The third summit finish of the Giro d'Italia culminated in the anticipated general classification battle, with Visma-Lease a Bike dominating the whole stage in order to set up its Danish leader. It was a strong effort from the whole team, leaving Jonas Vingegaard to launch with 4.5 km remaining of the finishing climb.
Felix Gall proved again that he has the form to claim second best among the GC riders, finishing runner-up on the stage 49 seconds after the Dane who'd ridden into pink with a commanding overall lead. Though overnight leader Afonso Eulálio was dropped about 8 km from the summit, the young Portuguese rider limited his losses and only dropped to second overall, 2 minutes 26 seconds down on Vingegaard, and 24 seconds ahead of Felix Gall, the Austrian now up to third.
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89978 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89978 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- The peloton was sent straight up from the start, the Cat.1 Saint-Barthélemy climb kicking off a brutal day with more than 4,200 metres of elevation on the cards. The 15.7 km climb (avg. 6.2%) influenced the selection off the front, with 25 riders breaking off the peloton. Yet more tumbled out the back, including Christian Scaroni who was the day's only DNF, succumbing to the illness that has swept through the bunch.
- Among the riders in the breakaway were three UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders, and while Jan Christen and EF Education-EasyPost's Jardi van der Lee struck out for the summit a little ahead of the group – Van der Lee snatched maximum KOM points – Jhonatan Narváez stayed comfortably embedded, keeping his powder dry for his finish line: the intermediate sprint 54 km into the stage.
- Winner of three stages, Narváez had narrowed Paul Magnier's lead in the points classification to just 11 by stage 14, and with 12 points available at the sprint point, he had a golden opportunity to snatch the maglia ciclamino from the sprinter. With the breakaway back together by the valley roads, he only had to beat climber Gianmarco Garofoli who made a valiant effort to protect his teammate's jersey, but in vain.
Garofoli tried to catch Narváez unawares, but almost as soon as the Ecuadorian responded, it was clear there was no stopping him.
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