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7 things we learnt from Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico 2025
The stage race calendar is well underway after last week’s double-billing of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Whether they raced to the sun or between the two seas, both gave us our first glimpse into team leaders’ form ahead of the upcoming Grand Tour cycle.
It was déjà vu for Visma-Lease a Bike rider Matteo Jorgenson at Paris-Nice. The American claimed a second consecutive overall win, this time in more convincing fashion ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Florian Lipowitz and a rejuvenated Thymen Arensman for Ineos Grenadiers.
In Tirreno-Adriatico, Visma’s perennial rivals UAE Team Emirates XRG took home the pointest trophy in pro cycling courtesy of Juan Ayuso. The Spaniard, who is expected to ride the Giro d’Italia in May, claimed the race’s only summit finish on Stage 6 and was joined on the final podium by two Italians Filippo Ganna and Antonio Tiberi.
With the first GC litmus test of the year under their belts, let’s dive into the key takeaways from an action-packed week of racing. Who’s looking good and who’s off the mark after the first big stage races?
Are Ineos back in business?
After a disappointing 2024, Ineos Grenadiers have certainly bounced back in 2025. Having picked up momentum already this season, the British outfit enjoyed a return to form last week at both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico.
During the week, Ineos matched their WorldTour victory haul from 2024 by claiming two top-level stages, and they reached the GC podium at both races, courtesy of Thymen Arensman in France and Filippo Ganna over in Italy – and that’s even without the support of expected Tour de France leader Carlos Rodríguez.
Ineos were visible throughout both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, playing a huge part in ripping up Paris-Nice’s wet Stage 6. Josh Tarling stood out throughout that race, almost defeating Mads Pedersen in a sprint before playing a crucial role in Magnus Sheffield’s cunning victory into Nice. It was a similar scenario at Tirreno-Adriatico, where they tightly controlled the race from start to finish, leading from the front with Filippo Ganna and an in-form Laurens De Plus.
If last week was anything to go by, then Ineos Grenadiers could be on for a fruitful spring.
Jonas Vingegaard is out of luck
Two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard suffered a couple of heavy blows during his rollercoaster Paris-Nice. After being part of Visma-Lease a Bike’s winning line-up on Stage 3’s team time-trial, the Dane went into the first mountaintop finish with a hefty advantage over his rivals.
His confidence was soon stunted on the climb when his solo attack was overhauled by UAE Team Emirates rival João Almeida in the dying moments. Despite finishing second on the stage, it would have been a huge disappointment for Visma-Lease a Bike to see their leader toppled by one of Pogačar’s wingmen.
Vingegaard did then take the yellow jersey, only to hit the deck the following day on a wet descent. He ceded his jersey that afternoon after losing half a minute on Stage 5’s steep finale. Looking uncomfortable on the bike and with his lip cut, he abandoned the race before the next day began due to problems with his hand.
He was initially penned in for the Volta a Catalunya in two weeks’ time but that could now be cut out in favour of recovery. The next race on his schedule would, in that case, be the Tour de France’s primary warm-up race, the Critérium du Dauphiné in June.
Back to the drawing board?
Juan Ayuso could win the Giro d’Italia
After making his Tour de France debut last summer, Juan Ayuso has been under a fair amount of scrutiny. In 2025, however, the UAE Team Emirates rider has turned a new leaf. After winning two one-day races already this season, he rode to a convincing GC win in Tirreno-Adriatico, surely giving the 22-year-old a huge boost ahead of his Grand Tour objectives in May.
With two months to go until the Corsa Rosa kicks off, Ayuso was clearly streets ahead of his future Giro competitors Jai Hindley, Richard Carapaz, Simon Yates, Mikel Landa and Antonio Tiberi. He rode a stellar prologue and none of his rivals were able to follow his wheel on the Stage 6’s Appenine test, solidifying his place at the top of the GC.
With his strength proven, question marks have been raised about his future. The Spaniard has a contract signed with UAE Team Emirates XRG until 2028, but many have begun to speculate whether he’ll leave the squad to pursue his own goals. At the moment, his personal ambitions are sidelined by the team’s wider mission to win the Tour de France with Tadej Pogačar.
