"The pain was super, super intense" - Antonio Tiberi sees Giro d'Italia dream go up in smoke with brutal stage 17 crack

Bahrain - Victorious came to the 2025 Giro d'Italia with one, clear goal - secure a podium place with the team's young general classification hopeful, Antonio Tiberi. Whilst the Italian was still in the mix ahead of stage 17, on Wednesday afternoon Tiberi cracked badly, losing more than 10 minutes to the Maglia Rosa Isaac del Toro.

As a result, Tiberi ends the day in 15th overall, just shy of 14 minutes away from his dream of a Giro d'Italia podium. When asked for an explanation for the lesser performance in stage 17, Tiberi gave an honest answer in his post-stage interview afterwards. “This morning, I was feeling really, really a lot of pain – here on the left side, in the muscles near the obliques," he explains, pointing to the part of his body mentioned. "It started after the crash, and I’ve been feeling it since then. But yeah, after yesterday’s efforts, it got a lot worse.”

Whilst his hopes were high at the start of the day, it didn't take long for Tiberi to begin to struggle. “Already at the start today, I was suffering," he recalls. "On the first climb, the pain became really serious. I was suffering a lot, but I managed to do the climb with the peloton.”

“At the start of the Mortirolo, I just couldn’t push more than 350 watts," continues the 23-year-old, who ended the 2024 Giro d'Italia as the Best Young Rider. "The pain was super, super intense. But I really wanted to arrive in Bormio – that was the goal.”

“This morning was the worst. I think it’s especially because of the effort yesterday," he concludes with a shrug. "After the crash, maybe I wasn’t pushing straight like normal, so maybe that made it worse – for the muscles in this part.”