With 43 kilometres to go, Verona attacked out of a leading group on the final climb of the day. In the meantime, his pursuers were almost able to close the gap, but the 32-year-old found reserves in the finale to celebrate for the second time after a stage win at the 2022 Tour of the Dauphiné. The fact that it happened at all had a lot to do with yesterday, when Lidl's man for the overall classification, Giulio Ciccone, crashed and was unable to start the 15th stage over 219 kilometres between Fiume Veneto and Asiago as a result.

"I was here first and foremost to ride for this great captain," said Verona in the winner's interview. "Now everything changed yesterday and I didn't want to win today so much for myself, but for him and the team." The much-vaunted team spirit in the American team with a German main sponsor had struck once again. "I had to let my legs do the talking today after Guilio had done so much for the team and the race and created such a good team spirit at this Giro. I was already thinking in the breakaway group about how best to do it today. As I'm not the fastest, I was aware that I had to build up a certain lead after my attack in order to be able to win. The team gave me so much confidence in the meantime, that was my day today."

Stork finishes second

It was also a special day for Florian Stork. The man from Bünde near Bielefeld was one of the breakaway riders who broke away midway through the stage before the 25-kilometre climb to Monte Grappa. The 28-year-old stayed ahead of the peloton for most of the day. "I noticed that the other riders in the group were riding at the limit and my sports director told me that the favourites would close the gap," he said in a statement from his team, describing the situation in the final kilometres of the day. "So I attacked to finish alone and take second place. I'm very happy with that and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's rest day before the final week of the Giro d'Italia."

That was all put rather matter-of-factly, because ultimately it was probably the biggest success of Stork's career.

Del Toro confidently fends off all attacks

For Roglic, however, it was exactly the opposite. The Red Bull captain was the only one of the GC favourites to be dropped on the final climb when Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost) picked up the pace not far from the summit and tried to break away. With the exception of the 35-year-old, however, all the pros in the top 10 were able to parry the attack. As a result, nothing has changed in the classification, except that Roglic has dropped five places to tenth, because he was once again one and a half minutes behind his rivals. They finished just under 30 seconds behind the day's winner Verona.

Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates - XRG) thus easily defended his pink jersey. The Mexican was wide awake on the road, for example during Carapaz' attack, or earlier on Monte Grappa, when Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) tried and briefly broke up the group of favourites.

The final rest day of the Giro is on the programme on Monday. After that, the last week of the Giro awaits, which, as in the past, can still provide for big gaps and surprises.

>> The TOUR live blog for the Giro d'Italia 2025

>> Aiming high: the mountain stages of the Giro d'Italia 2025

Giro d'Italia 2025 - Results of the 15th stage

This is how the 15th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2025 went

After the withdrawal of Ciccone, who had to abandon the stage due to a huge haematoma on his thigh after the crash in the presentation, his team did everything they could to get into the leading group of the day. Patrick Konrad, Mathias Vacek and Mads Pedersen all tried, but were just as unsuccessful as any other pro in breaking away at the start of the stage. So it was a closed field to the first intermediate sprint, where Pedersen at least secured the points for his jersey.

After 45 kilometres, the Muro di Ca' del Poggio awaited. Only 1000 metres, but 12.2 per cent on average. Although no leading group was able to break away there either, the peloton was stretched out enormously and eventually broke up. Not all of the classification riders were in the first group of around 80 riders. Antoniuo Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) was in the second part of the peloton, which was almost a minute behind after the ramp.

35 men drive into Monte Grappa in front of the field

After 70 kilometres, the first group split into the riders who wanted to fight for the stage win and the classification pros. Those riders then slowed down. As a result, Tiberi, whose gap had almost reached two minutes, was able to catch up again. At the front, however, 35 riders continued. They went into the 25 kilometre climb to Monte Grappa (1st category) with a three and a half minute lead over the peloton.

Among those at the front were Stork, Marco Brenner (both Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Georg Steinhauser (EF Education - EasyPost), the Red Bull duo Giovanni Aleotti and Daniel Martinez and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana Team) in the mountain jersey. The best man in the overall classification among the breakaway riders was Einer Rubio (Movistar Team), who finished 14th, just four and a half minutes behind the leader.

Steinhauser attacked seven kilometres before the summit. The alert Fortunato jumped straight onto his rear wheel and other riders joined him. Meanwhile, Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates - XRG) had a puncture in the peloton and had to change his bike. No team-mate dropped back, everyone continued to work at the front of the peloton - it was the final proof that del Toro is the new captain of the team.

Bernal attacks, Carapaz and del Toro go with him

While the attack in the group was neutralised again, Bernal attacked behind. Del Toro went with him, as did Carapaz. Bernal's helper Thymen Arensman and Derek Gee (Israel - Premier Tech) jumped up to the summit of Monte Grappa. The quintet went into the descent one minute behind the leaders, with Fortunato crossing the mountain classification first. The other GC riders arrived 20 seconds later.

On the descent, Marco Frigo (Israel - Premier Tech) broke away from the escapees, who in turn were caught by del Toro and Co. A short time later, the group around Ayuso and Roglic was back on the front. At the end of the descent 65 kilometres before the finish, Frigo went into the following flat section with a 30-second lead over all the chasers.

On the flat, ten men from the chasing group rode ahead of Frigo, including Stork. As there were no classement riders, the gap widened to over three minutes by the time they reached the climb to Dori (2nd category). There, Verona broke away from the leading group and pulled away by up to a minute. The lead over the classification riders grew to over four minutes.

Roglic falls back

Verona was followed by Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step) and Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla), who saved only a handful of seconds over the mountain classification. Carapaz then attacked at the back of the favourites. All the GC riders were able to keep up - except Roglic. The Slovenian was one minute behind on the last two kilometres to the top, despite having two helpers with him in Martinez and Pellizzari.

Ten kilometres before the finish, Garofoli and Zana were caught by the other breakaway riders. The group, which also included Stork, was 50 seconds behind Verona. However, the favourites were only a minute and a half behind at this point. But Verona had the legs and the will to finish the day as a soloist. And with a few seconds advantage, the chasing group also made it to the finish ahead of the favourites. Stork sprinted away from his rivals in the final metres, finishing second and thus achieving the best Grand Tour result in the history of his team.

Roglic, on the other hand, conceded around one and a half minutes to the group of favourites and was thus able to bury all classification ambitions at the latest,