CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious riders Pello Bilbao and Nicolo Buratti both claimed a place in the top 10 yesterday in the second stage of the 88th Tour de Suisse in Switzerland.
Both competitors were amongst the leading group in the bunch sprint to the finish, with stage winner Vincenzo Albanese of EF Education-EasyPost at the very front. He won the 177-kilometre leg in three hours 55 minutes 57 seconds, with Bilbao finishing not far behind in seventh and Buratti in eighth – both with the same times.
Amongst the other Bahrain Victorious riders, Rainer Kepplinger was 68th in the stage, Finlay Pickering 82nd, Matej Mohoric 101st, and Mathijs Paasschens 140th.
With yesterday’s results, Bilbao climbed 10 players on the general classification (GC) to 24th, while Kepplinger remained their highest-ranked team member in ninth place.
Mohoric was ranked 14th and 12th, respectively, in the points and King of the Mountains (KoM) rankings, while Pickering was 16th in the best young rider classification.
Bahrain Victorious also stayed 10th on the teams’ standings.
This year’s eight-stage Tour de Suisse continues today with stage three, to be held across 195.6km. The elite men’s road race is part of the 2025 calendar of the UCI WorldTour.
Meanwhile, Jakob Omrzel of the Bahrain Victorious Development Team finished 20th yesterday in the second stage of the 48th Giro d’Italia Next Gen race.
Teammate Bryan Olivo stayed as their top rider in the event’s GC, while Omrzel climbed three places to 11th in the race’s best young rider rankings.
Also being held over eight stages, the Giro d’Italia Next Gen continues today with the third leg, covering 144km.
The event, also known as ‘Baby Giro’, is an amateur road race that is one of the most important and formative events on the under-23 international cycling calendar.
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