March 15, 2026
The final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico has arrived for the 2026 edition and it's one for the sprinters. The fast men have only really had one shot up to this point so they will want to make sure today's opportunity doesn't slip through their fingers. There is 142KM on the menu for the riders when they roll out of Civitanova Marche. The beach will be calling over their left shoulders but the riders must make the journey South to the traditional end in San Benedetto del Tronto before they get to rest. It's not all coastal riding however. Cruelly, the route cuts inland through Pedaso after 24KM of racing and the road will rise for the next 11KM up the 3.4% average gradients of Montefiore d'Aso. A quick descent down to the Ponte Valmenocchia and it's back uphill to the top of the 8.4KM, 4.6% Ripatransone. The riders will descend into San Benedetto del Tronto for five full laps of a 14.5KM circuit through town where the sprinters will make their mark with one more dash to the line.
Race Summary
More beautiful sunshine greeted the riders at the start with warm air filtering through the branches of newly budding Spring leaves. Three riders got away early including Roberto Carlos González of Solution Tech NIPPO Rali, Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5, and Dries De Bondt of Jayco AlUla. With 110KM to go, the break had 2 minutes 30 seconds as they wound their way up Montefiore d'Aso with the sprint and GC teams working together to keep the gap tight. Alpecin-Premier Tech, UAE-XRG, Soudal Quickstep, and Lidl-Trek were all present at or near the front which made the prospect of the break making it into the finale very unlikely.
Just 12KM later at the start of Ripatransone, the gap was down to 90 seconds as Alpecin-Premier Tech had drilled the Montefiore d'Aso descent and were riding like the finish was at the top of the mountain in Ripatransone. Gaps formed down the group and everyone was under serious pressure. About 30 riders made the front split as Mathieu van der Poel drove the pace up nearly the entire climb. The break was caught 2KM from the top but the plan went sideways for Alpecin-Premier Tech when Jasper Philipsen was dropped from the group. Van der Poel never hesitated however and continued to the very top, about 30 seconds before the rest of the peloton which also now included Philipsen.
Van der Poel continued riding on the front down the descent, to the coast, and into San Benedetto del Tronto. The majority of the peloton were together 25 seconds behind with a third group on the road that contained Arnaud De Lie of Lotto Intermarché a further 1 minute behind. Van der Poel's only tactic seemed to be to ride as hard as he could until the dropped groups caught him. It wasn't until 66KM to go that the connection was finally made and someone other than van der Poel hit the front. The sprint teams hardly had time to reorganize before Alessandro Covi of Jayco AlUla attacked and was off the front in a solo effort.
Visma-Lease a Bike set up the chase and caught Covi with 58KM to go on the line for 4 laps remaining. Visma-Lease a Bike remained on the front and were eager to take the bonus sprint that was set for the upcoming passage of the line. Matteo Jorgenson started the day just a single second off Giulio Pellizzari for second overall and wanted to take their chance at moving up. 1,500M from the line, Uno-X Mobility and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe came up with competing lead out trains but the Dutch squad had the power to hold their position through the chicane at 800M and led into the finish straight. Pellizzari was alone and shuffled down in seventh wheel as Jorgenson was escorted by Wout van Aert and sitting in second position. The lead out by van Aert was exquisite and Jorgenson's sprint was just 150M. He was able to take maximum time on the line to move him provisionally into second overall. Pellizzari attacked out of frustration but came back into the group and gave a fist bump to Jorgenson in congratulations.
With all of the mid-stage prizes wrapped up, teams changed their mindset to the finale and the sprint finish. Decathlon CMA CGM and Soudal Quickstep took their turns on the front to keep the peloton moving for the last 39KM. 18KM later, De Bondt and Covi made a two up team attack in a last ditch effort to make something of the race. The move initially strained Decathlon CMA CGM but they settled back in to a more manageable pace and slowly pulled the two Jayco AlUla riders back to heel with 17KM remaining.
Positioning started with both GC and sprint teams with around 10KM to go but the speed evidently wasn't great enough. With 7.5KM to go, Uno-X Mobility tried the Jayco AlUla strategy and sent two riders off the front in another team attack. It ended up being more of a lead out because Jonas Abrahamsen was left alone a few hundred meters later but with such a powerful rider out front, the reaction needed to be strong. Abrahamsen gained 10 seconds and was pegged at that margin for a few kilometers. At 2.5KM to go through a tight right corner, a few riders near the front got squeezed and Philipsen came down along with Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep and the race leader, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG. All were able to get back up and were given the same time on GC but they wouldn't be able to contest the sprint.
The disruption temporarily stalled the chase and Abrahamsen was able to maintain his advantage at 10 seconds with just 1,500M to go. The fury of the peloton had Abrahamsen at just 4 seconds through the final chicane at 800M with the primary contribution coming from Ineos. Filippo Ganna put an end to Abrahamsen's bid for glory as he set up the lead out for Sam Welsford who was sitting in third position with Soudal Quickstep's Laurenz Rex behind in fourth spot. Like a rocket ship, Edward Theuns of Lidl-Trek brought Jonathan Milan from out of nowhere and into the lead at 300M. Milan opened his sprint a few moments later for a long one. He was nodding and bobbing and begging to sit in the saddle but he kept driving all the way to the line and held off an onslaught of other fast men for the win. Welsford was able to latch on to Milan as he came by and hit the line in second with Rex doing the same to finish on the final podium spot in third.
After a week of intense and hard fought racing, Isaac del Toro went out the winner by 40 seconds to take his second World Tour overall success in a stage race this season. Matteo Jorgenson finished second, 40 seconds down with Giulio Pellizzari in third at 42 seconds.