Van der Poel by a hair
Tuesday’s stage 2 was crucial to the current standings, and had one of the most exciting finishes of this young season, with del Toro and Pellizzari managing to stick to the wheel of pre-stage favorite Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Premier Tech), who tried to break away 6.2km from the finish at San Gimignano, on the gravel stretch called the “White Road.” He was followed by the two aforementioned riders and Visma–Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson, who crashed a few hundred meters later on a tricky corner, as van der Poel attacked again.
The crash held up del Toro and Pellizzari as van der Poel accelerated, and one had to believe that the race was as good as over. But they managed to catch him with 4km left to ride, and rode past him when the usually sure-riding eight-time cyclocross world champion slipped and unclipped just after another treacherous curve, a curve that nearly took down del Toro and in which Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers) later crashed and fell out of GC contention.
The three rode together into the final km, chased by a group that contained many GC contenders, including Roglič, Jorgenson, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Javier Romo (Movistar), Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz (both EF Education– EasyPost) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). That was the reason del Toro took charge of the leading trio and went full gas, giving up the chance for the stage win in favor of putting seconds between himself and his GC rivals.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the finish line. Apparently afraid to sprint against van der Poel, Pellizzari attacked 200 meters from the line, opening up a few meters. But van der Poel caught and passed him and seemed to be heading to a comfortable win, when the indefatigable del Toro suddenly surged and nearly caught him. All three finished at the same time and exhausted – especially van der Poel.
“It was very difficult,” he said after the race. “The level was incredibly high on the last climb. The rain in the last half hour made it quite tricky, especially. But the team did a fantastic job.”
It had rained on and off during the stage, turning the gravel section into a treacherous challenge. It was surprising to see van der Poel challenged on a stage and surface that seemed ready-made for him. “I wanted to take the lead because I knew there were some tricky corners,” he explained. “The road was quite slippery, so it was very tricky to sprint while standing. I had just saved enough energy to win.”
As for the current race leader, del Toro said, “I’m quite happy [with] how things went in the final. I was very lucky not to crash on the corner. I’m happy to take the leader’s jersey. When we were together on the gravel, I knew Mathieu was not doing GC and that Pellizzari was waiting for Primož, so I just needed to finish it off.”
A bunch sprint and a time trial
Wednesday’s stage 3, 221 fairly lumpy km from Cortona to Magliano de’ Marsi, was a calm and damp affair that came down to a bunch sprint with a surprise winner, Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon–CMA CGM). He powered past stage favorite Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), who weakened to finish seventh, and held off the onrushing Arnaud de Lie (Lotto Intermarché) as well as the more fancied Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Premier Tech) and Paul Magnier (Soudal QuickStep).
“My plan was to do a long sprint,” the 23-year-old Lund Andresen said after the race. “Everyone has cold legs and we basically had it pretty easy in the last bit. [In] a long sprint, normally everyone can do the same when you’re really cold. So I just wanted to be there first. It’s one of the biggest races of the year, so to take a win here is amazing. . . . It’s been unbelievable so far. I probably didn’t even believe myself that I could take such a big step this year, but it just keeps on giving and my team is so amazing.”
The Tirreno kicked off Monday with a time trial, which was won, as expected, by Flippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers), who had a margin of 22 seconds on teammate Arensman, with Max Walscheid (Lidl-Trek) in third, at 26 seconds. Del Toro had an uncharacteristically mediocre ITT, finishing 10th, 36 seconds adrift, with Pellizzari 1 second farther back.
Del Toro raised an interesting point regarding the two Red Bull riders currently in the GC top 10. Of the 22-year-old Pellizzari and the 36-year-old Roglič, who is the team’s leader in the race? The decision will no doubt be made on one of the important climbs to come, perhaps the Monte delle Cesane (7.1km @ 7.2%) or the Santuario del Beato Sante (4.2km @ 6.2km) on Friday’s stage 5. The race will likely be decided on the steep Camerino (3.2km @ 8.9%, with the final km at 12.4%) on stage 6, which will be climbed three times. It is is the most likely decisive ascent because of that very steep final section and because it is the only summit finish in the race.
2026 Tirreno-Adriatico, General Classification after Stage 3
- Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 10:35:22
- Giulio Pelizzari, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +0:04
- Magnus Sheffield, INEOS Grenadiers +0:14
- Alan Hatherly, Jayco AlUla +0:18
- Primož Roglič, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +0:19
- Antonio Tiberi, Bahrain-Victorious +0:21
- Matteo Jorgenson, Visma–Lease a Bike +0:32
- Javier Romo, Movistar +0:35
- Ben Healy, EF Education– EasyPost +0:37
- Santiago Buitrago, Jayco AlUla +0:38