Giulio Ciccone facing biggest Giro d'Italia challenge yet with 'real mountain days still to come'

Lidl-Trek have been the most successful team of this Giro d'Italia so far, and their GC leader, Giulio Ciccone, has excelled on three uphill finishes, but the real overall challenge is very much still to come for the Italian.

After taking three stage wins and the mountains jersey in the past, Ciccone came to this year's Giro to target the overall for the first time, after narrowly missing out on the top 10 in the Tour de France last year.

So far, that campaign is going well, as he sits seventh overall after 11 stages. However, with a packed final week still to come, happiness about the race so far is certainly mixed with apprehension about the final week.

"Until now, it's been a good Giro for us," Ciccone told Cyclingnews on Thursday.

"As a team, we are really, really happy. We won already four stages and we are playing for a good place on GC. About my shape, I'm really happy because I feel good. Like I said yesterday, the real mountain days are still to come, but we are really confident to do a good result."

Ciccone has never raced a full Giro with GC ambitions, but his exploits in the mountains jersey in 2019 do demonstrate how he can tackle the final-week climbs. The challenge will be how that translates to an overall bid, as Ciccone is definitely a rider better suited to the punchy climbs than the long efforts that await in northern Italy.

At the Tour in 2024, the Italian survived the Alps to stay in the top 10 – albeit 25 minutes down on Tadej Pogačar – and it was only the final time trial that knocked him down to 11th.

With big days like the climb-packed stages 16 and 19, plus the feared Colle delle Finestre showdown on stage 20, there's a lot of anticipation for the final week here in Italy. 

"First, we try to arrive [in the third week] full of energy, and then we will try to play all of our cards," he said. "We have a strong team with [Carlos] Verona and [Patrick] Konrad, they will support me, and of course, also Mads and the other guys. I think we can be already happy with this Giro, but we can still do something good, so we are confident."

What Ciccone is hoping for is a high finish on the GC, but when asked if staying in the top 10 was his goal, the 30-year-old was keen not to be too bullish.

"We hope for something more, but it's always hard to say," he said. "Like I like to say every day, I go day-by-day, and then I will see the result in Rome. But I will be happy anyway because I'm doing my 100% and I can't do more, so it's okay like this."

The GC is expected to be somewhat on hold for the next couple of days as the race takes on some flatter terrain as it traverses north, but the GC riders still need to be alert, especially on stage 13's finish in Vicenza, which isn't expected to be straightforward.

"Tomorrow, the finish will for sure be a bit nervous, and we will need to be in the front," Ciccone said. "I think it's not a day for GC, but anyway, we need to be there and not take risks or leave a gap because for sure there can be a split in the final."

On any other occasion, Ciccone may be one of those riders trying to force and exploit such a split, but in this race, he's had to take a different approach, thinking about conserving energy as he goes.

We have seen the Italian on the offensive – Lidl-Trek animated the race on stage 11, and he's been sprinting in the uphill finals – but it's still less attacking than he might want to do. 

"When you race on GC, you always miss some opportunities. Like I always say, I like to fight a bit and be in the breakaway because that's more my instinct. So this is a bit of a different approach to the race," he said. "But the Giro is still long, and we have many opportunities."

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