CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Finaly Pickering came away with the King of the Mountains (KoM) title yesterday following the fifth and final stage of the 2025 Tour of the Alps.
The elite men’s road race came to a thrilling conclusion, with a 112-kilometre loop around the Austrian town of Lienz. Bahrain Victorious ended the event with a sixth place finish on the general classification (GC) and one of the four major jerseys – the blue jersey for KoM won by Pickering – and all that despite losing leader Antonio Tiberi to illness on day two.
Pickering came away with his unexpected prize after spending 310km in breakaways – more than any other rider. The 22-year-old Briton made the front group on stages one, three, and five, and picked up mountains points every day, bar one.
Pickering was understandably delighted with what is arguably the biggest achievement of his career so far. “First up, it’s nice to come back and finish the race, because last year I only managed part of the first stage, so I’ve put a few demons to bed!” explained Pickering.
“And to get the jersey as well, it’s just super – at least now I have something to show for being a pro bike rider, so I’m happy!
“It’s always hard going in the breakaway, but each day is another day on the bike, and I enjoy riding my bike!”
To be crowned the best climber in what many believe to be the toughest week’s racing on the calendar is no small accomplishment. It is even more admirable considering his horrific crash here last year, and another heavy fall on stage three.
Meanwhile, it was another overall top 10 finish for Bahrain Victorious’ Damiano Caruso – a 36th of his career – after taking sixth on the GC. The Italian was keen to praise the performance of the team as a whole, especially with the first ‘Grand Tour’ of the year just a fortnight away.
“We have to be satisfied with the week,” said Caruso. “We lost our leader to sickness, but the reaction of the team was more than positive.
“We’ve managed to bring home the KoM jersey and also I managed to show good form, which confirms that we’re doing the right things in the build up to the Giro [d’Italia].
“I’m confident that personally I’ll be in top condition for the Giro, ready to perform my main role, which will be to look after Antonio. And if the occasion presents itself, it would be good to go for a stage too – that would be a perfect May from my point of view.”
Bahrain Victorious’ lead sports director Gorazd Stangelj commented: “A big ‘chapeau’ also to Finlay. Today, again he showed character, and how strong he is mentally to be able to defend this jersey, which was very complicated with Koen Bouwman (Team Jayco AlUla) in the break as well. Fran [Miholjevic] also did a great job. They joined the breakaway and handled the situation. We know how hard Finn crashed last year – to survive that and to come back to win this jersey is quite something. We wish him a good recovery now and all the best for Romandie.
“Generally we did the absolute maximum that we could have, certainly more than we expected after Antonio unfortunately had to leave the race. Damiano took over the situation very well, even on the final day he was up there with the best guys.”
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