The second week of this year's Giro d'Italia has something for 167 riders still in action, with several opportunities for the breakaway specialists, a time trial, one almost guaranteed sprint, and a vital mountain stage where the GC favourites should face off.
Nine days of action so far have brought the peloton from Bulgaria's Black Sea coast all the way to Tuscany, where an individual race against the clock starting in Viareggio will immediately resume the fight for the pink jersey.
Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) currently has the lead of the Giro d'Italia GC standings after claiming it from the breakaway on a brutal fifth stage to Potenza, and has made it through the two initial tough mountain tests, but keeping it all the way to the final rest day in a week's time looks unlikely.
Two vital GC days
The cliche of not being able to win the Giro but there being plenty of places to lose it will ring true again throughout the next six stages, and anyone hoping to make a late surge for glory in the third week will need to survive the time trial and, crucially, a grim day of climbing in the Valle d'Aosta.
The stage 10 time trial is 42 kilometres, flat, and mostly without corners along the coastal road, the Tuscan ITT is set to be a big power day, where the specialists such as Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), a seven-time Giro stage winner, will battle out the spoils heading into Massa.
As the only ITT of the 109th edition of Italy's greatest race, it's also a massive day for the GC contenders, where heavy favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) is expected to take a big step in his pursuit of the maglia rosa and completing the set of all three Grand Tours.
Eulálio will defend the lead after a stunning first week in his young career, and while he'll start the day with a 2:24 lead, it's not a discipline he's excelled at in the past; he may well keep pink, but that lead will likely be reduced to less than a minute. The same can be said for third-placed Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), who has already admitted he will lose time.
By the end of the 42km, the whole top 10 could be completely different. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) and Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) are among the other GC hopefuls with great time trialling ability, and stage 10 should provide a much clearer look at the race for the podium.
Only one stage in the second week is rated as "High difficulty" in the Giro roadbook for 2026, and that is the 14th race day from Aosta to Pila (Gressan), where five categorised climbs, 4,300 metres of elevation gain, and a 16.5km summit finish that averages 7.1% in gradient will bring the top climbers to the fore once again.
Vingegaard will be the favourite to win once again after conquering both the Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale climbs in week one, and his level – while enough to be better than every other GC rider so far – is surely only set to get better as the Giro runs on. By the end of stage 14, what is already a relatively well-controlled GC situation for Visma will most likely have turned into a complete chokehold on pink for the Dane.
A great week to be a breakaway specialist
The big difference between Tadej Pogacar racing the Giro and his main rival, Vingegaard making his debut, is that the Dane isn't as all-consuming a rider when it comes to stage wins. The world champion won six stages at his first Giro two stages ago, with UAE bearing down on several breakaways so their big stat could keep imposing himself on the peloton.
Vingegaard's team told Cyclingnews towards the end of the first week that "it's not a goal to dominate," with winning pink in Rome as the only real priority. Of course, him winning two stages from nine doesn't exactly point to that, but rarely if at all have Visma been completely committed to chasing breaks so far in this race.
That became clear on the ninth stage to Corno alle Scale, where it was Gall's Decathlon team that paced all day to deny the likes of Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) from battling out the stage win on the final climb.
But these next six stages should see more of the same from Vingegaard's supporting cast, with the TT likely to move him much closer to the lead of the race, and breakaways removing a lot of their stress in the process.
Visma DS Marc Reef said winning "one or two more" stages would be nice, before stage 9, and it's only stage 14 in the next six days of racing that looks to be a genuine option, purely because of how hard the route is, not due to them wanting to increase his stage win-tally for the sake of it.
Even still, with that day climbing right out of the neutral zone from Aosta, onto the 15.8-kilometre Saint-Barthélemy climb, those pursuing the break – like Ciccone – will have the perfect launch pad to get away from Visma and build a huge gap, with a completely up-and-down parcours offering few chances to easily be chased down.
But that will actually be the fourth opportunity in a row for the Fuga hopefuls, with stages 11, 12, and 13 all offering up similar undulating routes, where those who have so far been unsuccessful in the break will mobilise.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG have been the kings of the escape so far at this Giro, winning two days from early attacking moves, freed up after losing their planned leader before the race, and their three best climbers to a brutal crash on the second stage.
Jhonatan Narváez and Igor Arrieta have won stages for them so far, but all five of their remaining riders could well have claimed wins by the time the race reaches Rome. They will be eyeing up the days after the time trial with the two riders already mentioned, but also Mikkel Bjerg – who was in stunning form to guide Narváez to victory on stage 8 – and top talents Jan Christen and Antonio Morgado.
Stage 11 has four very punchy climbs scattered throughout its final 80km, so anyone wanting to impress on those hills by the Ligurian coast will either want to already be up the road or attacking away on the first one, to have a chance of holding off a potentially active GC group.
The day after, stage 12 isn't as difficult on paper, but with an early uncategorised climb out of neutral, several teams without any success so far at the Giro should be active. It could be a day for the sprinters if their teams really commit, with only two category three climbs on the route, but the fatigue of a second week can often entice more attackers.
Stage 13 is mostly flat for the opening 133 kilometres of racing, but that doesn't mean attacks won't be flying all over the road. Any potential winner will need serious punch to crest the steep 4.7km climb to Ungiasca climb in the lead before the 14km downhill run to the line.
While UAE should star again on these days, there are several other potential breakaway stars present at this Giro: Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Ben Turner (Netcompany Ineos), Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar), and Nico Denz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), as examples.
Even the final stage of the second week, stage 15 into Milan, isn't a guaranteed day for the sprinters, despite its pancake flat 157-kilometre route, as it comes after five potentially exhausting days of GC fighting, break battles, and survival for the purer fast men.
If they can get through all the climbing on stage 14, though, their teams should be committed to the cause, and the likes of Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) haven't had a chance to sprint since Naples on stage 6, when a late crash did for a lot of the favourites, so a sprint does still look the likely outcome.
This Giro has been filled with drama already, perhaps the most of which came on the roller-coaster breakaway fight on stage 5 between Arrieta and Eulálio, so with more days for la fuga on offer imminently, more of the same could well follow. Either way, the GC stars will need to be alert to everything, so they can arrive at the crucial third week with their pink dreams intact.
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our coverage of the Corsa Rosa. Enjoy unrivalled reporting from our team of journalists on the ground, including breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage as it happens, plus access to the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.
