May 29, 2026
There have been brutally long and hard days in this Giro but none can claim to be the Queen stage, Il Tappone, over today's 19th stage from Feltre, home of Castelli, to Piani di Pezzè. At 151 km, the course crests six categorized climbs including the Passo Giau, the jewel of the Dolomites at 2,200 meters above sea level, for the Cima Coppi, and gains nearly 5,000 meters of elevation along the way. The first 40 km out Feltre is actually quite tame, following the Cordevole upstream to Agordo. Once in Agordo, the riders will turn sharply East to start the 12 kmk, 8% climb of the Passo Duran. From this point, the road only goes up or down the entire way to the finish. After the Duron, the riders will tackle Coi and the Forcella Staulanza, both 6 km long at 9% and 7% respectively. With 60 km to go, the race reaches Selva di Cadore and the start of the mighty Passo Giau, a 10 km climb at over 9%. The Redbull Sprint comes near the top of the penultimate climb of the day, the 10 km, 5.4% Passo Falzarego. A long 24 km descent down to the Lago di Alleghe brings the race to the final 5 km climb up to Piani di Pezzè. The climb averages 9.6% and, after such a difficult day in the saddle, time gaps could be minutes between GC riders when they finally cross the line.
Race Summary
The temperatures moderated slightly at the start in Feltre to 25C (77F) which was a great relief after a few days firmly in the 30's. Jayco AlUla were keen to get men up the road early but after about 7 km, Netcompany-Ineos took control and sat on the front. They led into a rise and sent a few riders on the attack but it didn't go anywhere and the regular pattern of attacking resumed.
Sixteen riders joined forces at the front with 107 km to go, just 3 km before the start of Passo Duran. The peloton weren't far behind and seemed to be wanting to keep the move close enough to send more riders into the break on the climb. The gap was 40 seconds when the break made the right turn in Agordo and riders immediately fell out of the break and would soon be in the gruppeto. Large groups went off into the break from the peloton with the best placed rider initially being Damiano Caruso of Bahrain Victorious in ninth overall at nearly 10 minutes. 8 km from the top, around 25 riders had coalesced at the front of the race and the best climbers were rising to the top. Caruso pulled along with Chris Harper of Pinarello Q36.5, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek, and Jardi Van Der Lee of EF-Education EasyPost. In the peloton, GC guys started to move 1 km later with Michael Storer going clear with his Tudor Pro Cycling teammates Mathys Rondel and Will Barta. Derek Gee's GC position was threatened so the Lidl-Trek man followed while Visma-Lease a Bike set their tempo in what remained of the GC group.
With the duration and tough average gradient, riders settled into the groups they belonged to. Fourteen riders were in contact with the front group by the top of the Passo Duran as Ciccone sprinted passed Van Der Lee to take maximum points. Other notable climbers in the group were Harper, Caruso, Einer Rubio and Enric Mas of Movistar, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike, Jan Hirt of NSN Cycling, and Giulio Pellizzari of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. They had roughly 40 seconds on the Storer/Gee group and 1 minute 20 seconds on the Visma-Lease a Bike led favorites group.
2 km into the steep climb to Coi, the Storer/Gee group were closing at 27 seconds as the peloton had drifted slightly out to 2 minutes 30 seconds. Storer, Gee, and company reached the front of the race to make a group of 25 riders. The gradients were so steep that no real advantage could be gained by sitting on but the mental weight of so many in the group was too much for Rubio and Ciccone who decided to push on with a bit over 2 km to the top. The duo built nearly 40 seconds on the rest of the group by the top of Coi but the peloton had lifted their effort and were back at the 2 minute mark. Ciccone took maximum points once again to put him 23 points behind Jonas Vingegaard with plenty of points still on offer throughout the day.
In almost no time, Rubio and Ciccone started the more level climb of the Forcella Staulanza up through the wooden and stone chalets. The high rocky peaks of the jagged Dolomites loomed over Ciccone as he took another 18 points at the top. Rubio had been challenging but he and Ciccone must have come to some agreement because they rolled over the top together with the same goal of holding the rest of the race off for as long as possible. The Storer/Gee chase group was only 20 seconds back with Harper in the middle after having attacked right near the top.
Harper and Ludovico Crescioli of Polti-VisitMalta joined Rubio and Ciccone about 4 km from the start of the Passo Giau but the rest of the chase was closing at just 15 seconds. The two groups rejoined at the bottom and riders dropped away quickly when the road tipped up. With 6 km to climb, eleven riders were still in the front group which consisted of Ciccone, Rubio, Caruso, Gee, Storer, Hirt, Harper, Pellizzari, Kuss, Rondel, and Embret Svestad-Bårdseng of Netcompany-Ineos. There were less than twenty remaining in the peloton as Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were sharing the pace making with Visma-Lease a Bike.
