May 13, 2026
The race continues its journey North, away from the coast and into the center of Basilicata for the 203 km stage to Potenza. Shortly after the start in Praia a Mare, the riders will leave sea level behind and climb up to 900 meters after the 13 km ascent to Prestieri. The road continues to roll but will start a downward trajectory after 45 km of racing into a shallow dish. In this low section of the course, the riders will pass the intermediate sprint in Francavilla in Sinni before starting to slowly climb back out. The profile turns from a false flat into a proper climb with 66 km to go on the 5 km 5.5% rise to Viggiano. A short descent leads the bunch to the hardest climb of the day up to Monte Grande di Viggiano, a 6.6 km climb at over 9%. The next 20 km stay high on the plateau with the Redbull Sprint at 28 km from the finish. The rest of the stage is mostly downhill until 4 km to go when they hit a steep ramp of over 10% for about 500 meters. The stage has break away written all over it but Lidl-Trek will be keen to monitor any move to make sure the Maglia Rose stays on the back of Giulio Ciccone.
Race Summary
Overcast skies were expected to turn to rain and many riders were clad in arm warmers with their jackets tucked away in the pocket. It took a few hundred meters for the group to wake up but attacks did come and plenty were interested to going up the road. On the approach to Prestieri, the riders crisscrossed the Noce River and it wasn't long before the rain funneled down the valley to pummel the riders. The rain was so heavy that it created mini rivers running down the road and the attacks stopped as everyone pulled out their jackets and braced for a brutal day. Netcompany-Ineos set up on the front and pulled the bunch to the base of Prestieri.
Attacks resumed and the pace was put on by Victor Campenaerts of Visma-Lease a Bike. A few riders followed and it looked like a group might go but Jan Christen of UAE-XRG came across which caused a reaction from Ciccone and then Jonas Vingegaard and everything was brought back. The skirmish split the peloton and only about 30 riders were left at the front. Einer Rubio of Movistar counter attacked and was followed by Guillermo Thomas Silva of XDS-Astana. Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious came across and the three started to build a lead. The rain continued to pound down and visibility was greatly reduced. More riders were trying to bridge up but the peloton grew to around 70-80 riders and looked to be settling.
Rubio led the trio over the top of Prestieri with Campenaerts chasing at about 10 seconds and the peloton a further 15 seconds back. Campenaerts made it on as did Gianmarco Garofoli of Soudal Quickstep who took some risks on the descent to do so. The road went up again briefly and Picnic-PostNL Raisin tried a few times to get away. They only managed to spur on more attacking and the peloton stretched again as more riders saw an opportunity to get away. The gap to the five leaders was 30 seconds when the attacking re-started and seven more riders came across. Those new riders were Manuele Tarozzi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, Lorenzo Milesi of Movistar, Ben Turner of Netcompany-Ineos, Igor Arrieta and Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG, Martin Tjøtta of Uno-X Mobility, and Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana. The new group of twelve started the descent down towards Francavilla in Sinni with about 25 seconds on the peloton and a whopping 163 km still to go.
The descent looked treacherous with mud and deep run-off streaming off the mountain side across the road. Picnic-PostNL Raisin had missed every move and they sat on the front pulling the peloton at a quick pace. They kept the break within a minute but shut it down with 146 km to go. Darren Rafferty of EF-Education EasyPost made a last ditch effort to bridge on the flat section after the descent but he was over 1 minute behind the break. Rafferty was still 30 seconds from the front group through the intermediate sprint at 134 km. The bunch had finally settled in with Lidl-Trek taking control at 1 minute 45 seconds. With 124 km to go, Rafferty managed to make contact with the lead group after over 20 km of chasing solo but he looked cooked after the effort.
The race went into a holding pattern and the sun even came out briefly. Many riders were freezing cold so a bit of sunshine provided a few kilometers of relief. With the hardest parts still to come, some members of the break were skipping turns and the gap came down to 1 minute 30 seconds with 97 km remaining. The clouds opened up once again and hail stones were falling as the break opened their advantage to 3 minutes with 78 km to go. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe had enough of following and took over from Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier who had been the only one riding for Lidl-Trek up to this point.
A full minute was cut from the advantage in just 10 km at which time other GC teams moved forward to position for the uncategorized climb to Viggiano. Up front, Arrieta attacked the group at the bottom of the uncategorized climb and quickly built a 20 second advantage. By the bottom of the Monte Grande di Viggiano with 55 km to go, Arrieta had 40 seconds on the rest of the break and 1 minute 45 seconds on the peloton. Eulálio went clear of the other members of the break and 3 km from the top, he was closing the gap on Arrieta, eventually making contact about 1 km later. Arrieta and Eulálio were leading by 1 minute to Garofoli, Milesi, Silva, and Scaroni, the last of the original break, with the peloton further behind at 1 minute 50 seconds.
Arrieta led over the line at the summit through the mist to start the 20 km roller coaster run before the Redbull Sprint and long descent. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe completely shut down their chase over the top and the gap hit 3 minutes very quickly. Johannes Kulset of Uno-X Mobility, Andrea Raccagni of Soudal Quickstep, and Koen Bouwman of Jayco AlUla jumped out of the peloton but they had a big distance to close to reach the two leaders and would never do so.
Eulálio started the day at 1 minute 11 seconds and with the gap growing, he was the virtual Maglia Rose. Ciccone had Derek Gee in the group but he was not going to jeopardize his GC to save Ciccone's jersey and the gap went out to 4 minutes. By the time Eulálio took the 6 bonus seconds at the Redbull Sprint, the gap blew out to 5 minutes to the bunch The Maglia Rose was all but a sure thing for Eulálio and the stage win was also a possibility if he could out-fox Arrieta.
With 14 km to go near the bottom of the descent, Arrieta over cooked a corner and hit the deck. His chain came off and he had to wait for a spare bike to come from the team car. By the time he got going again, Eulálio was at least 25 seconds ahead and certainly not going to wait up. Into the suburban streets of Potenza with 6.5 km to go, Eulálio hit a slick spot and went skidding across the road at high speed. He too got a bike change but Arrieta was now back in the game just a handful of seconds behind. Arrieta made contact a few hundred meters later as the road ramped up on one of the steep kickers towards the finish. Eulálio led up the final ramp and the pair took the downhill into the last 3 km very gingerly.
Disaster struck once again for Arrieta at 2 km to go. A right hand corner turned sharper than he expected which forced him wide. The exit tightened and he had no choice but to hit the brakes and put a foot down. Eulálio navigated the corner just fine and was once again off on his own. Arrieta had 12 seconds to make up and chipped away through every passing meter. The road went up for the last kilometer and Eulálio was pedaling squares. Arrieta still had something to give and, unbelievably, made contact with just 100 meters to go. He took one deep breath and started his sprint with no reaction from Eulálio. The young Spaniard had problem after problem in the finale but was resilient in the face of adversity and was rewarded with his first Grand Tour stage win. Eulálio came across a few moments later with the consolation prize of the Maglia Rose. Silva had a redeeming ride to take third on the stage at 51 seconds with Milesi, Scaroni, and Garofoli spread across the next 30 seconds.
By the time the GC guys trundled into Potenza, they were over 7 minutes down. With everything that transpired, Eulálio owns the Maglia Rose by nearly 3 minutes to Arrieta and another 40 seconds to Scaroni. The first of the pre-race favorites is Egan Bernal who sits at 6 minutes 16 seconds which could leave Eulálio in the driver's seat for a number of days.