Even without winning a single stage, XDS Astana was the dominant team of the ΔΕΗ Tour of Hellas 2025 with 25-year-old Martin Lopez from Ecuador, winning the cyan jersey, thanks to his overall performance and his placings throughout the five-stage Tour.
In the final stage, from Marathon to Syntagma, at a distance of 155.57 kilometres, XDS Astana worked hard to protect Lopez's lead and bring Diego Ulissi along with the Ecuadorian on the podium ahead of the winner of the fourth stage, Adrien Maire of Unibet Tietema Rockets. Anton Schiffer of BIKE AID was well protected in the second place of the GC.
In the meantime, Jayco AlUla’s main goal in this last part of the race was to claim the stage victory in front of the Monument of the Unknown Soldier and the Greek Parliament building. The Australian team fought hard to put Dylan Groenewegen in the right position for the final sprint, but the Dutch champion was defeated, as in Agrinio, in the final metres by Matteo Moschetti of Q36.5.
The only jersey that changed hands in the final stage was the points jersey, which was eventually won by Diego Ulissi of XDS Astana. Giovanni Carboni of Unibet Tietema Rockets retained the KoM jersey and Tomas Prindal of Elkov-Kasper the one for the best U23 rider.
The race
Since the very the start of the stage in Neos Voutzas, it was crystal clear that the teams with the best sprinters were eager to control the pace.
The first intermediate sprint came very early, at the 10th kilometre in Artemida. XDS Astana's intention was to bring Diego Ulissi to the front of the peloton to get the three points and the corresponding valuable seconds, in order to overcome Adrian Maire (Unibet Tietema Rockets) in the general classification. Despite the presence of Gleb Syritsa (XDS Astana) in the sprint, the Frenchman managed to get third place, one point, and a valuable second, which brought him, temporarily, to the same position in the virtual classification alomg with Ulissi.
Shortly after the intermediate sprint, the first breakaway group of riders who would claim the KoM points in the first mild (cat. 4) climb to Keratea (35.4 km) was formed. The maximum points were taken by George Radcliffe (XSpeed United Continental). Mark Stewart (Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini) and Maxim Duba (Parkhotel Valkenburg) trailed behind the Briton. Filip Helta of Mazowsze Serce Polski, the fourth in this group, was left empty-handed.
In the next intermediate sprint, the trio that won the points (3-2-1) was Duba, Helta, and Stewart, while in the last KoM it was Radcliffe, Helta and Walter Calzoni (Q36.5). The latter outcome secured Giovanni Carboni’s of Unibet Tietema Rockets win in the KoM classification.
Radcliffe arrived at Syntagma for the beginning of the city centre circuit with a gap of about 40 seconds ahead of the peloton. He stayed slightly ahead on the second crossing as well to win the third intermediate sprint from Maire and Ulissi, who kept on fighting for the third place in the general classification.
Before the third crossing of the Syntagma Square and with a couple more remaining, Emiliano Vila of the Greek national team went ahead to the large crowd’s delight. In the penultimate lap, Vila’s role was replicated by Cypriot Andreas Miltiadis. As soon as the bell rang, the great anticipated battle between Jayco AlUla’s Dylan Groenewegen, Q36.5’s Matteo Moschetti and XDS Astana’s Gleb Syritsa began.
The Dutch champion was the first to attack, but Moschetti proved stronger and ended his Tour of Hellas adventure the same way he started it; with a second stage victory. Groenewegen crossed the finish line second, while Syritsa was third. Lopez finished 22nd inside the large group in the bunch sprint and emerged as the winner of the ΔΕΗ Tour of Hellas 2025.
Quotes
Tomas Pridal: "I'm super happy to be back here, after one year, to defend this beautiful jersey. I want to say thanks to my team, the guys did very good job in every stage and I want to thank all the staff. They did super amazing job".
Giovanni Garboni: “I feel good. Finally, it was a sunny day today and we enjoyed the stage. Yesterday, it was a very difficult race, one of the hardest stages that I’ve ever been, and I think we did our best with the win in the mountain classification".
Matteo Moschetti: "I' m really happy, nice to have the second win of the week and especially the last stage. I really like this year’s Tour of Hellas, although we were unlucky with the weather in two stages. Today the weather was good, super nice on the coast and finishing in such a nice city, was super cool".
Vasilis Anastopoulos (Head of Performance of XDS Astana Team): “It was our goal from the beginning of the season, when we got the invitation, to come and compete in the ΔΕΗ Tour of Hellas 2025. We brought here two very good riders, two good climbers and we made it. Not only to win the cyan jersey, but also the points and the fourth place in the general classification, so we are definitely happy.
“It was a very nice event with very good stages in different terrains. We saw sprinters as well as climbers and riders capable of winning the general classification. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side in the third stage, but I think everything went well and we offered fans a nice spectacle.
“It is a special feeling winning the Tour of Hellas both as an athlete (in 2033) and as a coach. We saw it this morning when we checked the statistics. It's very special and of course I can only be happy with that."
Diego Ulissi: "I'm very happy for winning the points’ classification. I'm very happy for Harold as well. For me of course it's not super, but was better comparing to the start of week. Today I tried to make the podium. My sprint was not very good, but in general I'm satisfied with the jersey and the performance of my team".
Harold Martin Lopez: "Really good performance for my team. We stayed altogether. For me it was a very special victory, my first pro win. For this I'm very happy and I want to enjoy this moment. As for the last stage, we aimed for the General Classification, but the last circuit was technical and dangerous. We worked all together in the front, to take the right position within the first group and win the GC jersey, so everything was fine".
