Place Name: Viale Riccardo Zandonai
Address: Viale Riccardo Zandonai 2, 61024 Mombaroccio Pesaro and Urbino, Italy
Details: March 13, 2026
If you are riding a bike the Marche, you are most certainly doing plenty of climbing and that will be no different for the World Tour peloton today. The 184KM Stage 5 will take place entirely in the region known for it's beach towns as well as its muri, roads like walls. The riders will start in Marotta-Mondolfo on the coast with the smell of salt water in the air. The first 50KM will head in a Westerly direction, taking the riders directly into the hills. There are over ten climbs that are note worthy but the hardest climb of the day is in the middle of the stage up the Monte delle Cesane through the town of Fossombrone. It is 7.2KM at 7% but the first 2KM is over 11%. There is an intermediate sprint in Saltara with 64KM to go followed by three more classified climbs. The first is the Monte della Mattera, a 6.5KM climb at 5% with sustained ramps at the bottom of 8-11%. The next climb is up to the Santuario del Beato Sante and will be ridden twice, the first time tops out with 21KM to go and the second with just 1.5KM to go to the finish in Mombaroccio. In between these three categorized climbs are numerous 1-2KM ramps between 7-11%. It's a grueling day with 3,800M of climbing and the top of the currently tight GC leader board will likely explode.
Nearly everyone at the start was interested in getting up the road in the break which made the first hour of racing lightning quick. As a result, a strong group of eight riders got away including Julian Alaphilippe of Tudor Pro Cycling, Joan Bou of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Jack Haig of Ineos, Georg Zimmermann of Lotto Intermarché, Emiel Verstrynge and Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Michael Valgren of EF-Education EasyPost, and Sjoerd Bax of Pinarello Q36.5. With 95KM to go, nearing the top of the Monte delle Cesane, they had 4 minutes 20 seconds on a peloton led by race leaders Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. The descent off the Cesane was stunning with long views of rolling hills into the distance with the road swishing through villages surrounded by lush, green meadows.
The best placed rider was Alaphilippe who started the day 80 seconds off the GC lead. The bunch had to work really hard to keep the group in check but through the intermediate sprint in Saltara, the lead had expanded by 20 seconds and Alaphilippe picked up maximum seconds on the line. The bunch changed complexion with 59KM to go. Visma-Lease a Bike, UAE-XRG, and Uno-X Mobility all were battling for the front to get on to an uncategorized 2.5KM climb first. The acceleration shed a lot of riders and cut 40 seconds off the break away's lead.
UAE-XRG led the bunch to the bottom of the Monte della Mattera. They rode hard but not warp speed and with 2.5KM to the top, the gap was down to 3 minutes. Bou was the first from the break to be dropped as the break lifted their effort to match that of the peloton. The only action in the bunch was to get into position for the descent due to the rough and broken nature of the roads in the region.
The break arrived at the finish line for the first passage with two more to come, one being the finish. Bax flatted out of the break shortly after leaving six out front. The pressure turned up on a steep ramp with 38.5KM to go. UAE-XRG had split the peloton in half and, by the top, only about 40 riders were left in contention. The break were working as one cohesive unit however and were staving off the peloton to the best of their ability.
The break had 2 minutes 25 seconds at the start of the first ascent of the Santuario del Beato Sante with 27KM to go. Planckaert pulled off after having been the primary contributor the pace. The first move came shortly after with Valgren upping the tempo. Alaphilippe responded and the pair were quickly away from the others. They crested the steepest sections at the top with 25 seconds on Haig, Zimmermann, and Verstrynge and 2 minutes 10 seconds on the peloton that seemed to calm under a more steady pace set by UAE-XRG.
The bell rang for Valgren and Alaphilippe and for one more 21.5KM lap. It took a long time for things to kick off in the favorites group, not until Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility attacked with 16KM to go. No one went with him and UAE-XRG slowly drew him back in on some large rollers 2KM later. With the kilometers coming down and the gap holding at 1 minute 40 seconds, Valgren and Alaphilippe looked like they might just stay out to contest the victory.
When the leading duo reached the final ascent of the Santuario del Beato Sante with 6KM to go, they had 1 minute 10 seconds. Valgren attacked almost immediately with no reaction from Alaphilippe. Behind, UAE-XRG sprinted into the base of the climb and the group was quickly reduced to eight riders. Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG went to the front with Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious, Giulio Pellizzari and Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek, Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost and Johannessen still in the group. Alaphilippe was caught with 3.5KM to go but Valgren still had 45 seconds at that point.
The road flattened at 3KM to go and Carapaz took a flyer from the back of the group. No one reacted since he was not a threat on GC and it gave EF-Education EasyPost two riders in front of the GC group. Everyone looked at del Toro who was forced to set a pace in the group to avoid being attacked from behind. When the road tipped up to over 7% with 2,500M to go, del Toro attacked and got a gap. Jorgenson was quickest to react. It took over 500M of chasing but he managed to catch del Toro on the next flat section. They reached the top of the climb with 1,500M to go, just 15 seconds behind Valgren who was giving everything to stay out front. Valgren got to the downhill and descended as quickly as he could. Fortunately for the Dane, he had banked enough time and was able to cross the line with arms in the air and a pound to his chest. Behind, del Toro and Jorgenson were locked together and it was del Toro that took the sprint for second with Jorgenson just behind in third, 11 seconds after Valgren.
The GC was given some shape but maybe not as much as anticipated. Del Toro took over the the lead again and stands 23 seconds ahead of Pellizzari who struggled on the final climb. Jorgenson moved up on to the podium in third at 34 seconds and definitely looks like a man coming into form.
Tags: Tirreno-Adriatico, 2026, Tirreno-Adriatico 2026, Stage 5, March, Marotta-Mondolfo, Mombaroccio, Julian Alaphilippe, Joan Bou, Jack Haig, Georg Zimmermann, Emiel Verstrynge, Edward Planckaert, Michael Valgren, Sjoerd Bax, Tobias Johannessen, Isaac del Toro, Matteo Jorgenson, Richard Carapaz