Stage 15 was meant to be a lock for the sprinters, but even a flat day at the Giro d'Italia has no guarantee of peace and quiet, and in Milan, it all went wrong for the fast men in the peloton as they saw their penultimate chance for glory disappear up the road with the breakaway. Of the four riders up front, Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) was the fastest, beating his three Italian companions to take a memorable stage victory.
Pre-stage favourite Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) won the sprint for fifth, with Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon-CMA CGM) just off his wheel, but it was not enough. The sprinters had missed out on yet another chance, with the only remaining pure sprint now stage 21.
On what was a very fast finishing circuit, some of the GC teams, including maglia rosa Jonas Vingegaard, lobbied for a mid-race rethink of the timing to limit risk, which resulted in the jury announcing that time would be neutralised at the start of the final lap. The GC riders stayed out of trouble as the sprinters charged after the break, and the standings remain the same going into the last rest day.
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89979 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
N.B. the bunch's deficit reads 57 seconds, as listed by the organisation, but they actually finished just six seconds after the leaders. 57 seconds was the deficit when time was neutralised at the bell.
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89979 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- On a stage that had sprint written all over it, it took just 5 km for the day's breakaway to form before the teams of fast favourites took control. Attempts to bridge continued for another 5 km, especially from Alpecin-Premier Tech, but Soudal-QuickStep, Lidl-Trek and the Unibet Rose Rockets ultimately shut it down and let the gap go out.
- With four riders in the lead – Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF-7 Saber), Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility), Mattia Bais and Mirco Maestri (Polti-VisitMalta) – it seemed to be a perfect scenario, not only appearing relatively unthreatening, but also ensuring that there'd be only one point left for the peloton at the intermediate sprint. However, that did not keep UAE Team Emirates-XRG from lining up maglia ciclamino Jhonatan Narváez in the run-up. That Paul Magnier latched onto the speeding UAE train and grabbed the point from his newly-minted nemesis seemed less of a win and more a red rag to a bull who couldn't help but charge – which may have been exactly what UAE had intended; Magnier had burned some matches that he'd be unable to use in the finale where far more points were on offer.
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