CYCLING – BAHRAIN Victorious Development Team rider Jakob Omrzel secured a sensational, come-from-behind overall victory yesterday in the 48th Giro d’Italia Next Gen, held in Italy.
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.
Omrzel secured first place after finishing second yesterday in the race’s eighth and final stage, which helped him climb to the top of the general classification (GC) and take the Maglia Rosa, or pink jersey, as victor.
Omrzel was in second place on the GC heading into yesterday’s concluding 127-kilometre leg. But his runner-up finish behind Jorgen Nordhagen of Team Visma-Lease a Bike Development sent him to the top.
The pair crossed the finish line with similar times of two hours 47 minutes and 48 seconds. Omrzel was thus able to leapfrog Luke Tuckwell of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies on the GC, and take the overall win by just 12 seconds.
Tuckwell had finished fourth in the last stage, 17 seconds behind Omrzel.
Aside from his triumph, Omrzel also claimed the race’s Maglia Bianca, or white jersey, for the best young rider. The Slovenian built a comfortable gap from his closest challenger in the ranking, finishing two minutes and 41 seconds ahead of Lorenzo Finn, also of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies.
Furthermore, Omrzel finished sixth in the King of the Mountains (KoM) standings for the Maglia Azzurra or blue jersey, and was also eighth in the points rankings for the Maglia Rossa or red jersey, where teammate Seth Dunwoody finished sixth.
Amongst the other Bahrain Victorious Development Team riders in yesterday’s stage, Kasper Borremans from Finland finished 22nd, Alessandro Borgo and Bryan Olivo, both from Italy, came 68th and 100th, respectively, and Dunwoody, who won the race’s fourth stage, was 128th.
Borremans followed Omrzel on the GC in 42nd overall, while Borgo was 58th, Olivo 98th, and Dunwoody 122nd.
Meanwhile, Briton Finlay Pickering finished as the top-ranked rider of Team Bahrain Victorious at the end of the 88th Tour de Suisse in Switzerland. The elite men’s road race is part of the 2025 calendar of the UCI WorldTour.
Pickering ranked 14th on the GC after taking ninth yesterday in the race’s eighth and concluding stage, which was an individual time trial (ITT) covering 10km.
Pickering finished a little over two minutes behind leg winner Joao Almeida of UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
Spaniard Pello Bilbao ranked 13th in the ITT, while Austrian Rainer Kepplinger was 29th. Dutchman Mathijs Paaschens came 73rd, Italian Nicolo Buratti was 92nd, and Slovenian Matej Mohoric was 103rd.
Pickering also finished fifth on the event’s best young rider rankings, while Bilbao was fifth on the KoM standings.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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