Ciccone's dream-like maglia rosa moment ten years after his Giro debut. Blockhaus awaits!

On an incredibly tense afternoon, it was Giulio Ciccone who emerged as the lucky one. The Lidl-Trek Italian gets to pull on the pink jersey after four stages of the Giro d'Italia. He finished third on the stage to Cosenza — and after eight appearances and three stage wins at the race, it is the first time the 31-year-old climber has led its general classification. Now the goal is simple: hold it for as long as possible.

Ciccone first rode the Giro in 2016, winning a stage on debut. He repeated the feat in 2019 and 2022, and has also claimed the mountains classification. Yet somehow, until today, he had never managed to pull on the maglia rosa. Largely thanks to Movistar's relentless work on the Cozzo Tunno, the chance was handed to him when Thomas Silva of XDS Astana cracked on the climb.

That it has finally happened means everything to him. "The feeling is obviously incredible," a beaming Ciccone said in the flash interview after the stage. "I've dreamed of this jersey since I was a child. When I started cycling, wearing it was always what I wanted. Today I have realised one of my greatest dreams. I didn't expect it at all today. And especially with last year's crash at the back of my mind — wearing this jersey is just fantastic."

In 2025, Ciccone had been one of the outsiders for the Trofeo Senza Fine — the Giro's overall trophy. His start was excellent, climbing with the best riders in the race. After thirteen stages he sat seventh overall, 2 minutes 20 seconds behind Isaac del Toro. But stage fourteen brought disaster: a heavy crash, and he could not start the following day.

But Ciccone never stopped dreaming of pink. And so he arrived at this Giro with a plan. "This morning at the team meeting, we set things out. It was 50/50 — we wouldn't know until the climb whether we'd get a big sprint or a reduced one, like today. My plan was to take the jersey by picking up bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint and at the finish."

On the climb, it became clear the Cozzo Tunno was far too hard for most of the fast finishers. Barely forty riders remained at the summit. At the intermediate sprint, Ciccone came third behind Jan Christen and Giulio Pellizzari. "My sprint was a little too close to the barriers, so I took third there. At the finish I was third again — and that was enough for the jersey."

Wednesday brings another difficult stage, but Ciccone already has his eyes on Friday's summit finish at Blockhaus. It is his home climb — the Abruzzo mountain he knows better than almost any other rider in the peloton. Can he defend the maglia rosa all the way to the top there? "It would be something very special, but we still have tomorrow to get through first, and there are difficult moments ahead before we get there. But it's a big dream. I feel good, and we have a strong team. We're going to try to defend it — and we want to try to go far."