Monstrous Mads Pedersen makes it a 5* Giro d'Italia for Lidl-Trek on stage 13

After an enthralling day at the 2025 Giro d'Italia, Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen has prevailed on stage 13, taking his 4th victory of the race ahead of Wout van Aert and Isaac del Toro with a monstrous sprint.

A 9-rider strong group forced themselves clear to form the breakaway of the day. In total, Luca Mozzato (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Fran Miholjević (Bahrain - Victorious), Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Sven Erik Bystrøm (Groupama - FDJ), Lorenzo Germani (Groupama - FDJ), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar Team), Chris Hamilton (Team Picnic PostNL), Mattia Bais (Team Polti VisitMalta) and Filippo Magli (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè) were the nine attackers.

With the likes of Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock all having eyes on the stage though, there were plenty of teams happy to share the workload of the chase at the front of the peloton, and as a result, the break's advantage never really went much higher than two minutes.

On the San Giovanni in Monte at around 50km to go, the break's day was ended by the peloton, but the attacking racing was immediately reignited by the INEOS Grenadiers. Juan Ayuso was initially put into difficulty by the accelerations, but with so long to go before the finale, no one was really willing to go all-in just yet, allowing the Spaniard to work his way back to the rest of the GC contenders.

By the top of the climb, juts two riders were ahead of the front group of a peloton blasted apart - Germani, who had survived from the early break, and a counter-attacking Christian Scaroni. As the road flattened out at the foot of the descent and things calmed down again slightly, the peloton began to swell once again as the dropped riders got back in contention. With a hilly final 30km to come though, there was no guarantee they'd remain in the bunch for very long.

As the leading duo took on the final climb for the first time on the finishing circuit, Germani and Scaroni had around 40 seconds on the peloton. Scaroni was proving the strongest of the pair as well, starting the last lap with a narrow solo lead at the front, but with 19km to go, Germani had managed to get back in contact with his compatriot, still around 30 seconds clear.

The next climb was Red Bull sprint, meaning bonus seconds on offer at the top. Again, Scaroni dropped Germani as soon as the road headed upwards, and despite UAE working hard at the front of the peloton, the Astana man took the maximum 6 seconds. Behind, Ayuso took 4 and the Maglia Rosa, Isaac Del Toro 2, as Scaroni was caught immediately following the sprint.

Soon after, a counter move from Romain Bardet and Mathias Vacek created separation at the front. By the time the final climb began, Bardet and Vacek had built up a lead of just 10 seconds on the bunch, a gap that didn't prove enough to hold on for the win. In the fight for the stage win, it was then a real mix of riders competing, but in the end it was a monstrous Mads Pedersen who took victory ahead of Wout van Aert and Isaac del Toro.