Benson Bulletin: Giro d'Italia stage 15 🇮🇹
Lidl-Trek bounce back, major questions for Roglič and Red Bull's recruitment, UAE tactics analysed, Ineos intent and Pidcock's next move
Hi Subscribers,
The 2025 Giro d’Italia is perfectly poised heading into the third and final rest-day of this year’s race. We have one of the youngest riders in the race wearing the maglia rosa, and six rivals within 3:02 of the race lead. It could go down to the wire!
Today, we saw one of the most dependable and respected domestiques in the peloton take the biggest win of his career after a frantic stage that saw no let-up whatsoever.
In the battle for the GC pre-race favourite Primož Roglič cracked and lost 1:30 on his key rivals, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s tactics caused major debate.
We cover Carlos Verona’s stage win, hear from the Lidl-Trek rider, analyse Roglič and the much wider problems facing Red Bull and their recruitment, discuss whether UAE Team Emirates trust Isaac Del Toro and take a look at where Ineos Grenadiers and Tom Pidcock find themselves with a week to go.
Don’t forget, you can follow my Giro coverage on my Instagram account, and to coincide with the race, I’ve set up a ✨ special 20% sale ✨ on annual subscriptions. Just click on the link below to sign up. For roughly £1 a week, you get all the stories on my Substack, including all the transfer exclusives.
Daniel 🫶
Verona gives Lidl-Trek the perfect tonic 🇪🇸
Two years ago, at roughly this point in the season, Carlos Verona was in limbo.
He had agreed to move from Movistar to Ineos Grenadiers, only for the British team to change direction, leaving the climber scrambling for options during the late summer, when most teams had already completed their rosters. At the end of a turbulent few months, Lidl-Trek stepped in and signed the Spaniard on a two-year deal, and since then, the 32-year-old has paid the team back with a string of essential domestique performances.
On stage 15 of this Giro d’Italia, Verona had his chance to individually shine with an opportunity to infiltrate the early break after Giulio Ciccone’s DNS. The Spaniard made the key move and then dropped his companions with 43km remaining, before holding off the chasing group to win by a matter of seconds.
For Verona, this was just the second win of his career, following a stage at the 2022 Criterium du Dauphiné, and an understandably huge moment as his family embraced him on the finish line in Asiago.
As for Lidl-Trek, there’s no way of thoroughly dampening the blow of losing Ciccone to yesterday’s crash. He looked on course for his best GC result in a Grand Tour. However, a sixth stage win from 15 days of racing certainly helped. Verona, listed as out of contract at the end of the season, is currently set to stay on the team for the next few years, and you can see why he’s such a valued member of the Lidl-Trek roster.
Listen to Verona’s post-stage press conference 🎧
Giro d’Italia stage 15 results 🇮🇹
Roglič’s challenge crumbles but Red Bull’s problems are much wider 🇸🇮
We’ve spent two weeks pondering whether Primož was riding within himself or whether the Slovenian was struggling in this year’s Giro d’Italia.
On Sunday, we had our answer, with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader unable to follow Egan Bernal’s stinging attack on the Monte Grappa before being distanced for good on the 16.6km Dori climb before the finish.
Roglič did have teammates to assist him on the final ascent and the undulating journey to the finish. However, with so many GC rivals and their domestiques ahead, there was no chance of regaining contact once the likes of Bernal, Carapaz, and UAE realised they could put the pre-race favourite to the sword. By the finish, Roglič lost 1:29 in the GC, dropped five places to tenth, and saw his gap to the maglia rosa extend to 3:53. It’s not game over, but it’s not far off.
At the finish, the team attributed the time losses to his crashes and refused to rule out whether Roglič would continue in the race.
Those commentating on TV seemed to cling to the veteran’s experience and past achievements as a potential way back into this race, yet the past isn’t going to help Roglič climb any faster or make up time. If he’s broken, then perhaps the wisest move would be to withdraw him from the race and rebuild him for the Tour.