While the maglia rosa may be the Giro d'Italia's ultimate prize, the cachet of being first across the line at the end of each day can be career-defining and cannot be underestimated.
As such we find a handful of the world's best one-day riders, and a handful of the world's best fast finishers peppering the start list and ready to vie for stage victories over the next three weeks.
They will all have their chance, from the opening salvo of insistent hills on Albania's first and third stages, and continue throughout the race, to the several sprinting opportunities on offer. Even the time trials are open for business for anyone willing to take them on. And then, of course, there is stage nine which mimics the finale stages of Strade Bianche, taking in the same white roads and with the same stunning finishing backdrop in Siena.
No doubt a few riders will being eyeing that one, including previous Strade winner Tom Pidcock.
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Let's run through some of the potential stage hunters in the Giro d'Italia 2025.
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling)
26, UK
Previous Giro starts: 0
Best GC result: n/a
Best stage result: n/a
There will be an Olympic champion present at the Giro d’Italia, not Remco Evenepoel, but two-time MTB gold medallist Tom Pidcock. The Yorkshireman chose a radically different path for 2025, leaving WorldTour Ineos Grenadiers for ProTeam Q36.5 Pro Cycling, and as a result his season looks different too. There’s no Tour de France, but a wildcard invite for Q36.5 to the Giro means that the 25-year-old will make his debut at the Italian race.
Unlike his time at Ineos, there is unlikely to be any talk of general classification bids, but instead a free role for Pidcock to try and entertain and win as much as possible. Free from the pressure of pink jersey chat, he will aim for results in the countless lumpy stages that suit the punchy rider, and test himself in the high mountains too. The former Strade Bianche winner - and runner-up this year - will be one to watch on stage nine with its gravel sectors and Siena finish. If he is out of the GC picture, he could well be a breakaway regular, too, like Wout van Aert.
2025 has been fruitful for Pidcock, too, with four wins along with top tens at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, the Amstel Gold Race, two stages and overall at Tirreno-Adriatico and Strade Bianche. He seems to be thriving in his new environment, where he is the centre of attention but also with a bit less pressure; the Giro is another test of this relationship, but expect attacking riding and stage win attempts.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike)
30, Belgium
Previous Giro starts: 0
Best GC result: n/a
Best stage result: n/a
The Belgian was supposed to debut at the Giro last year with much fanfare, but his cruel crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen robbed him of his spring. He bounced back at the Vuelta a España, where he won three stages and was heading for the points jersey before another crash ended his year early.
He is now here, however, and will be looking to win just about every stage possible - he is a Grand Tour sprint, mountain, and time trial winner, after all. His 2025 has fizzed rather than sparkled, but top fives at Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race do not mean a disaster of a season.
That first win will surely come sooner rather than later, perhaps even as early as the opening three stages in Albania if things go his way. Unlikely to target GC, but who knows how far he could go?
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
29, Denmark
Previous Giro starts: 4
Best GC result: 138th (2017)
Best stage result: 1st (2023)
At once one of the best sprinters in the peloton and one of the most powerful rouleurs, Pedersen has a couple of major arrows in his quiver. He will have his work cut out in the flattest stages against pure sprinters like Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), but there are plenty of other opportunities for the Dane. As early as stage one, the Giro will test riders with a lumpy finale which could be where he comes into his own. Could we even see Pedersen wear the first maglia rosa of the race?
If his early season results are anything to go by, he should arrive at the race in fine fettle. He won Gent-Wevelgem for a second year running, and the Tour de la Provence too – perhaps even more impressively he was second at the Tour of Flanders and third at Paris-Roubaix.
Sprinters at the Giro d'Italia 2025
There could be six or seven sprint opportunities at this year’s Giro, but the sprint-heavy nature of the Tour de France does mean that many of the fastest riders are all in on that. However, there’s still a solid cast of potential winners, including Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), all of whom have been stage victors in Italy before.
Kooij is probably the pick of the bunch, the 23-year-old a victor at Tirreno-Adriatico this year, but is on his way back from a collarbone fracture suffered at Gent-Wevelgem, so his form is unknown. Groves, similarly, has not ridden since March after he pulled out of the Volta a Catalunya after finishing on the podium on the first two stages. Bennett, however, has won more regularly this year, but at the less starry Tour de la Provence and the Région Pays de la Loire Tour.
The trilogists
Increasingly, it is becoming a totem of ultimate success among WorldTour riders to be able to boast stage wins in all three Grand Tours.
Currently, there are 111 male riders who have completed the feat, with Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) being the most recent rider to do so when he won stage 6 at last year's Vuelta a España.
There are six riders in this year's Giro d'Italia who already have stage wins in the Tour de France and the Vuelta, and could complete the set this month with a win in Italy.
They are Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and his team-mate Rafał Majka, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), and veteran riders Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) and Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech).
For these last two riders, the Giro d'Italia 2025 will be their final chance to complete the trilogy, as they are retiring this season.
They all have some way to go before they catch up with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who currently boasts 22 stage wins across the three Grand Tours, and is likely to add to that tally this month.
