Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 – Stage 5 [FULL STAGE]

March 14, 2025

60th Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 🇮🇹 (2.UWT) ME – Stage 5 – Ascoli Piceno – Pergola : 205 km

Tirreno–Adriatico, nicknamed the “Race of the Two Seas”, is an elite road cycling stage race in Italy, run between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasts. Traditionally held in the early part of the season, and usually counter-programmed with the Paris-Nice/’Race to the Sun’, it is considered to be an important preparation for the Giro d’Italia. It is part of the UCI World Tour, cycling’s highest level of professional men’s races. First held in 1966, the race was held over three stages. Since 2002 it is held over seven stages.

Day-long breakaway rider Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) fended off a shattered peloton to claim a spectacular solo victory on stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico as race leader Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) suffered a late mechanical and had to complete the stage on a neutral assistance bike.

Dversnes was the last survivor of a seven-man breakaway, dropping his last companion around a kilometre from the summit of the Monterolo climb, the last of several small but rugged late ascents. He then sped down to the finish in Pergola, keeping the peloton at bay on a series of unforgiving little drags for his first ever WorldTour win, rounding out a whopping 195 kilometres off the front in the best way possible.

Second leading in a severely reduced bunch mainly containing GC contenders was Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 7 seconds after Dversnes, with Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in third.

Leader Ganna successfully fended off a late downhill attack off the Monterolo spearheaded by Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), only for his late mechanical inside the closing kilometres to leave him trailing home behind the remainder of the GC group.

However, the Italian was eventually awarded the same time as the group he was in as his issue occurred in the final three kilometres, so he holds onto the blue jersey.

Asked by the race organisation interview if “never look back is the basic rule of cycling”, Dversnes answered, with a laugh, “Never give up, for sure.”

“I’d had a pretty hard, cold two days, so with this [much drier] weather today, it turned out to be a good stage. I tried to get in the breakaway and it wasn’t sure if we’d get a good gap because of my [high] position in GC but luckily we managed.”

“Then in the final climb, I got instructions from my sports director to go all in and fortunately it turned out to be good enough. There was a pretty hard kicker up at a kilometre to go, so I wasn’t sure if i could win until 500 metres to go.”

“So I’m really happy, it’s my first WorldTour win, for me it means everything, it’s for sure the biggest win of my career.”

How it unfolded
A very long haul of an unclassified climb opened up the day’s racing, with Dries de Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) boldly promising reporters at the sign-on he’d get in the early break and then proving as good as his word as the stage moved out of the town of Ascoli Picena and onto the 20-kilometre ascent.

A further six riders opted to join the ever-ambitious Belgian on a very hilly stage with nearly 3,500 metres of vertical climbing, but in thankfully much drier conditions than the previous days. Xandro Meurisse and his Slovenian teammate Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceunink), Paul Ourselin (Cofidis), Francisco Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta), Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility), and mountains classification Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) all made it across to De Bondt and the septet quickly forged a gap of three minutes by the top of the unclassified climb, and putting Dversnes, 1:22 down on race leader Ganna that morning, comfortably into the virtual lead in the process.

The status quo endured deep into the stage, broken only by news of the abandon of former World Champion Rui Costa (EF Education-EasyPost), the third of EF’s riders to quit this year’s Tirreno after James Shaw and Michael Valgren, as well as former U23 World TT Champion Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and XDS-Astana’s star climber Wout Poels.

By the stage’s last 100 kilometres, the gap for the seven ahead had ballooned to nearly seven minutes and strengthened initially faint hopes they might outrun the pack altogether. Losing Muñoz did not boost their options, though, and after a small unclassified climb, the Barbara, with bonus seconds at the top, Meurisse also fell behind.

As the stage hung in the balance, the five remaining racers out front – Glivar, Ourselin, Dversnes, De Bondt and Tarozzi – still had a four minute lead with 40 kilometres to go, sparking alarm bells in the peloton and seeing a pronounced acceleration from UAE Team Emirates-XRG behind.

Going onto the first of two late climbs, the Salita di Barbanti (6.2km at 4.6%) just before the finish, there was a touch of wheels with Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AIUIa), running seventh on GC, going down hard. The Irishman was initially able to pick himself up, but his grimace of pain as he did so, as well as sitting quickly down again on the side of the road did not bode well and it was later confirmed he’d abandoned.

Q36.5 and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set down a ferocious pace alongside UAE up the Salita di Barbanti, meanwhile, draining down on the weaker elements to leave about 60 in the front group and coinciding with a drop in collaboration in the five ahead. Despite their increasing lack of shared commitment, Tarozzi then gained some more points at the summit to carve out an all but unassailable lead in the mountains ranking and the five flung themselves down a fast, very irregularly surfaced descent to stay ahead for a quick breather prior to the final climbing challenges of the day.

After the official start of the very uneven final climb, the Monterolo, Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) quickly reached earlier counter-attacker Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) only for fellow Colombian and double Tirreno-Adriatico winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar) briefly to roll back the years with a steady, but short, drive off the front. UAE continued their hard work in the pack to sweep past Quintana and the bulk of a crumbling break, but final survivor Dversnes was still ahead with 1 kilometre to go to the summit, and holding a 30 second advantage, too.

Meanwhile, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) surprisingly lost contact after riding a very aggressive race earlier in the week, while Ganna, on the other hand, had no problems handling the searing uphill pace set by UAE, Red Bull and Q36.5’s Mark Donovan.

Dversnes swept over the summit of the Monterolo alone, but Ayuso instantly attempted to light things up, followed by Pidcock and Ganna. The Italian was unable to stay with Pidcock when he opened up a 30-metre gap, closely shadowed by Ayuso, and it was only at the bottom that around 30 riders reformed around the GC leader as Ganna definitively snuffed out the Q36.5 leader’s move.

Dversnes was in plain sight of what barely qualified as a main peloton, and with every surge sparked by attacks from riders like Pidcock, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep) coming closer and closer, it seemed that his number was up. However, the intense marking by the GC favourites gave the Norwegian just enough of a margin to cross the line in Pergola with a victory to celebrate, while Ganna’s late mechanical left the Italian cursing his bad luck, but well inside the secure three-kilometres-to-go and with no damage to his overall position.

The leader since day one, the Italian has defended his lead brilliantly, but Saturday’s showdown mountain stage could see some major – and definitive – changes in the overall. Meanwhile Dversnes could celebrate a fairy tale ending to his daring all-day breakaway.

Results :