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October, A Month of Sprinters: Milan, Kooij, Merlier and a Brilliant Generation

October, A Month of Sprinters: Milan, Kooij, Merlier and a Brilliant Generation

October marks the close of the major cycling calendar, and it is a fitting metaphor that the man who closed the list of winners of the 2025 Giro d’Italia celebrates his birthday just when the falling leaves on the road mark the end of the season. Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike), who will turn just 24 on October 17, was the resounding winner in the two purest sprints of this year’s Corsa Rosa: the one in Viadana (Oglio-Po), on stage 12 of the race, and the one in Rome, where the triumph of his teammate Simon Yates was confirmed in the general classification of the 108th edition of the Giro.

Kooij, also a stage winner this year in Tirreno Adriatico and three times victor over his two appearances in the Corsa Rosa, will land on our neighbours’ soil in 2026, leading a Decathlon CMA CGM squad that will offer him good opportunities to continue showing himself as one of the best sprinters on the planet.

On this first of October, one of Italy’s most prominent athletes turns 25: Jonathan Milan. The ‘Giant of Tolmezzo’ has been everything for the ‘azzurra’ on the velodromes, and has managed to transfer his immense talent over the past three years to the major WorldTour races on the road.

With a style that some define as rather rough – brutal stomps on the pedals – but tremendously effective, ‘Jonny’ has displayed his explosiveness in 2025 at the UAE Tour with two stage victories, Tirreno Adriatico – two more stages, including the finale in San Benedetto del Tronto with the help of his dear friend Filippo Ganna, and against Kooij no less, and carried that dominance to the Tour de France, where he won two stages in his first appearance in the race. His future with Lidl-Trek – signed until 2029 – and as a flagbearer of Italian sport are assured.

Milan took two stages in the Tour, and Tim Merlier – who will turn 32 on the 30th of October – matched that tally this year, while also sitting in second place in the 2025 winners’ table (15 victories so far), only behind Tadej Pogacar.

Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) rode the Giro twice: in 2021, he spoiled the Italian party in Novara (Stage 2), beating Giacomo Nizzolo and Elia Viviani in a race where Ganna wore the leader’s jersey after his victory in the opening time trial. In 2024, he doubled down on the Corsa Rosa and took no less than a triple: Fossano (Stage 3), Padova (Stage 18), and the incomparable finish by Rome’s Colosseum.

It will be a pleasure to once again see the rider who -until this Sunday – wore the stars and stripes of the European champion’s jersey, and who claimed two stage victories at this year’s UAE Tour, back on Italian roads, should his 2026 calendar allow it.

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