May 8, 2026
For the second year in a row, the Giro d'Italia starts on foreign soil, this time from Bulgaria on the shores of the Black Sea. The Grande Partenza kicks off with an opening stage suiting the sprinters down to the ground. Starting in Nessebar, the riders will head South through Burgas and Sozopol with the Black Sea along their left shoulders. There is a 22 km circuit around Sozopol that will be taken on twice before making the run for home back North to the finish in Burgas. For the intermediate prizes, there are two KOM sprints at Cape Agalina on the circuit with 63 and 41 km to go but it is just 1 km at 2.5% and is simply there to award the jersey at the podium ceremony. There is an intermediate sprint in Sozopol with 57 km to go and a Redbull Bonus sprint at the exit of the circuit at 32 km to go. We should see a bunch sprint coming into Burgas with the fast men taking the opportunity to grab the first Maglia Rose of the 109th Giro d'Italia.
Highlighted Riders
Sprinters: Jonathan Milan, Kaden Groves, Edoardo Zambanini, Tobias Lund Andresen, Paul Penhoët, Arnaud De Lie, Orluis Aular, Ben Turner, Ethan Vernon, Corbin Strong, Matteo Moschetti, Paul Magnier, Pascal Ackermann, Casper Van Uden, Giovanni Lonardi, Dylan Groenewegen, Erlend Blikra, Matteo Malucelli
GC Riders: Santiago Buitrago, Felix Gall, Alex Cepeda, Giulio Ciccone, Derek Gee, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Enric Mas, Egan Bernal, Thymen Arensman, Alessandro Pinarello, Ben O'Connor, Giulio Pellizzari, Jai Hindley, Jonas Vingegaard, Michael Storer, Adam yates, Jay Vine, Harold Martín López
Race Summary
After the official ceremonies, the riders set out from the terracotta roofed houses of Nessebar with the calm waters of the Black Sea lapping the pebbled beaches. When they reached KM0, the flag dropped and attacks came from Diego Pablo Sevilla of Polti-VisitMalta and Manuele Tarozzi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber. The gap opened straight away and the peloton went wide across the road which signaled the organization of the first break of the race. Unibet Rose Rockets were the first team to pick up the chase at 140 km to go and they were joined by Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quickstep. The gap slowly trickled up to 2 minutes which is where they were pegged at by Ayco Bastiaens of Soudal Quickstep, Hartthijs De Vries of Unibet Rose Rockets, and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier of Lidl-Trek.
The race went into a holding pattern until the first KOM at Cape Agalina. Tarozzi led out up the shallow rise with Sevilla waiting behind in the drops. Tarozzi slowly started to wind things up but he didn't have the pop to match Sevilla when he went and Sevilla convincingly won the dual to take the mountains points. There must have been an agreement made between the pair because a few kilometers later in Sozopol, Tarozzi rolled through the intermediate sprint uncontested to take the sprint points towards the Maglia Ciclamino. Behind, things got a bit more interesting as the peloton approached the sprint. Lidl-Trek accelerated about 500 meters from the line and Jonathan Milan snagged the remaining sprint points with Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Premier Tech close on his heels.
Back around the circuit, the break arrived at Cape Agalina for the second and final time. Tarozzi found himself, once again, on the front coming into the climb. They came up beside each to have a little chat but Sevilla sprinted anyways just in case and took the KOM handily which guaranteed him the Maglia Azzurro going into Stage 2.
With 6, 4, and 2 bonus seconds available at the Redbull sprint at 32 km to go, 2 seconds remained for someone to grab from the peloton. Tarozzi took the top prize with Sevilla challenging but the Spaniard couldn't quite come around and settled for the 4 seconds. Lotto Intermarché thought it wise to get a head start and they sent two riders clear about 1,500 meters before the line. UAE-XRG were quick to react and closed the move down 1 km later. The sprint opened up among the quick domestiques of the GC riders and it was António Morgado of UAE-XRG who put 2 seconds into his pocket by winning the sprint for third.
A full minute was cut off the lead of Sevilla and Tarozzi by the lead outs into the sprint. The leaders didn't have a lot more to fight for and were caught with 23 km to go which triggered teams to get in color order and prepare for the finale. With 13 km to go, the peloton was spread across the road with Lidl-Trek, Soudal Quickstep, NSN Cycling, Picnic-PostNL Raisin, and Bahrain Victorious all shoulder to shoulder. Things got much busier with 5 km to go as just about everyone with sprint hopes was pushing forward. Unibet Rose Rockets, Tudor Pro Cycling, Uno-X Mobility, and Decathlon CMA CGM had all made space for themselves but more wanted to be in the game.
Two turns between 3.5 and 2.5 km to go shuffled a few teams around and the next kilometer was spent reorganizing trains. The road went from four wide lanes down to two which made moving up that much more difficult. Soudal Quickstep and Decathlon CMA CGM were best placed at 1,500 meters but the sprinters were burning through teammates quickly. The road started to grade just slightly under 1 km to go and the most powerful men emerged at the front. The Soudal Quickstep and Lidl-Trek trains mixed together with Paul Magnier and Milan tucked in on the wheels. With 600 meters to go, a crash right near the front completely blocked the road and only 10 riders made it through. Max Walscheid of Lidl-Trek carried the group through the last corner at 300 meters and the first to open up was Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA CGM, 50 meters later. He got a great run and the others had to filter in behind with Magnier directly on the wheel of the Norwegian then Ethan Vernon of NSN Cycling and Milan. Lund Andresen maintained the lead until the last 10 meters when Magnier's speed carried him just far enough forward to take the win, his first Grand Tour stage, and the first Maglia Rose. Lund Andresen was second by half a bike length with Vernon slotting in for third.
Everyone was able to finish the stage but Kaden Groves, Dylan Groenewegen, and Matteo Moschetti all came down along with Erlend Blikra who took quite a big impact in the crash having been the first to hit the ground.