Dorian Godon wins 2026 Gran Piemonte after late attacks split the race

Dorian Godon won the 2026 Gran Piemonte in 4:06:19, with Anthon Charmig and Alberto Bettiol finishing on the same time for second and third. The race was decided by a late selection rather than a long solo escape, as the break was gradually reduced and a series of attacks reshaped the front group inside the final 20 kilometres.

Godon emerged from that unsettled closing phase with the victory, while Charmig and Bettiol held the other podium places. Lukas Nerurkar, Quinten Hermans, Fred Wright, Afonso Eulalio, Michael Matthews, Jhonatan Manuel Narváez Prado and Pau Martí Soriano all finished two seconds behind the winning trio.

The decisive shape came in two stages. The early break established a useful advantage, but the peloton began to bring it back well before the final climbs. Once the race reached La Morra, repeated attacks reduced the number of riders able to contest the finish, with Isaac Del Toro among those who were active before being dropped four kilometres from the line.

How it unfolded

Nine riders formed the first significant breakaway with 170 kilometres remaining. Its advantage increased at first, giving the escape a clear role in the race, but that margin had begun to fall by 129 kilometres to go. Bahrain Victorious then contributed to the peloton’s pursuit, and the early break began to lose its control over the day’s direction.

Aless De Bock was caught at 123 kilometres remaining, followed shortly afterwards by signs that the race was beginning to place greater pressure on the main field. Manuele Tarozzi was struggling to hold on with 110 kilometres left, while Bahrain Victorious and UAE Team Emirates – XRG were both involved in the peloton’s continued work.

The chase became more organised in the second half of the race. UAE Team Emirates – XRG and Team Jayco AlUla were pulling with 62 kilometres to go, and the remaining breakaway riders were still being collected in stages. By the time the race reached the final 50 kilometres, the early move had lost several of its original components and the peloton was preparing for the decisive phase.

The early break loses its leverage

The break’s initial growth mattered because it forced the peloton to manage a genuine gap rather than allowing the race to remain together from the outset. Its subsequent decline was just as important. The change from an increasing advantage at 154 kilometres to a decreasing one at 129 kilometres showed that the escape had stopped gaining ground before the major late-race action began.

The catches came steadily rather than all at once. De Bock was brought back at 123 kilometres, while Luc Wirtgen, Davide Ballerini and Germán Darío Gómez were caught at 52 kilometres. Brieuc Rolland followed at 46 kilometres, and Valentin Ferron and Santiago Umba were absorbed at 39 kilometres.

That sequence left little of the original break to shape the finish. It also meant the final selection would be made from a peloton that had been repeatedly reduced, rather than from a breakaway carrying its advantage intact into the closing kilometres.

La Morra changes the race

The race’s late structure became clearer as the front moved on to La Morra, a 7.1-kilometre climb averaging 3.8 per cent. The break reached the climb with 54 kilometres remaining, while the peloton was on the same ascent at 20 kilometres to go. Between those two passages, the chase had continued to gather back the escape and the remaining contenders were forced to contest the race directly.

Daan Dijkman was part of the UAE Team Emirates – XRG effort with 54 kilometres left and later finished his turn at the front with 50 kilometres remaining. The continued work helped the peloton bring back more of the escape, but it did not settle the outcome. An acceleration in the peloton at 30 kilometres to go confirmed that the decisive racing was still to come.

By 20 kilometres remaining, the field was again on La Morra and the pressure increased. Gijs Leemreize attacked there, while riders at the back of the peloton were already being dropped. The climb therefore served two purposes: it provided the setting for the first named late move and it began to separate those still able to respond from the riders losing contact.

Attacks turn the closing phase into a selection

Leemreize’s move was followed one kilometre later by an acceleration from Alexandre Trouvain. Multiple attacks then came at 18 kilometres to go, with Jhonatan Narváez and Isaac Del Toro both active for UAE Team Emirates – XRG. The race was no longer about a single breakaway being chased; it had become a contest between successive moves within a thinning front group.

The attacks had an immediate consequence at the rear. Riders were continuing to drop, and the field’s ability to respond collectively was being reduced. That pattern favoured the riders who could remain involved through several accelerations, although the event sequence does not establish that any one of the late attacks created a lasting solo gap.

Del Toro accelerated again at 13 kilometres remaining. Finn Fisher-Black was struggling to hold on at that point, another indication that the selection was narrowing. The repeated UAE moves kept the pressure high, but the closing contest remained open enough for the groups behind to begin reducing the gap again with five kilometres to go.

Del Toro’s late setback leaves the finish open

The gap between the first group and the peloton was decreasing with five kilometres remaining, suggesting that the earlier attacks had not settled the race completely. That change gave the remaining chasers a route back into contention and prevented the late moves from becoming an uncontested run to the line.

Del Toro was then dropped with four kilometres left. His earlier accelerations had been a prominent part of the final selection, but he could not maintain contact through the closing section. The result was a further change in the balance of the race just before the finish, with the riders who remained ahead able to contest the victory without him.

Godon crossed the line first, with Charmig second and Bettiol third. All three were awarded the same finishing time, so the podium was separated by order rather than by a recorded time gap. The two-second margin to fourth was the only clear separation in the final result among the leading places.

A tight podium and an even tighter chase

Charmig and Bettiol were the closest rivals to Godon because they finished on the same time as the winner. Their presence on the podium shows that the late attacks did not produce a clear gap between the first three riders, even though the preceding sequence had repeatedly split and reduced the race.

Nerurkar finished fourth, two seconds behind, while Hermans and Wright followed on the same margin. Eulalio, Matthews, Narváez Prado and Martí Soriano also finished two seconds down. With positions four through ten covered by the same recorded gap, the final chase was extremely compact once the race reached the line.

The closing result therefore combined two different patterns. The late climbs and attacks eliminated riders from the front of the race, but the final group differences remained narrow. Godon converted that selection into victory, while Charmig and Bettiol stayed close enough to share his time and the next seven riders finished only two seconds further back.

Why Godon came through the selection first

Godon’s victory was built on surviving a race that changed character several times. The early break gained ground, then began to lose it as the peloton organised its pursuit. A succession of catches reduced the escape before the final approach, leaving the winner to negotiate the decisive action from within a progressively smaller field.

The decisive section was the run from the renewed arrival on La Morra at 20 kilometres to go through the attacks at 18 and 13 kilometres. Leemreize and Trouvain helped open that phase, while Narváez and Del Toro supplied further accelerations. Del Toro’s later drop and the shrinking gap between the leading group and the peloton left the finish finely balanced, but Godon was the rider who reached the line first.

Charmig and Bettiol matched the winning time, indicating how little separated the podium once the attacks had settled. Nerurkar, Hermans, Wright, Eulalio, Matthews, Narváez Prado and Martí Soriano completed a tightly packed chase, two seconds behind. The final standings were therefore shaped by a hard late selection, but confirmed by only a narrow separation on the road.

Gran Piemonte 2026 Result