Race thread: 🇧🇬 Tour of Italy 2026 (Bulgarian week-end), May 8–10
The first Grand Tour of the year starts on Friday, with 3 days in Bulgaria.
General info
On each stage, there will be only 1 Intermediate Stage (Traguardo Volante) that give points (to the first 5 riders) that counts both for the Cyclamen jersey, and the dedicated I.S. classification; and 1 Bonus Sprint (Red Bull) that gives Time Bonuses (6″-4″-2″) and makes up a dedicated RB classification.
So the Cyclamen jersey will be determined more by points at stages finishes than last year, when there were 2 I.S. in each stage.
As for climbing (Blue jersey), there are 4 categories plus the Cima Coppi which is located on stage 19. 4^th^ category climbs gives points to the first 3 riders, 3^rd^ cat. to the first 4, 2^nd^ to the first 6, 1^st^ to the first 8, and the Cima Coppi to the first 9.
Teams and riders
All World Teams will be present, as well as the following Pro Teams: Bardiani🇮🇹, Polti🇮🇹, Tudor🇨🇭, Q36.5🇨🇭 and Unibet🇫🇷 (without a single bit of 🇫🇷 in it).
The ultra-favorite is Jonas Vingegaard (🇩🇰 Visma), as there are not many competitors for GC. Actually there are many contenders for podium, but not for victory: Pellizzari (🇮🇹 Bora), Bernal (🇨🇴 Ineos), A. Yates (🇬🇧 UAE), Gall (🇦🇹 Decathlon), Storer (🇦🇺 Tudor) and perhaps Vine (🇦🇺 UAE) if he doesn't get attacked by a kangaroo this time.
Stages
It looks like it was an exercise in avoiding most the mountainous and hilly regions which represent more than half of Bulgaria.
Stage 1, Friday 8
147 km, no difficulty (50 pts), 5 km sprint zone and 3″ splits
This is a short sprinters stage, on the seaside (Black Sea).
Stage 2, Saturday 9
221 km, medium difficulty (25 pts), no sprint zone, 1″ splits
This is more a stage for punchers and sprinters-punchers. The crossing of the lowest part of the Balkan Mountains around mid-race shouldn't impact the scenario, which should be a partial decision in the last little climb of Lyaskovets 10 km before the finish, and a final decision in the last hump at the last mile.
Stage 3, Sunday 10
175 km, low difficulty (50 pts), 3 km sprint zone, 3″ splits
Despite a visit to the northern part of the Rila, passing through the smooth slopes of the ski ressort of Borovets, this should again be a sprinters finish in the long, straight avenues of the capital Sofia.
If I trust the map, the last hundred metres should be on the yellow brick pavement of the Tsar Osvoboditel bvd (Streetview link). However, the cobbles do not appear on the map or profile, so perhaps the line is placed just before them.
Monday is the transfer to the South of Italy.
https://www.giroditalia.it/en/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
If anyone is interested in a small old school cycling manager game for the Giro, go to teamtoto.de.
It's free, you can win nothing, No ads, No bullshit, No big company behind it. It's fun!
Only german but auto translate works fine.
My picks for the first three stages:
Ah, the Tour of
ItalyBulgaria!Yeah, the real Tour of Italy saw Vingegaard battling with Gaudu in late August last year. 😉
Or, previously, Bardet getting his first GT jersey. Strangely, in yellow colour. 😉
Stage 1, Friday 8
Summary: 3 hours without any racing, and a mass crash in the last km.
Tarozzi (🇮🇹 Bardiani) and Sevilla (🇪🇸 Polti) left at km 0; nobody tried to follow or join them. (I guess it is above teams like FDJ and Unibet to go for secondary classifications and prizes 🙄) The 2 riders shared mountain and and Cyclamen/RB points. They were not allowed more than 2′–2′30″ and didn't try hard to reach the finish.
Only 2 sprinters went for the remaining Cyclamen points: Milan (🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek) and Groves (🇦🇺 Alpecin). So, nobody seemed interested in that either.
The only original thing was the whole Visma team staying at the very bottom of the peloton, instead of pushing-pushing-pushing-to-be-safe-in-the-last-20-km. I've long said that's what GC leaders' teams should do, but this the first time I see it being done.
Then we might say that having a mass sprint with a bunch of... 8 riders is original too...
Stage 2, Saturday 9
Summary: no racing for 5 hours, mass crash, attack by favourites who decide to lose once the victory is theirs.
No kangaroo today, but Vine (🇦🇺 UAE) didn't see the end of the second stage 😰
Soler (🇪🇸 UAE) crashed at the front of the bunch when the peloton finally decided to accelerate before the climb of Lyaskovets, in a wide curve on a wet road with a bit of oil. It triggered the crash of many riders behind him, sliding (or flying) into the fence and its nasty posts.
At UAE, not only Soler🇪🇸 and Vine🇦🇺 are out for good; but Yates🇬🇧 also stayed in the fences for a long time and is completely out for GC at least.
Today's breakaway was only composed of 2 Polti riders, despite the mountain points to grab. 🙄 FDJ and Unibet are definitely concentrating on their 30^th^, 40^th^ or 50^th^ positions at stage finishes, that's so much more interesting.
Visma had taken its share in controlling the race all day, and Vingegaard🇩🇰 attacked in the hard part of Lyaskovets climb. Only Christen (🇨🇭 UAE) could stick to his wheel; but when the road got flatter, he blew up when Vingegaard🇩🇰 placed another acceleration. However, Pellizzari (🇮🇹 Bora) and Van EEtvelt (🇧🇪 Lotto) stuck to the Dane's wheel this time, and these 3 guys left.
But they stopped pushing at 2 km from the line (until then, the Belgian only was giving 'politeness' relays anyway). And they were caught in the last km, without even trying to accelerate again or to attack once (only the Belgian did, but he was the weakest rider among the 3).
Basically, they (especially Pellizzari🇮🇹 & Vingegaard🇩🇰) preferred to lose the 20-30 seconds they would have kept over the first bunch, in order not to give 6 seconds time bonus to the winner among those two... Which is even more ironical is that none of them 'fought' for the 6 seconds time bonus at the RB sprint, where Bernal (🇨🇴 Ineos) and his team took all bonuses at the front of the peloton just after the raced stopped being neutralised. Therefore the Colombian end up 6 seconds ahead of those 2 in GC (of course it certainly won't matter much or at all in 3 weeks, but...).
Stage 3, Sunday 10
Summary: no racing for 4 hours, but no mass crash.
A breakaway of 2 Polti and 1 Bardiani left at km 0 without anyone trying to join or chase them. The Cyclamen points were given to Tarozzi (🇮🇹 Bardiani, already present on stage 1), the Mountain points were given to Sevilla (🇪🇸 Polti, already present on... all stages!), and those 2 fought for RB bonus sprint. Sevilla🇪🇸 now is assured to keep the Blue jersey for a little while, possibly until the Blockhaus.
The peloton was so much strolling around, that the breakaway was only caught 400 m from the line! All the idiotic small teams who didn't put a single rider in the breakaway forgot that there is no race tomorrow, and that serial breakaway riders could push today without fearing a backlash for the following stage...
Only J. Milan went for Cyclamen points at I.S. Out of 175 riders, nobody else gives a damn. Magnier (🇫🇷 Soudal) leads the classification thanks to his 2 victories.