Welcome to the Giro d’Italia, a the most beautiful of the grand tours, with just a tiny bit too much ‘tranquilo’ to ensure you get some snooze along with your tifosi fever dream. And, it somehow starts in Bulgaria this year.
That’s right. The 2026 Grande Partenza kicks off next Friday in Nessebar, Bulgaria, before the peloton eventually transfers down to the southern coast of Italy to tackle the brutal Apennines and the snow-capped Alps. It is a grueling, 3,468-kilometer route featuring a monstrous 40-kilometer individual time trial and a final week with so much elevation gain it makes my quadriceps burn just looking at the profile.
With João Almeida tragically withdrawing due to a mysterious lingering illness, the General Classification battle looks more straightforward than ever. At a glance, this year’s Giro looks like a one-man show, with a peloton of talented riders racing for second place behind Jonas Vingegaard.
But this is pro cycling. It’s never quite that easy. Unless you’re playing on Fortnite, which is very easy.
The General Classification “Pretenders”
We don’t want to burst any hype bubbles, but we have to be realistic: this is Jonas Vingegaard’s race to lose. Still, these guys might have enough to make him sweat before the podium in Rome.
- JJonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike): The final boss. Two-time Tour champion Vingegaard is using the Giro to tune his legs before his Tour de France showdown with Tadej Pogačar. The fact that this race features a massive 40-kilometer ITT and endless, agonizing summit finishes means Vingegaard could realistically win this race by five minutes. He also brought Sepp Kuss as a domestique, which is frankly just unfair to everyone else.
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): With João Almeida sidelined by illness, Yates is officially the tip of the UAE spear. Unlike his chaotic teammate Jay Vine, Yates is a notoriously reliable, methodical three-week racer.
- Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe): The 2022 Giro champion knows how to win this race. He’s resilient in the third week and thrives in the steep Italian mountains. Hindley is going to bleed minutes to Vingegaard against the clock and will have to launch heroic attacks on the Blockhaus to claw the time back.
- Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco AlUla): The gritty Australian is tailor-made for a brutal Giro d’Italia. He thrives when the weather turns miserable and the race loses its tactical structure. He is arguably the biggest threat to disrupt the Vingegaard/Yates/Hindley podium monopoly.
- Enric Mas (Movistar Team): It is a scientific fact that Enric Mas will finish somewhere between 3rd and 5th on the General Classification without ever actually appearing on the television broadcast. He will simply manifest in the top five during the final week in Rome.
- Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers): The former Giro champion returns to Italy alongside Thymen Arensman. Even if he doesn’t have the peak wattage to challenge Vingegaard in the high mountains, INEOS brings a deep squad.
The Fast Men (Who Will Quit Before the Alps)
The Giro is notoriously cruel to sprinters. There are plenty of flat stages in the first week, but by the time the race hits the final week, the fast men are usually dragging their 80-kilo frames over 10% gradients just trying to beat the time cut. Expect most of these guys to conveniently develop “minor knee soreness” and abandon before Stage 16.
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek): The gigantic Italian is a pure wattage monster. Expect to see him dominate the flat, opening stages in Bulgaria.
- Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché): The Belgian “Bull” is getting his shot at the Italian Grand Tour. If the race gets gritty and chaotic in the rain, De Lie is the man to beat.
- Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets): The veteran sprinter still has the top-end speed to beat Milan and De Lie in a flat drag race, but his lead-out train will need to be flawless to deliver him to the line.
The Breakthrough Chaos Agents
If you want to look past the GC battle and the bunch sprints, these younglings should provide entertainment.
- Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step): The 22-year-old French phenom has been dropping jaws all spring. He climbs too well to be a pure sprinter, and sprints too fast to be a pure climber. Expect him to infiltrate breakaways on the lumpy transition stages.
- Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe): The Italian climbing prodigy is going to have the home crowds in a frenzy. If Red Bull gives him a free role, Pellizzari may launch some attacks on the steepest gradients.
- Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): With UAE reshuffling their deck post-Almeida, the 21-year-old Christen might get the opportunity to hunt stage wins.
