Didier Rous: ‘We have to be offensive’.

PresentationMay 6, 2025

World Team TeamGiro d'Italia

Didier Rous, sports manager of the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team, outlines the objectives for the red and black team in Italy. Here's a look at the squad.

Didier Rous

Sports Manager

The objective set for the riders in the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team for this Giro 2025 is to win a stage. Luca Mozzato will be our leader for the sprints, and after that the other riders will have carte blanche to get into the breakaways that are likely to go all the way. We'll have a young team with Embret Sevstad-Bårdseng, Martin Tjøtta and Gisouè Épis, all three of whom have distinguished themselves at the start of the season and shown great qualities. They will be joined by more experienced riders such as Michel Ries, Laurens Huys, Simon Guglielmi and Luca Mozzato, who will accompany and guide them throughout the three weeks of racing. We want to liven up this Giro and come away with some good results. As we've seen since the start of the season, it's the offensive riders who are often rewarded.

Luca Mozzato

2025 will mark Luca Mozzato's very first participation in his National Tour, the Giro d'Italia. Luca will be the leader of the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team in this event because of his status and experience. On the stages on offer that match his qualities, he will have to take them on as classics, his field of reference. He will also be our sprint leader for the grouped finishes.

Giosuè Epis

Gisoué Épis is about to discover the Giro, its fervour and its tifosi. He'll be full of ambition at the start of his national tour. But beyond the discovery, the role we expect him to play is to be a support and an asset for Luca Mozzatto during the mass finishes. Why not also see him in the breakaways?

Alessandro Verre

Alessandro will be taking part in his 3rd Giro d'Italia in a row. He now has experience of this Grand Tour. He had three interesting weeks in this race in 2024, and we're expecting him to step up another notch this year in the Giro d'Italia. He'll be one of our assets for the mountain stages. He'll have to get into the breakaways, and play for victory when the stages get tough.

Laurens Huys

His start to the season was disrupted by injury, but Laurens has been coming back well in recent weeks. We're expecting him to be more active in the third week of the race, during the difficult stages. He should act as a relay for the climbers and help the team in its quest for stage success.

Simon Guglielmi

Simon has sprinting qualities. He can make an impact in a small group, and last year he put in some fine performances in the Vuelta, taking places of honour in various stages. His role will therefore be to get into the breakaways, but his sense of positioning and his ability to rub well could also help Luca Mozzato in the massive finishes scheduled for this Giro 2025.

Michel Ries

Michel is a regular rider who goes from strength to strength season after season. He rode a good Giro in 2024, demonstrating such qualities. Like Alessandro, we're expecting him to step up a gear again this year, and to come away with a result either with a good overall classification or on a mountain stage.

Martin Tjøtta

Since the start of the season, Martin has shown that he is capable of doing some great things, particularly on hilly, off-road stages. He'll be taking part in his first three-week Grand Tour, and he should be able to focus on the medium mountain stages, which are more suited to the more adventurous riders.

Embret Svestad-Bårdseng

A climber, Embret will also be discovering the Giro d'Italia. This Grand Tour, which is often favourable to this type of rider, could give him the opportunity to discover himself and be discovered by the general public. He demonstrated his climbing skills in the Tour of Oman at the start of the season, competing with the best in a summit finish. We expect him to repeat that kind of performance at the Giro.

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