May 21, 2026
The Ligurian coast hosts the start of today's stage for 175 km from Imperia to Novi Ligure, the place where Fausto Coppi was introduced to cycling. The first 45 km of the stage go inland for a short climb before coming back down to the seaside in Albenga to join the Milan-Sanremo course in reverse. The riders will continue on the coast for another 45 km before turning North in Albisola away from Liguria towards Piedmont. Out of Albisola, the race starts the 11.5 km Colle Giovo. The intermediate sprint comes halfway up to 4% climb but by this point, a break may be gone leaving nothing for the sprinters, even if they manage to stay in contact. There is a short descent into Sassello before climbing resumes up to Bric Berton after 5.5 km at almost 6%. This feels too hard for the sprinters to get over but the top comes 52 km from the finish and the rest of the stage is downhill or flat into Novi Ligure. Will a team feel confident in their sprinter to control a break in the first half? It seems like a 50/50 toss-up on a break surviving to the line.
Race Summary
The weather has been improving day by day and today was just about perfect when the riders set out to start the neutral. Johan Jacobs of Groupama-FDJ United was one of the first attackers. He dangled off the front of the peloton for nearly 10 km before a group of five came to join him but the peloton weren't content with the composition and the race was reset. A counter attack came with four riders including Juan Pedro López of Movistar, Jonas Geens of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Mattia Bais of Polti-VisitMalta, and Jardi Van Der Lee of EF-Education EasyPost. Manuele Tarozzi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber spotted the danger and jumped out of the bunch to join the move. The five riders quickly built 30 seconds and the peloton was spread across the road. The gap went out and the move was gone which marked the intent of the peloton to control for some sort of bunch sprint.
Only 2 minutes were given to the break before Soudal Quickstep and Unibet Rose Rockets started to ride. When the break reached Albenga with 130 km to go, the temperatures were heating up to 25C (77F). The pace in the peloton was also hot and the gap had been cut to just 1 minute 10 seconds. The gap continued to drop and Soudal Quickstep and Unibet Rose Rockets were playing with fire. When it got to 40 seconds with 103 km to go, attacks started to fly from the peloton and the racing kicked off again.
Fourteen riders made contact with the lead group at 98 km to go and it immediately split again. Jacobs went forward and was eventually joined by Geens, Van Der Lee, Tarozzi, Fredrik Dversnes of Uno-X Mobility, and Jonas Rutsch of Lotto Intermarché. Through Savona, the rest of the attackers were caught and the six leaders were able to build a gap of 1 minute 40 seconds with 85 km to go, about 6 km before the start of the Colle Giovo.
The gap went up to 2 minutes as the break reached the lower section of the Colle Giovo. Movistar came forward with their entire team and had cut the gap to 1 minute 15 seconds by the intermediate sprint in Stella. Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA CGM was the first name to be distanced but more were coming. Dylan Groenewegen had three of his Unibet Rose Rockets teammates beside him as he went out the back door. Van Der Lee took the mountains points at the top but the peloton was just 5 seconds back. Other sprint casualties near the top were Pascal Ackermann of Jayco AlUla, Casper Van Uden of Picnic-PostNL Raisin, Ethan Vernon of NSN Cycling, Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, and Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep. They were all together about 10 seconds down on the peloton over the top and made it back on the descent.
Movistar continued riding to the base of Bric Berton. The group stayed together longer than expected but one by one, most of the sprinters were tailed off. Milan was the last of the big sprinters to get dropped but many of them had coalesced and, by the top, were chasing at around 1 minute. Movistar found allies in the form of NSN Cycling and EF-Education EasyPost who all wanted to put the fastest riders out of contention for the win. The extra power at the front of the race forced open an extra 15 seconds by the bottom of the descent in Molare with 30 km remaining.
When the front group reached the bottom, we got to see who all was in the group. The fastest men on paper still there were Orluis Aular of Movistar, Madis Mihkels of EF-Education EasyPost, Ben Turner of Netcompany-Ineos, Ethan Vernon of NSN Cycling, and Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG. With 24 km to go, Turner was dealt a blow when his rear tire went flat. He fortunately had a team car in the gap but was still chasing on the approach to the Redbull Sprint 10 km later. In the sprint, Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious jumped clear to pad his tenuous lead in the GC by 6 seconds. Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla nipped out to take 4 seconds and the teams of EF-Education EasyPost, NSN Cycling, and Movistar regained control. The gap had grown out to the chasing sprinters group to 1 minutes 30 seconds. They surrendered their efforts and drifted into the finish.
Turner got to the back of the peloton with 10 km remaining due in large part to Jack Haig who buried himself to give Turner a chance at stage glory. As the bunch neared the finish, Visma-Lease a Bike escorted Jonas Vingegaard to the front to keep him safe into the last 5 km. On a little rise through the town of Pasturana just outside 7 km to go, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek took a flyer. He was joined by Igor Arrieta of UAE-XRG but EF-Education EasyPost had enough firepower left to shut it down. Visma-Lease a Bike took control and everyone seemed happy to have them keep things fast to avoid any of the mess associated with a slower pace.
The plan for EF-Education EasyPost, Movistar, and NSN Cycling went up in flames with 3 km to go when Alec Segaert of Bahrain Victorious attacked from the peloton. Visma-Lease a Bike had no interest in chasing the Belgian TT specialist down and the gap went out. Uno-X Mobility seemed like the only team with both numbers and interest in a sprint and they set up the chase. Inside the final kilometer, Segaert still had a handful of seconds. When the sprint opened with 200 meters to go, Segaert was inside the final 100 meters and home safe. He sat up with 25 meters to go and coasted across the line as he celebrated with arms aloft. Cyclocross star, Toon Aerts of Lotto Intermarché won the sprint from the field of 60 riders ahead of Guillermo Thomas Silva of XDS-Astana. It was a hectic day but the GC remained as it was at the start of the day.