The fight for the Cima Coppi kicked off when Pellizzari attacked about 3 km from the top. Ciccone and Rubio followed but only Ciccone could handle the pace after the initial acceleration. The group blew up with 2 km to climb as Kuss made his bid to join the front. The American did so in about 500 meters after picking up Rubio and bringing him along for the ride. Gee and Storer came across with 1 km to climb to make six at the front and the group started to look at each other with such a prestigious prize of the Cima Coppi on offer. Gee was riding for GC time and decided to set his pace towards the top to keep the group moving. Ciccone pounced 100 meters from the top and no one had the acceleration to match and it was the Italian that took the 50 points and the Cima Coppi. All of the accelerations had extended their gap to 2 minutes 30 seconds back to the peloton. There were still 49 kilometers to ride but if the situation remained status-quo for a while longer, the break was hoping to have the stage to play for.
Visma-Lease a Bike rode conservatively on the descent and the gap was out to 3 minutes at the start of the Passo Falzarego. Decathlon CMA CGM still had a few riders for Felix Gall and they were forced to start riding in the peloton because Gee and Storer had both overtaken Gall in the GC, pushing him to virtual fifth on the road. 3 km from the top, Gee accelerated for the Redbull Sprint at 32 km to go and took 6 seconds with Storer behind for 4 seconds. Rubio was leading that competition overall and was not pleased that Gee just took the prize. In Rubio's mind, he was only there for a stage win but was cooperating with the GC riders and assumed the Redbull Sprint was his. Rubio got his payback on Lidl-Trek at the top of the Passo Falzarego. He jumped Ciccone and took the mountains points purely out of spite and there was real frustration from Ciccone. If there was any saving grace, they still had 3 minutes starting the 20+ km descent and Ciccone was fueled with a low-level rage that saw him bomb down the first section of the technical downhill that no one could follow.
When the descent flattened out with 9 km to go, Ciccone had built a 1 minute 10 second lead to the rest of the break but the peloton had closed in, under pressure from Svestad-Bårdsen for Netcompany-Ineos, to 2 minutes 30 seconds which put Thymen Arensman and Felix Gall safely back in the podium spots. The problem with Ciccone up the road was that Gee could not ride and since Gee was not riding, many of the others in the group wouldn't ride either. As a result, the gap for Gee and Storer had disintegrated to 1 minute 15 seconds by the start of Piani di Pezzè with 5 km to go.
Ciccone did a good job holding his ground in the first kilometer but the consistently steep gradients were starting to bite. When he went through 3 km to go, Gee, Pellizzari, and Kuss were at 35 seconds but the rest of the GC favorites were coming. Gregor Mühlberger was pulling hard for Gall at 90 seconds and the group was reduced to just Gall, Vingegaard and his teammate Davide Piganzoli, Arensman, and Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. Gall attacked moments later and only Vingegaard could stay on the wheel. The gap continued to close in and with 2.2 km remaining, Ciccone was caught and passed by Kuss who spent no time sitting on the Italian. He danced out of the saddle and the speed differential was striking as the American went up the road. Meanwhile behind, Gall was setting his pace but it had stabilized around 55 seconds to Kuss which allowed Hindley to make his way back on. Crucially, Arensman was not present and Pellizzari, who had dropped back from the break, was pulling Hindley, Gall, and Vingegaard clear of the Dutchman and moving Hindley on to the virtual GC podium.
Kuss had enough energy to hold off a resurgent Gee and he came into the finish straight bobbing from the effort but victorious in his toil. He scored the win which put him in the illustrious club of stage winners in all three Grand Tours and also gave him the Trofeo Vincenzo Torriani for winning the stage with the Cima Coppi. Gee concluded his personal time trial and finished just 13 seconds behind Kuss to take second place but he was focused on the time gaps back to the other GC contenders. Before the favorites arrived however, Ciccone crept in to take third, a consolation prize for yet another day long break. When Gall led Vingegaard across the line, the gap was 39 seconds with Hindley just behind at 43 seconds. Another 1 minute 2 seconds passed before Arensman crossed the line with Afonso Eulálio a further 40 seconds adrift.
After everyone came home and the times were tabulated, the GC looked different than it had in the morning. Vingegaard and Gall firmly hold the top two spots but Hindley jumped to third at 5 minutes 4 seconds, 1 minute 1 second behind Gall. Arensman dropped a spot to fourth at 5 minutes 33 seconds and Gee is now fifth after a swashbuckling ride and sits at 6 minutes 31 seconds.