Edison Callejas wins the Queen stage of Giro d'Abruzzo in brutal conditions

On stage 3 of the 2025 Giro d'Abruzzo, Edison Callejas has taken the victory and with it the queen stage of the race. Behind what was one of the biggest ever wins for Petrolike, Georg Zimmermann came second to take the race lead, as David de la Cruz took third.

If there's one word to describe the early part of the race, it's wet. But the rain didn't stop a breakaway that included Watts, Granger, Guzzo, Herregodts and Marcellusi escaping up the road. With just under 60km to go, they had an advantage of 2 minutes on the peloton.

By the time the riders started climbing the Roccaraso, the five leaders became three as Kiaan Watts and Federeico Guzzo were quickly dropped.

With 11km to go, the peloton was started to press on, and brought the gap down to 40 seconds. One of the riders pushing hard at the front of the peloton was Stephen Williams, looking incredibly strong.

Edison Callejas made his own move off the front, and looked to be on a strong day. Could Callejas, who is from the same area as Egan Bernal, hang on?

Then an incredibly dangerous trio jumped off of the front of the peloton, including Pablo Torres, David De La Cruz and Mathys Rondel. In terms of the GC, these three will looking to create some significant time gaps, and wanted to take the stage win from Callejas.

As we're coming to expect in 2025, UAE Team Emirates - XRG had some cards to play. As Torres closed towards the front of the race, his teammate Rune Herregodts dropped back from the front group to ride for the Spanish rider.

The rain continued to hammer down, but at the front the lone leader Edison Callejas was still going strong. In the end, he could not be stopped, and Callejas hung on for a memorable victory by nearly a minute. What a performance!

In the fight for second, Torres struggled in the final kilometre and was distanced. This is bad news for his GC ambitions, and Zimermann of Intermarche-Wanty is now the race leader.