May 20, 2026
There have been a few days that looked like a break may go to the line but never materialized because it took long to form and the GC guys got involved. Based on the profile of today's stage, there should be plenty of terrain to force open a gap for those strong enough to do so. The first part of the course runs through Lucca, the heart land of Tuscan cycling where many pros used to set up their home away from home. There is an intermediate sprint in Luni after 69 km of the 195 km of racing. The first real challenge doesn't come until 13 km later at Pieve dei Santi Stefano e Margherita after a 2.5 km rise at 5.5%. From that point, the road is hardly ever flat through to the finish in Chiavari. There are five major climbs from 98 km to go to the finish, three of which are categorized. The longest is the Colle di Guaitarola at 9.9 km at 6.2% and summits with 59 km remaining. Next up is the Colla dei Scioli, a 6 km climb with the last 2.5 km over 9%. The final climb of the day starts in Conscenti and rises for 4.6 km at 6.4% up to Cogorno with the Redbull Sprint and bonus seconds at the top. The top comes around 12 km from the finish with a fast downhill and a 1 km, 5% rise before the line.
Race Summary
After a stop in the neutral to visit the facility of a race sponsor, the stage got underway from a standing start. A group of around 11 broke free in the first few kilometers but there were plenty of teams who missed out and continued the attacking behind. Johan Jacobs of Groupama-FDJ United, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek, Jonas Rutsch of Lotto Intermarché, Iván García Cortina of Movistar, Alessandro Pinarello of NSN Cycling, Nickolas Zukowsky of Pinarello Q36.5, Jasper Stuyven of Soudal Quickstep, Koen Bouwman of Jayco AlUla, Luca Mozzato of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Davide Ballerini and Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana made up the front group and held around 30 seconds. After 30 km of racing, the road went up slightly and the gap disintegrated. Right at the top, contact was made between the leaders and the peloton and it was all back together to start a short but technical descent into Camaiore.
The race reset at the bottom for another 40 km on the flat before the intermediate sprint and the start of the climbing in the second half of the day. Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility, Chris Harper of Pinarello Q36.5, and Mattia Bais of Polti-VisitMalta found themselves with a gap of 40 seconds with 139 km to go but more teams still had the interest to be up the road and the attacking continued. A chase group formed a few kilometers later that included Stuyven, Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Nico Denz and Aleksandr Vlasov of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Tim Naberman of Picnic-PostNL Raisin, Ludovico Crescioli of Polti-VisitMalta, Markus Hoelgaard of Uno-X Mobility, and Alberto Bettiol and Diego Ulissi of XDS-Astana. By the intermediate sprint, the chasers were 25 seconds behind the three leaders with the peloton another 40 seconds back.
The gap to the peloton had drifted to 95 seconds when the chasers made contact with Bais, Harper, and Leknessund with 120 km to go. UAE-XRG missed the move and were riding in the peloton to keep things close for the Pieve dei Santi Stefano e Margherita. Lidl-Trek helped with the chase and the bunch went light speed up the lower section of the climb. The gap was down to 45 seconds and the peloton was shattered in numerous pieces over the top and down the twisting descent.
Enric Mas of Movistar and Lennert Van Eetvelt of Lotto Intermarché chipped off the front of the peloton on La Foce with around 101 km to go. By the top with 98 km to go, they were 25 seconds behind the lead group with another chase group forming behind at 45 seconds and the peloton a further 10 seconds back. Riders were all over the road at the foot of the Passo del Termine with 86 km to go. The front group was down to eight riders with Harper, Denz, Vlasov, Stuyven, Bais, Crescioli, Bettiol, and Ulissi. Mas and Van Eetvelt were still at 15 seconds and there was a third chase group of around 10 riders including Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG and Warren Barguil of Picnic-PostNL Raisin at 40 seconds.
The Narváez group was losing time so with 5.5 km to the top of Termine, Narváez attacked and went clear. It only took him 2 km to join the front of the race which now also included Mas and Van Eetvelt to form a group of eleven riders. The peloton had finally shut down and the break was clear by 1 minute 45 seconds to the bunch with the remnants of the last chase group at 35 seconds. A few hundred meters from the top, the last six riders from the chase group made their way to the front of the race to make 17. Those riders were Barguil, Scaroni, Martin Marcellusi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, Filippo Zana of Soudal Quickstep, Brieuc Rolland of Groupama-FDJ United, and Alessandro Tonelli of Polti-VisitMalta.
The descent off of Termine was beautiful with twisting curves and a view over the Mediterranean. In the peloton, Netcompany-Ineos took the descent on and continued riding to the base of the Colle di Guaitarola which kept the gap to the break around 2 minutes. Bahrain Victorious resumed duties on the front of the peloton and allowed the gap to grow out. Twelve riders crested the Colle di Guaitarola together and started the descent into Sestri Levante with 3 minutes 45 seconds.
Near the bottom of the descent, Van Eetvelt misjudged a corner that tightened up on the exit and he could not stop in time before crashing. Zana went down as a result and Scaroni went over the bars when he hit Zana. Zana seemed worst off but all three got going again. The group split into a few pieces as a result of the crash and it was Stuyven, Vlasov, and Narváez that reached the bottom of the descent in the lead. They maintained their gap and started the Colla dei Scioli with 18 seconds on Mas, Barguil, Harper, Bais, Crescioli, and Ulissi with the fallers around 1 minute behind and the peloton at 3 minutes 25 seconds. The first two groups rejoined with 3.5 km to the top but the steepest sections were just ahead. Bais was the first dropped then Stuyven as Ulissi stretched the group 1,700 meters from the top. Ulissi, Mas, Harper, Vlasov, and Narváez went over the top together with a resurgent Crescioli attaching himself to the front right at the top with 27 km to go.
The six leaders rolled turns relatively evenly all the way to the bottom of the final climb to Cogorno. Scaroni and Barguil had made quite a recovery and were just 10 seconds off the front of the race when Mas made the first attack with 16.5 km to go, 3.5 km from the top. Narváez immediately followed with Harper working hard to get on terms to make three at the front. Mas increased the pace near the top which got rid of Harper but Narváez was stuck on like glue and the duo went over the top at 13 km to go with 25 seconds on Ulissi, Harper, and Vlasov.
Mas was able to stay with Narváez on the descent and they reached the city streets of Chiavari safely with 6 km remaining. The question was what Mas was going to do when they reached the flat run-in. He quickly answered by taking pulls which was potentially the surprising decision given how much of an overwhelming favorite Narváez was for a sprint. Mas figured out the game about 1,500 meters later and just stopped pedaling. Narváez went to the front until they reached the final little blip on the profile when Mas tried one last time to drop Narváez. It ended up being a completely fruitless task but Mas had to try. The great thing about the finish was that the course wound through the streets of Chiavari as they made their way down to the seaside and the crowds took advantage of the spectacle and came out in force
Games started once again under the 1 km banner. Narváez didn't want to play and went to the front to keep he and Mas moving. The Harper, Ulissi, and Vlasov group had closed to within 15 seconds and Narváez didn't want to complicate the tactics by adding more men into the mix. Mas did his best and made the jump with 200 meters to go but Narváez was quick to react and thwarted any potential upset with his first burst of power. He was firmly ahead at 50 meters and sailed across the finish line first for the third time at this Giro. Mas took second which was the best possible outcome with Ulissi winning the sprint for third ahead of Harper and Vlasov just 11 seconds down in the end.
There was no race in the GC group and they all came in together at 3 minutes 24 seconds. Harper managed to move to tenth overall after his day in the break but there were no other changes in the top of the leader board.