Mads Pedersen Secures Fourth Stage Win, Del Toro Maintains Overall Lead

Mads Pedersen continued his impressive form in the 2025 Giro d’Italia, sprinting to victory on stage 13 and claiming his fourth stage win of the competition. The Dane’s thrilling win, which came on a grueling 180km ride from Rovigo to Vicenza, saw him edge out Wout van Aert by a mere bike’s length, with Isaac del Toro securing third place and maintaining his overall lead in the general classification.

The stage, which was marked by several breakaways that ultimately failed to come to fruition, saw Pedersen launch his bid for victory on the uphill sprint, with Van Aert hot on his wheel. Del Toro, who had earned bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint, was unable to challenge the sprint heavyweights and settled for third place, allowing Pedersen and Van Aert to battle it out for the win.

“It was an incredible Giro this is,” Pedersen said in a post-stage interview. “Timing my effort was dictated by instinct. I had to open up on the right side close to the barriers. So I went a bit earlier than I wanted to.”

Pedersen’s win, which added 50 points to his tally and earned him the maglia ciclamino, was also a testament to his experience and tactical acumen. “On such a hard day and a finale like this, everyone has burning legs in the finale,” he said. “It was definitely nice to have seen it before. I’m happy with this win.”

Romain Bardet of Picnic-PostNL and Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek had looked set to challenge for the win when they attacked on the twisting and turning downhill section near the end of the stage, storming into a 17-second lead with four kilometers left. However, their lead was ultimately cut to 10 seconds, and they were unable to keep the chasers at bay with less than a kilometer left on the final climb.

“We first tried to win the stage with Mathias Vacek,” Pedersen said. “He deserves to get his chance too. If there was a hesitation in the peloton, Romain Bardet and him would have had the possibility to win. It was ideal, I could sit behind and let other teams work.”

The Alpecin-Deceuninck team played a crucial role in Pedersen’s victory, leading the charge in the final kilometer to set up the Dane’s winning move. “We knew that if we could get the right position, Mads could do the rest,” said Alpecin-Deceuninck’s sports director, Bart Leysen. “He’s a world-class sprinter, and we’re proud to have him on our team.”

With del Toro maintaining his overall lead, the general classification remains tightly contested, with Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates now just 38 seconds behind, and Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious and Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike trailing by 1 minute and 18 seconds and 2 seconds, respectively.

The Giro d’Italia continues on Saturday with stage 14, a 220km ride from Vicenza to Trento. The stage is expected to be a challenging one, with several categorized climbs and a grueling finale that could see the peloton split.

Current General Classification:

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) – 52h 21′ 12″

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) – +38″

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) – +1h 18″

Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) – +1h 20″

Current Points Classification:

Mads Pedersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – 350 points

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) – 280 points

Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) – 220 points