What does Diego Ulissi have in common with cycling superstars Sean Kelly, Erik Zabel, and Tom Boonen?

Tuesday’s Giro dell’Appennino was a minor event on the June racing calendar, a 1.1-ranked race stretching 199km from Novi Ligure to Genoa on Italy’s Ligurian coast. A handful of WorldTour teams mingled among Italian ProTeams and a slew of Continental teams, including eight home-based squads.

With no international television coverage and none of cycling’s star names on the startlist, it’s understandable if the 86th edition of the race passed fans by. However, the 2025 Giro dell’Appennino hosted a historic win as Diego Ulissi soloed home.

The XDS-Astana rider scored a valuable 120 points for his Kazakhstani team in their battle against WorldTour relegation. However, Ulissi’s achievement on the day has put his name in the record books, with the win continuing a streak of victories that now dates back 16 years.

You may like

Ulissi has now won a race in every season since he turned professional with Lampre-Farnese Vini back in 2010, his streak holding strong even as a nine-month ban for the asthma drug salbutamol ruled him out for portions of the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

His first win came in September 2010 at the GP Industria e Commercio di Prato, and his streak has included 14 at WorldTour level, including eight stages of the Giro d’Italia and the 2017 GP de Montréal.

Ulissi, who back in May wore the maglia rosa at the Giro d’Italia for the first time in his career, now holds the longest year-on-year win streak in the current peloton, with Norwegian veteran Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) having won for the 15th year in a row at the Vuelta a Andalucía back in February.

French sprinter Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is on a 13-year streak, though the 33-year-old still needs a win this year to extend that to 14 years.

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

Historically, Ulissi has now moved one year clear of Francesco Moser, who held a 15-year streak from 1973 to 1987. He’s equal with Sean Kelly (1977-1992), Erik Zabel (1993-2008), and Tom Boonen (2002-2017), and lies one year short of three more riders – Rik Van Looy, Jacques Anquetil (both 1953-1969), and Mario Cipollini (1989-2005).

Other riders who completed notable streaks in recent history include Elia Viviani and Annemiek van Vleuten (both 2010-2023) on 14 years, and Peter Sagan (2010-2022) and Mark Cavendish (2006-2018), who won races for 13 years in a row.

Ulissi is currently in the first year of a two-year deal at XDS-Astana following a move from UAE Team Emirates over the winter, meaning he’ll have the 2026 season to try and equal Van Looy, Anquetil, and Cipollini.

His latest victory, nine seconds ahead of Ukrainian racer Andrii Ponomar as Astana teammate Simone Velasco took third, saw him go solo 50km from the finish, passing the break while cresting the penultimate climb of the race, before riding alone for over 30km to the finish.

“We had a pretty young team today, with guys from XDS-Astana Devo Team, some of them had just come back from the Giro Next Gen,” Ulissi said after the finish. “Everyone did a great job, and we controlled the early breakaway.

“Then, on the hardest climb, with around 50km to the finish, I attacked. It was quite tough with the headwind, but I managed to gain some advantage and take this win. Up next, we have the Italian National Championships, and I think we have a strong team there, so we will try to give it a proper battle.”