Favorites GC Giro d'Italia 2025 | If we look at things through rose-colored glasses these riders could end up in the Maglia Rosa

Check out other articles about the Giro d'Italia from IDLProCycling.com:
- Preview of the Giro d'Italia
- Favorites points classification (purple jersey)
- Favorites mountain classification (blue jersey)
- Favorites youth classification (white jersey)
- Giro d’Italia betting pool tips

2024 - Tadej Pogacar
2023 - Primoz Roglic
2022 - Jai Hindley
2021 - Egan Bernal
2020 - Tao Geoghegan Hart
2019 - Richard Carapaz
2018 - Chris Froome
2017 - Tom Dumoulin
2016 - Vincenzo Nibali
2015 - Alberto Contador

At number ten on our list – just ahead of Derek Gee, Jai Hindley, and Isaac del Toro – we find a former winner in the person of Egan Bernal. The Colombian rider won the race in 2021 when he took the jersey on day nine and held on to it until the finish in Milan. It turned out to be his last victory at WorldTour level to date, as Bernal only won again in February of this year in both Colombian championships.

This is due to his serious crash in 2022, although the climber already showed glimpses of his extraordinary talent last year. This year, we only saw him in action in the Tour of Catalonia because he broke his collarbone in the Clasica Jaén in mid-February. Bernal prepared for the Giro in Colombia, where several Apocalipsis training sessions (over six hours and thousands of meters of elevation gain) were on the program.

Giulio Ciccone still comes across as a youngster, but the 30-year-old Italian from Lidl-Trek is getting ready to start his eighth Giro d'Italia. And he may well be in the best shape of his life, judging by his recent performances. Ciccone won the first stage of the Tour of the Alps right after altitude training and showed in the other stages that he was consistently up to the task, after which he continued his good form with second place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

In the past, the climber has encountered difficulties in the run-up to a grand tour on more than one occasion, but now that this is not the case, he could well finish in the top ten. However, that is not something Ciccone is known for: in thirteen participations in three-week stage races, he has never finished in the top ten.

At INEOS Grenadiers, there will be shared leadership in the upcoming Giro d'Italia. Egan Bernal, who has already been mentioned, and Thymen Arensman are being put forward as the other lead rider. After two sixth places in the past two years, the Dutchman seems ready to take another step up. He proved that in the recently concluded Tour of the Alps with a powerful stage win and second place in the GC.

Arensman finished fourth in the Tour of Valencia and third in Paris-Nice earlier this spring after struggling with external circumstances following last year's Giro. This year, INEOS Grenadiers are also implementing a different, more aggressive approach to racing, which Arensman seems comfortable with. In addition, the Giro d'Italia route, with a tough third week, should suit him well.

After Bernal, another former winner is on this list, and then Jai Hindley (2022) isn't even mentioned. It's been since 2019 that Richard Carapaz won the Italian race. The man from Ecuador has a good track record in the Giro anyway, finishing fourth on his debut in 2018 and second in 2022. So it's no surprise he's returning in 2025 with his sights set on victory.

In recent seasons, Carapaz has focused mainly on the Tour but has now partly shifted his attention back to the Giro. Back in March, he announced via his team EF Education-EasyPost that the GC in the Giro d'Italia would be his ultimate goal. To achieve this, Carapaz will have to be in better shape than he has been so far in 2025, with a tenth place in the Tour of Catalonia being his best result to date.

Simon Yates joined Visma | Lease a Bike last winter with the ultimate goal of maximizing his potential. He wanted to support Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France and achieve success in the Giro d'Italia. The British rider, who admitted to having some adjustment issues after eleven years with Jayco AlUla, has not yet realized this goal. In Tirreno-Adriatico, he finished fourteenth and ended the Tour of Catalonia in ninth place.

After that, he took another approach that has always suited him: prepare for a grand tour without too many races. He did the same in 2018 when he was on course to win the Giro for a long time, and more recently in the 2023 Tour, where he finished fourth. Visma | Lease a Bike has experience with this approach, so it looks like it could be successful, but on the other hand, Yates can also be unpredictable in a grand tour.

Mikel Landa is, in many ways, similar to Simon Yates. An experienced climber who is expected to support the main leader – in his case, Remco Evenepoel – in July, but who will first be allowed to go for his own success in the Giro d'Italia. That should appeal to the Basque rider because the Giro is the only grand tour he has managed to finish on the podium twice.

Landa perhaps achieved his best form in last year's Tour de France, earning him fifth place. However, the four men who finished ahead of him in that Tour are not participating in this Giro. That makes Landa one of the contenders for the GC, although he will have to reach the third week – when most of the climbing takes place – to achieve this.

And so Michael Storer is suddenly among the favorites for the Giro d'Italia. The Australian from Tudor has been impressing in the climbs for DSM for several years and has made real progress while riding for a Swiss team. He had already won a stage in Paris-Nice and finished fifth in the GC, but we really saw what he was capable of in the Tour of the Alps, a warm-up race.

Storer dominated that race, which featured quite a few Giro contenders, and he basically attacked whenever he wanted. Now, that's no guarantee of success: Simon Yates was the last rider to win the Tour of the Alps in 2021 and compete with the best in the Giro d'Italia. Romain Bardet (2022) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (2023) did not finish due to circumstances, and Juan Pedro Lopez (last year) eventually finished 39th.

We already mentioned his brother, but we also consider Adam Yates, UAE's co-leader, one of the three biggest contenders ahead of the Giro d'Italia. The 32-year-old British rider has only competed in the Giro once, in 2017, when he finished ninth. In the following years, he opted for the Tour and Vuelta, where the (warmer) weather conditions normally suit him better.

Now Yates, who will also be a domestique in the Tour for Tadej Pogacar in July, is returning to Italy. Based on his talent, he should be in contention for the GC, provided he can produce moments of magic like he did in last year's Tour de Suisse or the 2023 Tour de France and GP Montréal. However, Yates has already shown that he has no problem sacrificing himself for a teammate, as he did this season in Milan-Turin (Isaac del Toro), Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Tour of Catalonia.

Yates had good reason to dig deep in both stage races, as Juan Ayuso was in contention for the GC. The incredibly talented Spaniard is still only 22, which we sometimes forget, given that he finished on the podium of the Vuelta a Espana in 2022 at the age of 19. The following year, he finished fourth, while his Tour de France last year was derailed by illness.

At the beginning of 2025, Ayuso eagerly announced that he really wanted to go for the GC in the Giro d'Italia, and he backed that up with victories in the Faun Drome Classic, Trofeo Laigueglia, and Tirreno-Adriatico. In the Tour of Catalonia, he also seemed to be on his way to dominating the race until he was outsmarted in the final stage in and around Barcelona by a seasoned competitor he will face again in May in the Giro.

Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe is number one on our list, which will come as no surprise. The Slovenian rider has been working towards his next goal since winning the Vuelta in early September last year, and as long as he avoids crashes, he usually delivers. He passed his last test in Catalonia with flying colors, after which he tried to fine-tune the details during altitude training for the Giro start in Albania.

Roglic can count on a very strong team, including former winner Hindley and last year's runner-up Daniel Felipe Martinez. At Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, they seem to be focusing on the Giro winner in 2023, although the other riders can also be used to keep Ayuso, Yates, and others on their toes. After a disappointing spring, the team is keen to bounce back in the Giro.