"I win again after three years" - Alessandro Covi ends long drought with stage 1 win at the 2025 Giro d'Abruzzo

For the 4th time in his career, UAE Team Emirates - XRG's Alessandro Covi was able to celebrate a professional win on stage 1 of the 2025 Giro d'Abruzzo on Tuesday afternoon in Crecchio, Italy. After being forced to wait three years since his victory though, this win comes as a much needed boost for the 26-year-old Italian.

"It is super nice, it is always nice to win," begins Covi's post-race assessment in quotes collected by an official press release of his UAE Team Emirates - XRG team. "It is difficult because it has been three years, but we are professional, we work for this victory and we work every day of the week to arrive one time [with a win], maybe two or three – but it is difficult for most riders to win. Then I win again after three years."

In a steep, punchy uphill finale, Covi fought back the challenge of Filippo Fiorelli, Alessandro Fancellu and George Bennett among others to take the stage win and move into the overall lead of the Italian stage race. “Obviously, when I had this race in my programme, I saw this finale and it was a good opportunity. With the team we tried to make the race [hard] to arrive with a small group to the finish, and we did it perfectly. In the last kilometre, I won the sprint. It was hard but every race is hard. It was not only the last effort," he concludes. “The final kilometre I could go full gas from the bottom to the finish.”