Tour with huge expenditure of energy, before leading Spain at the World Championships and then heading to his new team.

One who will be his teammate until December, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), will undoubtedly be the rival to beat in Rwanda along with Tadej Pogacar. The Maglia Bianca from the 2025 edition of the Giro d’Italia, a stage winner and race leader for several days, has been an absolute steamroller during his Italian tournée in September: he won in Larciano (Sunday 7th), the Giro della Toscana (Wednesday 10th), the Coppa Sabatini (Thursday 11th) and the Trofeo Matteotti (Sunday 14th) in just eight days. He has achieved eleven victories since stepping onto the second step of the podium in Rome, and the feeling is that this talent can only be equated to that of ‘Pogi’ right now…

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) has also left his mark this September, after narrowly missing out on a stage win in the Giro d’Italia but not quite finding his best sensations in the mountains. The Brit climbed onto the podium of La Vuelta, his maiden GC top-three finish, only behind Vingegaard and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). After him was Australia’s Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), who an unfortunate crash on the way to Naples prevented from showing his potential alongside Primoz Roglic on Italian roads this May. And his teammate Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), whom we will soon be expanding on at giroditalia.it, finished sixth.