‘Now the real race starts’ – Australia’s Luke Tuckwell moves into maglia rosa at Giro Next Gen on stage 5

Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies) has moved into the maglia rosa on stage 5 of the Giro Next Gen, the Australian jumping up two spots on the overall by fighting his way into the break on a tough stage which fractured the peloton of the prestigious U23 men’s race.

Tuckwell finished ninth on the 153 km stage to Gavi, 13 seconds behind stage winner Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) while Jarno Widar (Lotto Development Team) – who had started the day in pink – was in 33rd on the stage at 2:03 behind the winner.

“A fantastic day. We had a plan to isolate our GC competitors on the longest climb of the day by setting a high pace towards the final kilometres of the climb – and it worked well,” said Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies director of development John Wakefield. “Everyone on the team played their part.”

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Tuckwell, who had started the day in third overall behind teammate Lorenzo Finn, is now in the top spot with a 26 second lead on Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious Development Team) and with 36 seconds to Filippo Turconi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). Widar is now in fourth at 1:23 and Finn just seven seconds further back in fifth, with the Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe Rookies the only squad to have two riders sitting in the top ten.

“We knew that with Lorenzo [Finn] and I up on GC, we had to use it to our advantage. We started this morning thinking that we’d take on Lotto and the rest of the GC guys in that climb in the middle of the stage. We got over the top and we started attacking,” said Tuckwell, the only Australian in the race.

“I just went full gas. We really wanted to take the jersey in these hard three days in the middle.”

It was exactly what Widar and his Lotto Development Team had expected but with so much firepower amassed against them they couldn’t avoid handing over the pink leader’s jersey, for now at least.

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“I expected Red Bull to attack today. It was a really chaotic race today. Everyone was attacking me,” said Widar in a race media release, adding that they had tried to limit the losses and sitting back 1:23 from the lead was “not much”.

“I’ll probably try to attack early in the climb on Saturday. The maglia rosa [Luke Tuckwell] is probably the most dangerous adversary. We’re still confident that we can take the jersey back. We’ll give a great fight. For our team, it’s better to not have the responsibility of the race all the way. It’s on Red Bull-Bora’s shoulder now.”

It’s a responsibility, however, Tuckwell’s team seem to be happy to have as they head into the final three stages, with stage 6 expected to be for the sprinters, Saturday’s stage 7 delivering a crucial summit finish and the last day of racing on Sunday offering up some shorter climbs that could make a difference if the GC gaps are narrow.

“I can’t believe I’m sitting here right now, it’s incredible. Now the real race starts,” said the 20-year-old Tuckwell, who made the shift to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies at the start of this season after having lined up with Trinity Racing since late 2023.

“We’ve got three days to go. We’ll give it our all to defend the lead. I’m super motivated to make the best outcome out of this race.”