May 17, 2026
We usually see hockey stick stages in the Middle East but we have one today to the summit of Corno alle Scale. The first 95 km are run on completely flat roads through the plains of Emilia-Romagna. The road turns West into the Apennines through San Lazzaro di Savena on the outskirts of Bologna. There is a 3 km, 5% climb up Monte della Capanna with a descent into Sasso Marconi and the Valle del Reno. The road starts to grade on a false flat following the Reno River upstream. There is an intermediate sprint in Marzabotto with 59 km to go but the action should increase on the ascent to Querciola which climbs for over 11 km at an average of just over 4%. There is hardly no descent before the Redbull Sprint in Vidiciatico after 1.6 km at 6.3%. At the top, the offical climb to Corno alle Scale begins for the last 11 km to the finish line. The full climb averages just 5.8% but the last 2.8 km are incredibly steep at 11%. There was no consensus on whether a break would contest the win but the GC guys will come out to play in the finale regardless, either for time and/or the stage win.
Race Summary
Uno-X Mobility were keen to get up the road on Norwegian National Day but it was Davide Ballerini of XDS-Astana, Lorenzo Milesi of Movistar, and Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Premier Tech who were the ones to get away. The gap grew to 40 seconds but the attacking continued behind. After a while, Planckaert couldn't pull any more and decided to back out of the break, leaving just Ballerini and Milesi up the road. With 148 km to go, a group of six did finally break the elastic and quickly bridged to the front to make a group of eight. Joining Milesi and Ballerini were Jonas Geens of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Martin Marcellusi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, Einer Rubio of Movistar, Tim Naberman of Picnic-PostNL Raisin, Mattia Bais of Polti-VisitMalta, and Sakarias Koller Løland of Uno-X Mobility.
The riders passed vineyard after vineyard of Sangiovese and just when things were calming, Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek attacked out of the peloton. He had 50 seconds to close on the break but was desperate to get up the road without Paul Magnier so he could take the intermediate sprint points. Soudal Quickstep were quick to respond and brought the Italian back one kilometer later. A few more attacks went with Manuele Tarozzi of Badiani CSF 7 Saber and Chris Hamilton of Picnic-PostNL Raisin going away but the group shut down and the break was gone. Decathlon CMA CGM started to control with 133 km to go when the leaders got to 2 minutes 15 seconds. Hamilton and Tarozzi tried to bridge up to the break but they could not cross the gap and drifted back to the peloton.
Decathlon CMA CGM were confident in Felix Gall and did not allow the gap to go much further than 3 minutes at any point. As the break reached the suburban neighborhoods of Bologna with 85 km to go, the gap went below 2 minutes for the first time and morale was waning for the leaders. The race got a dose of spice on the Monte della Capanna when Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek went on the attack. He had tried many times earlier in the day to make the break and took one more chance on the first elevation of the day to try again. Diego Ulissi of XDS-Astana and Toon Aerts of Lotto Intermarché followed and, over the top, they were right in the middle between the break and the peloton with 1 minute on either side.
Ciccone and crew made contact with the lead group just inside 60 km to go. The entire Decathlon CMA CGM led peloton was in single file and the gap was down to just over 1 minute through the intermediate sprint in Marzabotto. Through Vergato, the riders were hugging the Reno River as the terrain pushed higher on either side and it was a reminder that they were leaving the low lands behind.
The work rate of Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen was incredible throughout the day on the front of the peloton for Decathlon CMA CGM but his legs were starting tire. With 41 km to go, the gap had grown to 2 minutes and an extra 20 seconds were added through Silla at the start of the Querciola with 28 km remaining. In the first few kilometers of the climb, Ciccone pulled Milesi, Rubio, Ulissi, and Aerts away from the rest of the break. They held the gap around 2 minutes 10 seconds which was their lead when Rubio led over the top of Querciola.
Cohesion in the front broke down on the ramp to the Redbull Sprint. Ciccone attacked and was covered by Rubio and the climbing duo began the first of 11 kilometers to the top of Corno alle Scale. In the peloton, Decathlon CMA CGM ramped up the pace to finish what they started. The gap came down to 1 minute 10 seconds with 7.5 km to go and Ciccone was forced to go solo a bit further out than he may have wanted. Ciccone maintained 50 seconds to the bunch but Visma-Lease a Bike had taken over control and were piling on the pressure which put Giulio Pellizzari of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe into trouble and out the back.
Ciccone's gap disappeared when he hit the steep ramps at 2.8 km to go. Decathlon CMA CGM led Felix Gall in and the Austrian attacked just 100 meters into the steep section. Only Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike could follow and the pair were across to Ciccone who was immediately dropped. Vingegaard sat on Gall until 900 meters remaining when he attacked off the wheel and danced away. The Dane carried his Maglia Azzurro up to the finish line to take his second win in three days. Gall came across 12 seconds later for second place after his team worked all day to keep the break in check. Thymen Arensman of Netcompany-Ineos emerged as the next best out of the GC group but he was pipped on the line by Davide Piganzoli of Visma-Lease a Bike for third, 34 seconds down.
Afonso Eulálio put up a good fight and finished the stage just 41 seconds down which leaves him still with a margin of 2 minutes 24 seconds in the GC to Vingegaard. Gall is comfortable in third at 2 minutes 59 seconds, a full 9 seconds ahead of Jai Hindley in fourth. Pellizzari had a hard day in the office and now sits in ninth at 5 minutes 15 seconds and will have to regroup during the rest day.