Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) and fellow Irishman Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) have both climbed well on the first summit finish at Giro Next Gen, on a day when the general classification men came out to play.
Belgian cycling's next big star, Jarno Widar (Lotto Development Team), claimed the victory atop the HC climb of Passo del Maniva, taking the maglia rosa and now looking good to defend the overall title he won last year as a first-year U23.
Widar and Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies), the Italian road champion and last season's junior road race world champion, pulled away from a group of about a dozen riders that formed after relentless attacks on the second half of the 13.2km to the finish line.
O'Brien had ridden to keep his team's biggest general classification hope, former junior road race world champion Albert Philipsen, out of trouble and in position, with that work perhaps costing him a little on the final climb.
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He was off the back of the select group as it formed, initially under attacks from Jørgen Nordhagen (Team Visma | Lease a Bike). O'Brien told stickybottle he went through a rough patch on that final climb, but with about 3km to go he rallied and was able to gather himself, catching and passing a lot of riders ahead of him.
? Maglia Azzurra Matisse Van Kerckhove (@visma_lab_devo) wins the KOM sprint of Passo dei Tre Termini ?
? La Maglia Azzurra @BancaMediolanum Matisse Van Kerckhove vince il GPM del Passo dei Tre Termini ?#GiroNextGen pic.twitter.com/maUNOdzOxj
— Giro Next Gen (@gironextgen) June 17, 2025
For his part, Irish U23 TT champion Rafferty was with O'Brien just off the back of that select group as it formed, but a little further back. The group properly formed and pulled away of what was a very small peloton with about 6km to go.
Once the attacks began from the leader group, Widar and Finn had too much in their legs for their rivals. Inside the final kilometre, it was Widar who proved strongest, pushing clear solo to win by seven seconds from Finn.
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Spain's Adrià Pericas (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) was 3rd, at 24 seconds, alongside Australian Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies), who won Dornan Rás Mumhan in Co Kerry last year.
O'Brien was 15th at 2:17, on a day of huge gaps through the field, with Rafferty finishing in 24th at 3:14. O'Brien's team's best placed rider on GC, Philipsen, was 7th today at 36 seconds, and is now 5th overall at 33 seconds with five stages remaining.
Rafferty and his team mate, Gonçalo Tavares, were quite evenly matched and look by far the strongest of their team. Tavares was 19th, five places and 10 seconds ahead of his Irish team mate.
Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development), who is a sprint and flat TT specialist, was in 123rd at 25:01 today. The last rider on the 144km stage, with 2,500m of climbing, was just over 28 minutes down while five riders also finished outside the time cut.
Widar, who is perhaps the best pound-for-pound U23 in the world at present, now has a slender GC lead of just seven seconds over Finn, who will also fancy his chances of winning this race. And in 3rd is former Trinity Racing rider Tuckwell, at 27 seconds.
With three stages done and dusted, O'Brien moves up fifteen places to 14th overall, at 2:33, with Rafferty - 6th in Sunday's stage 1 TT - now 18th at 3:12. Dunwoody, the first-year U23 who is on team duties for 7th placed overall Jakob Omrzel, is now in 135th at 31:20.
The race continues tomorrow with the 134km stage 4 from Manerbio to Salsomaggiore Terme, featuring an 8km climb, averaging five per cent, crested just over 30km from the finish.
O'Brien, from Cork, took four climbers' points today for 3rd over the top of the 8km Passo dei Tre Tremini, just inside the 50km to go marker. He may look to take more points in that competition tomorrow, but on the basis of how his team rode today, it looks like it is backing Austrian Philipsen for general classification this week.