Florian Lipowitz is Grand Tour-ready
Even without Primož Roglič in the equation last week, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe left Paris-Nice with a GC podium thanks to Florian Lipowitz.
The young German climbed among the best at the first summit finish, avoiding any hiccups in the echelons, and even attacked on Stage 7 to secure a handful of seconds before the final stage around Nice. He was clearly the best of the rest.
Given this strong run of form, Lipowitz might need to step into a leadership role at a Grand Tour in 2025, especially after seeing his teammates fumble at both races last week. Sasha Vlasov uncharacteristically missed the mark at Paris-Nice, while Jai Hindley lacked the special touch that earned him a Giro victory in 2022.
Instead of a Grand Tour start, Lipowitz is expected to lead Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe at week-long stage races. At the moment, he doesn’t have any three-week races pencilled into his 2025 programme, but with Paris-Nice at the forefront of their minds, Red Bull may have to refine their Grand Tour strategy and offer the German place on either the Tour or Vuelta start list.
Wildcard teams prove their worth
Teams on the second tier of pro cycling have stepped up over the past year, perhaps with the extra incentive of a possible promotion to the WorldTour. Combined, Q36.5, Uno X and Tudor Pro Cycling placed three riders inside the top ten of GC, with Uno X and Tudor taking stage wins at both races – something not achieved by two separate ProTeams since 2020.
Uno X’s Frederk Dversnes held on from the morning breakaway and fended off late attacks from the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock to take his first WorldTour victory. This is the Norwegian squad’s second top-division victory in three weeks and pushes them closer to promotion at the end of 2025.
As for Tudor, Michael Storer worked in close collaboration with Julian Alaphilippe on a snowy summit finish to drop their WorldTour opponents. The Australian secured Tudor their biggest WorldTour win to date. Perhaps it’s a sign of things to come once the newly recruited Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi come into their own in the Classics.
Both teams will be looking for wildcard spots at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. Uno X have been invited to the Tour twice already, however Tudor’s bolstered WorldTour results and superstar signing Alaphilippe give the team a strong case for a Tour de France inclusion. These results should also be a wake-up call for Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Cofidis who are also embroiled in the relegation battle. Neither team won a stage, nor did they have a rider in the overall top ten.
Pippo Ganna can do it all
Italian star Filippo Ganna described Tirreno-Adriatico as one of the best performances of his career. Showing his versatility and panache, the Ineos Grenadiers rider claimed his first time-trial victory in 9 months en route to a second place overall.
While in the blue leader’s jersey, Ganna morphed into a commanding team leader. The Italian was bullish on the punchy finishes in the middle of the week as he tracked moves from Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy, Juan Ayuso and Mathieu van der Poel. He gave it a good go on the race’s sole mountaintop finish to ultimately finish in a group that included GC thoroughbreds Simon Yates and Pello Bilbao.
At 86kg, he is the heaviest rider to ever finish on the podium of Tirreno-Adriatico. That said, he stated at the beginning of the week that he had put on muscle mass ahead of the 2025 season. He says he hopes this balance will help him secure another Monument podium to add to his silver medal from Milan-San Remo in 2023. If he carries this form over to the Ligurian coast, a Milan-San Remo bid could certainly be within his grasp, particularly given how blunt Van der Poel’s attacks looked last week.
Super domestique Mads Pedersen
Mads Pedersen can be very content with his week of racing in France. Not only did he take a stage victory of his own in Berre L’Étang, but he also demonstrated that his climbing legs were in good shape ahead of the spring Classics.
The Dane impressed on the climbs as he thinned out the lead group on the first slopes of the Loge des Gardes on behalf of team leader Matthias Skjelmose. Once his compatriot crashed out on Stage 7, Pedersen took it upon himself to surprisingly chase a tenth place on the second summit finish of the race to Auron and then got into the final day’s breakaway to climb his way to final intermediate sprint ahead of Matteo Jorgenson.
Pedersen will be hoping that his Paris-Nice exploits will put him in good stead ahead of Milan-San Remo this weekend. He’ll anchor Lidl-Trek’s hopes alongside Jonathan Milan, who took two stages of his own at Tirreno-Adriatico.
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