Sepp Kuss completed his Grand Tour stage-win set with victory on stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia 2026, attacking from the breakaway on the final climb to Alleghe – Piani di Pezzè before riding past Giulio Ciccone and holding off the general classification contenders behind. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider had spent much of the race working for Jonas Vingegaard, but on the queen stage he was given his own chance and finished it with authority.
Derek Gee-West finished second after a bold day in the breakaway, while Ciccone held on for third after an aggressive ride that also moved him into the blue mountains jersey. Felix Gall sprinted to fourth ahead of Vingegaard, with Jai Hindley sixth after a decisive late push that moved him ahead of Thymen Arensman and onto the provisional Giro podium.
Vingegaard retained the maglia rosa and never looked under serious pressure, but the 151-kilometre stage from Feltre to Alleghe still delivered one of the most dramatic GC days of the race. The fight behind him sharpened across the Passo Duran, Coi, Forcella Staulanza, Passo Giau, Passo Falzarego and the final climb to Piani di Pezzè, with Arensman losing third overall and Afonso Eulálio sliding further down the standings.
Narváez abandons as the breakaway battle takes time to settle
The stage began with immediate attacks on draggy roads, but nothing stuck easily. Netcompany Ineos briefly took control through Filippo Ganna, discouraging moves before sending riders up the road, while Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe also tried to place men in the early action.
A major storyline ended before the race had properly taken shape. Jhonatan Narváez, one of the standout riders of the Giro and Magnier’s closest rival in the points classification, dropped back early and later abandoned. It ended his ciclamino challenge and left Magnier in a far stronger position to carry the jersey towards Rome.
The fight for the break continued for more than 20 kilometres. Chris Harper was one of the key riders trying to establish a move, and after several failed attempts a front group began to form with Harper, Florian Stork, Niklas Denz, Johannes Kulset and Fredrik Dversnes. A larger chase group then bridged, containing riders such as Mikkel Bjerg, Jan Christen, Andrea Rota, Iván García Cortina, Guillermo Thomas Silva, Gijs Leemreize, Lorenzo Crescioli, Manuele Tarozzi and Alessandro Tonelli.
The race was still not fully settled, because the first major climb, the Passo Duran, immediately began to break apart the front of the race and invited stronger climbers to join from the peloton.
Ciccone and Rubio turn the stage into a mountains battle
Lidl-Trek were central to the early climbing phase. Ciccone and his teammates pushed clear from the peloton, while Kuss, Enric Mas, Einer Rubio, Jardi Christiaan van der Lee, Damiano Caruso and others became part of a front group that rapidly evolved into the day’s key move.
Ciccone had a clear objective. He needed mountain points to take the blue jersey from Vingegaard, and with a huge haul available across the queen stage, he raced the early climbs with urgency. On the Passo Duran, he beat Van der Lee and Rubio to the summit, taking 40 points and moving much closer to the classification lead.
Behind, the GC race began to stir. Michael Storer and Gee-West attacked from the peloton, both conscious of their overall positions and the opportunity to move up as the break gained time. Their move complicated the day for the riders ahead of them on GC, especially Eulálio, Hindley, Arensman and Gall.
By the descent after the Passo Duran, the break had grown again, with Gee-West, Storer, Mathys Rondel, Will Barta, David de la Cruz, Darren Rafferty, Juan Pedro López, Lorenzo Milesi, Matteo Sobrero and Stork among those joining the leading group.
Photo Credit: RCSGee-West and Storer threaten the GC order
The Coi climb, 5.8 kilometres at 9.4 per cent, made the race far more serious. Ciccone and Rubio attacked out of the break and began their repeated contest for mountain points. Ciccone again won the sprint at the summit, further reducing Vingegaard’s advantage in the blue jersey standings.
The front group was now doing more than contesting the stage. Gee-West and Storer were climbing strongly enough to threaten the top of the GC, and at one point their advantage pushed Gee-West onto the virtual podium. Storer also moved ahead of Eulálio on the road, while Caruso’s presence up front added another layer of pressure.
Visma continued to ride steady tempo in the peloton rather than panic. Tim Rex did much of the work, keeping Vingegaard protected while allowing the race up the road to place pressure on his rivals. For the pink jersey, the situation was manageable. For those fighting behind him, it was much more uncomfortable.
On the Forcella Staulanza, Ciccone continued his mountains push. Rubio opted not to sprint that time, and Ciccone took maximum points again. Van der Lee, who had been in the mountains fight earlier in the Giro, was absorbed by the peloton and could no longer match Ciccone and Rubio in the high mountains.
Passo Giau reshapes the stage
The Passo Giau, the Cima Coppi of the 2026 Giro, was the first true queen-stage moment. The break began to fragment, with riders such as Mas, Poels, Stork and De la Cruz quickly dropped as the gradient took effect.
Lidl-Trek used numbers smartly, with Sobrero setting tempo for Ciccone and Gee-West. Rubio, Pellizzari, Kuss, Caruso, Storer and Hirt all remained involved, while the peloton was reduced to around 20 riders behind. Eulálio was still hanging on, although visibly under pressure.
