Seth Dunwoody's Bahrain snatch Giro Next Gen victory on final climb | Video

Seth Dunwoody, far left, celebrates with his team mates after Jakob Omrzel struck out on the final climb of Giro Next Gen to win the race overall (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Not content with a stage win via its Irish rider Seth Dunwoody, Bahrain Victorious Development has taken overall victory at Giro Next Gen by sending it with a big attack on the final climb of the race.

Dunwoody had told stickybottle on the eve of the event a week ago that, while he hoped to get a chance to take a stage victory, the team's main efforts through the race would be to support its Slovenian rider Jakob Omrzel.

He had already ridden for his team's World Tour squad this season, claiming 4th at Tour of Slovenia (2.Pro) earlier this month. He used that form to perfection today in making the select group of about a dozen riders as they raced towards the Praristino climb, averaging just about 12 per cent gradient.

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It was tackled twice in the final, with Omrzel and Norway's Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacking the general classification group, including race leader Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies), on that climb.

Riding together, they eked out a small lead and reached the finish a matter of seconds ahead of the chasers, with Nordhagen winning the stage in a two-up sprint from Omrzel.

And though Tuckwell - who won Dornan Rás Mumhan last year - did his best in pursuit of the two leaders to keep the maglia rosa on the last day of racing, he was just beaten to the 2025 overall title.

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He finished 4th on the stage - alongside 3rd placed Pavel Novák (MBH Bank Ballan CSB) - some 17 seconds down on the two leaders. And that time gap saw the maglia rosa pass from the shoulders of Tuckwell to Omrzel by just 12 seconds, with Novák ending the race in 3rd overall at 35 seconds.

Today, the best of the Irish trio in the race - after 127km to Pinerolo - was Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) in 28th at 5:28. Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) was 71st at 12:45 with Dunwoody finishing 128th at 17:51.

The race was a great success for the Irish, with Dunwoody and Rafferty both taking stage wins - both striking from breakaways on stages 4 and 5.

O'Brien was the highest placed general classification finisher of the trio, in 24th at 19:11. Rafferty was 33rd at 33:48 and Dunwoody finished in 122nd at 1:35:23.

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