If France’s high speed railway is the TGV (Train Grand Vitesse), so far the 2025 Giro d’Italia equivalent is the TBV Express! Once again Team Bahrain Victorious colours were at the fore on a fifth stage in Italy that had a fiendish denoument. Edoardo Zambanini proved he is in the form of his life, behind pink jersey Mads Pedersen (LTK) by a few centimetres. The Danish sprinter has now won three from five at this year’s edition, and leads the GC by 17 seconds, and Zamba has two top 5 results.
In the deceptively difficult closing kilometres to what – on paper – had been seen as a relatively flat stage, road captain Damiano Caruso attacked with 1.8km to go. The hardest part of the final climb was done as the Italian opened up a small gap which was closed by the white jersey Matthias Vacek (LTK). By now our leader Antonio Tiberi was safe, protected brilliantly by his teammates once again throughout the 151km between Ceglie Messapica and Matera.
“The first 3/4 of the stage weren’t too hard,” said Caruso, “but we knew that super hard finish was coming later. We showed again how solid we are, working all together for the same objective: Antonio on GC. We wanted not to lose any time on GC at the line and we didn’t. The cherry on top was how Zamba finished, and that made us all super happy.”
Under the ‘flamme rouge’ Alpecin-Deceunink took to the front, while behind, the teal helmet of Zambanini waited for the right moment to pounce. 15th wheel coming into the final chicanes, and surrounded by renowned sprinters, the 24 year old was surely out of his depth on a straight slight uphill drag to the line …
Instead, as the focus was on Pedersen and Tom Pidcock (Q36), up the inside came ‘Zamba’, gliding effortlessly past everyone. It was so stealth and unexpected that some TV commentators didn’t even notice him until a photo finish was required to separate the former World champion from our rider of the day.
Reflecting on another successful day in the saddle, Edoardo said,
“I had great feelings all day, but in general this is a period that I feel very good! We’ve also worked a lot with the team in training camps and slowly the results are coming.
The goal of the team today was not to lose time on GC so I committed to that during the stage and once I finished my work I held firm on the climb. I found myself a little behind in the last km because I had helped before, but then I felt good enough physically to give my all to the line. Maybe another 5/10 meters would have been enough because I was so close, but I’m really happy..
I want to thank the team for the trust they are giving me … we are growing together!”
What a ride again from the entire team, and Bravo Zamba; ‘Chapeau’!
Sports Director Franco Pellizotti echoed the satisfaction of everyone here in Italy:
“We are so pleased with how the guys are responding to what we are asking them to do. They – and we – are fully united behind one goal: Antonio on GC, and so far they have followed everything ‘to the letter’, and even more!
The leader was protected and safe all day, we achieved our objective, and we promised the guys that once their jobs are done on the stages, if possible we will give them freedom to go. Damiano is showing great shape again, and it was another fantastic demonstration of Edoardo’s talent, commitment and potential.
But honestly I could single out every rider here for praise. There is a very long way to go until Rome so we are certainly not counting our chickens, but so far we are super happy.
Stage six offers another opportunity for the sprinters, as we finish in Napoli for the fourth consecutive year, but there is plenty on the route from Potenza to throw metaphorical spanners into the works of the bunch.