Pellizzari attacked near the summit, with Ciccone and Rubio immediately following because of the Cima Coppi points. Kuss then bridged across, and Gee-West and Storer worked their way back towards the front. Ciccone ultimately won the sprint over the top, taking the prestige of the highest point of the Giro and a decisive 50-point haul in the mountains classification.
That move put him into the virtual blue jersey. It also left the stage finely balanced, with Kuss now in the front group and Visma holding a valuable card up the road while Vingegaard remained protected behind.
Rubio frustrates Ciccone before Kuss takes over
On the Passo Falzarego, Gee-West and Storer continued to fight for seconds, while Ciccone, Rubio, Kuss, Pellizzari, Caruso and Hirt stayed in the lead group. The Red Bull Kilometre brought another small but meaningful GC skirmish, with Gee-West taking 6 bonus seconds and Storer 4, prompting frustration from Rubio, who also had an interest in that classification.
The tension between the breakaway riders grew as overlapping objectives began to clash. Ciccone wanted mountain points and possibly the stage, Gee-West wanted GC time, Storer wanted to move up overall, Rubio was fighting for KOM points and bonus seconds, and Kuss had his own chance to win the stage for Visma.
At the summit of the Passo Falzarego, Rubio finally got one over Ciccone, beating him to the KOM points. Ciccone reacted angrily, then carried on alone over the top, using the descent to open a gap. For a while, it looked as though Lidl-Trek might salvage a stage win after a difficult Giro.
Ciccone built his lead to more than a minute on the descent, while the Gee-West and Storer group began to lose ground. Behind, Netcompany Ineos and Decathlon helped bring the peloton closer, keeping Arensman and Gall’s GC positions alive.
Kuss flies past Ciccone on the final climb
Ciccone began the final 5-kilometre climb to Piani di Pezzè with just over a minute on the chasers and 2:15 on the peloton. The gradient, averaging close to 10 per cent, quickly exposed who had the legs left after a brutal day in the Dolomites.
Kuss and Pellizzari went clear from the chase group, with Gee-West later coming across. In the peloton, Decathlon and Netcompany Ineos tightened the race, and Eulálio was dropped. The GC group was reduced to the key riders, with Gall, Vingegaard, Arensman, Hindley and Piganzoli all still present before the final attacks.
Gall made the first serious GC move. Vingegaard followed immediately, sitting on the Austrian’s wheel with Kuss ahead and no need to contribute. Hindley was briefly distanced, but Pellizzari dropped back into support mode and dragged the Australian back towards the pink jersey group.
Ahead, Kuss was climbing fastest. He dropped Pellizzari and Gee-West, then caught Ciccone with 2.2 kilometres remaining and went straight past. The stage win shifted in an instant. Ciccone, after fighting all day, had nothing left to answer with.
Photo Credit: RCSHindley moves past Arensman as Vingegaard stays calm
The final kilometre brought the decisive change in the podium battle. Arensman lost contact with the Vingegaard group, while Hindley had Pellizzari working for him and then took over once his teammate was spent. That effort proved enough to move the Australian above Arensman on GC.
Kuss continued alone to the finish, visibly tired but clear enough to savour the moment. He crossed the line to complete the Grand Tour set of stage victories, adding a Giro win to his Tour de France stage victory in 2021 and his Vuelta stage wins.
Gee-West finished second, around 13 seconds down, while Ciccone just held on for third. Gall sprinted to fourth ahead of Vingegaard, with Hindley losing only a couple of seconds in sixth. Arensman arrived at 1:45, enough to lose third overall to Hindley, while Eulálio finished at 2:25 but appeared to defend the white jersey from Piganzoli.
The day also reshaped the rest of the top 10. Gee-West moved ahead of Eulálio into fifth overall but fell 58 seconds short of Arensman in fourth. Storer remained seventh but closed to within 24 seconds of Eulálio. Ben O’Connor dropped out of the top 10, with Egan Bernal moving into 10th.
Ciccone takes blue as Vingegaard keeps control
Vingegaard did not need to attack. He followed Gall when required, stayed calm when Lidl-Trek and the breakaway applied pressure, and finished with his maglia rosa untouched. His lead over Gall remains 4:03, with one final mountain stage still to come.
Ciccone, despite missing the stage win, left with a major prize. His aggressive riding across the Passo Duran, Coi, Forcella Staulanza, Passo Giau and Passo Falzarego moved him to 273 points in the mountains classification, well clear of Vingegaard on 216. Rubio sits third with 164, ahead of Van der Lee and Gall.
The queen stage delivered on several fronts. Kuss won for himself after weeks of service, Ciccone took control of the mountains classification, Hindley moved onto the podium, and Vingegaard looked as secure as ever. It was chaotic, layered and relentless, exactly the kind of stage the Giro had been building towards.
Giro d’Italia 2026 stage 19 result
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Main photo credit: Getty
