
Giro d'Italia leader Mads Pedersen sprints to victory on stage five
Lidl-Trek rider Pedersen took his third stage win of this year's race after a late charge over the closing kilometre to edge out Edoardo Zambanini, with Britain's Tom Pidcock given third place for Q36.5 Pro Cycling.
The 151km stage, which started from Ceglie Messapica, had seen a three-man breakaway from Giosue Epis, Davide Bais and Lorenzo Milesi.
The peloton, though, slowly pulled them back in, reducing the gap on Bais and Milesi down to around 35 seconds heading into the final 20km.
Pedersen appeared to be struggling to hold the pace, but after being helped on by team-mate Mathias Vacek, the Dane suddenly found the needed sprint on the uphill finish to hit the front and kept his position to claim another stage victory.
In the general classification standings, Danish rider Pedersen now has a 17-second lead over race favourite Primoz Roglic (Red Bull -Bora-Hansgrohe) with Vacek in third.
Stage six runs from Potenza to Naples over a 227km route, the longest of the Giro 2025, which includes 2,500 metres of climbing.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Women's Euro 2025: England's Hemp defiant, Spain v Belgium, Portugal v Italy buildup
Update: Date: 2025-07-07T07:17:25.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Hello and welcome to day six of Euro 2025. We'll be building up to the second round of fixtures in Group B later today, while also taking a look back at an emotional night for hosts Switzerland after their exploits against Iceland. We'll also keep track of goings-on in the England camp before Wednesday's crunch game against the Netherlands. Many people's tournament favourites, Spain, are in action at 5pm (BST) today against Belgium in Thun. Montse Tomé's world champions got off to a flyer against Portugal in their curtain-raiser and, well, you don't envy Belgium, who were thrashed 5-1 by today's opponents in the Nations League at the end of May. Portugal, on the end of the opening 5-0 trouncing by Spain, look to make amends when they face Italy at 8pm (BST) in Geneva. The two sides haven't played each other in a competitive setting since a World Cup qualifier in 2018 that Italy won 3-0. Do feel free to get in touch with your predictions for today's matches, as well as your thoughts on the drama that unfurled in Group A on Sunday – did Caroline Graham Hansen mean that?


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Gossip: Roma monitor O'Riley
Roma are interested in signing 24-year-old Brighton and Denmark midfielder Matt O'Riley. (La Gazetta Dello Sport - in Italian), externalWant more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport


BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Paralympian Archie Atkinson ignored teacher to chase cycling dream
As a teenager, Archie Atkinson could not believe it when one of his teachers told him to quit cycling because it would apparently never amount to with the backing of his parents, the 16-year-old instead decided to leave college and pursue his dreams in the sport he now 20-year-old Paralympian, from Heaton Moor in Stockport, Greater Manchester, said to hear that as a 16-year-old was "pretty hard"."To be told your dreams mean nothing, and what you wanted since you were a little kid was worthless... so I left college the next day," Atkinson said. That single-minded determination, not to mention a desire to prove a point, has certainly paid off."Less than a year later I won my first world championships," said Atkinson."So I sent her a nice email... but I'm sill waiting on a response."Atkinson has shared his story as part of BBC North West Tonight's six-part series about living with invisible disabilities and 20-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, grew up around cycling and enjoyed many family bike rides as a child. His first experience of riding on a track came when he was 10 years old, under the tutelage of Olympic champion Sir Chris it was not until a chance encounter with double Paralympic gold medallist Ben Watson while on a ride with his father in 2021 that he truly decided to pursue his cycling dreams. Atkinson discovered he was eligible for para-cycling and was accepted on to the British Cycling Foundation a year, he was promoted to its world-class performance programme. "The Paralympics is a whole manner of disabilities," said Atkinson. "It's pretty cool."He thinks there is considerable ignorance though."I was recently at an event in America and you tell them 'I'm a Paralympian' and the first thing they do is look you up and down and try to find your disability."I can understand it. I don't look disabled from the outside, but it's quite hurtful because you're questioning 'is that person disabled'?"Atkinson said he really struggled at school and was "bullied pretty much for four years during high school".He said: "I used to do para football for quite a while and they found out where I trained. "They would film it, post it on social media, use sort of disabled slurs under some stuff."Atkinson said those tough experiences had made him the person he is today."It's built a character that helps in elite sport, as I'm a bit more tough."He said his conditions "don't change who I am. It's a written thing on a piece of paper from a doctor but to have it – I'm proud of it."I wouldn't be me without it so there's no reason to hide it." Atkinson's experiences are echoed by fellow cyclist Kiera 27-year-old, from Bolton, said she only felt safe from the bullies at school when she was hiding in a toilet cubicle. A decade on, she has five world championships to her name. "Sport has been a lifeline that has helped me to be able to accept who I am and make me happy of who I am," said said cycling had also helped her to connect with people."I have grown as a person, picking up lifelong skills," she said. Sport has opened so many doors for winning six Special Olympics gold medals, she serves on both the competition's International and Great Britain Board of Directors. The Special Olympics, in which people with intellectual disabilities from around the world compete, were founded in has autism, a learning disability and Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome - a condition which affects people in different ways and to varying degrees, according to the RTS Support Group."Just having a diagnosis and labels sometimes is difficult because people only see the labels on the paper, they don't see you as a person," she said. Byland is determined to help others who are also living with disabilities and conditions which are not immediately obvious. "I always say, I like to be the person that I wish I had when I was younger."If you're in a dark place right now, in school, and you're struggling with academics, there is a different way."Life doesn't have to be in one direction. "You can make your own path and thrive and survive in many ways."Archie Atkinson and Kiera Byland feature in a special six-part BBC North West Tonight series about invisible disabilities and conditions. You can watch it on BBC One in the Northwest of England and the Isle of Man from 18:30 BST on Monday 7 July. It will also be available on the BBC iPlayer. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.