Despite being held up behind a late crash, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continued his flying start to 2026, confirming overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico on Sunday by arriving safely at the finish in San Benedetto del Tronto to confirm the second WorldTour stage race GC win of his young career.
Jonathan Milan stormed to victory on the closing stage for the third year in succession in a messy final sprint, with a stunning lead-out from Edward Theuns bringing him back into contention after being a long way back in the final kilometre.
Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) had tried to steal a march in the final 7km solo and almost made it, but a final pull from Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) reeled him in with a few hundred metres left to ride.
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Sam Welsford tried to finish it off for the British team, but got overtaken by the rush from Theuns and was then unable to come back past Milan, who got the jump on everyone with a brutally long charge. Laurenz Rex sprinted for Soudal-QuickStep after Paul Magnier was caught in a late crash that also ruled Jasper Philipsen out of contention.
Del Toro was joined on the podium by Matteo Jorgenson, who leapfrogged Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) into second thanks to a perfect lead-out from his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates at the intermediate sprint, where he gained three bonus seconds. The US rider finished 40 seconds down on the Mexican star, with Pellizzari a further two seconds in arrears.
Milan summed up his feelings after the victory as "Painful and happiness at the same time. It was a really tough week, a tough day. I suffered a lot on the climbs and also today was absolutely not easy, and I think I have to say thanks after all to my teammates.
"I was upset that we missed out on the third stage with seventh place, but my teammates always support me in the race and also after it. The last days have been pretty tough in the grupetto, and they always push for me, always give everything.
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"Today we were missing Simo [Consonni] and Max [Walscheid], but they did a big effort in the last days, and Eddy [Theuns] really delivered me perfectly. I'm really happy and proud of how we finished this Tirreno-Adriatico."
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG) celebrates at podium as overall winner with the Trident Race Trophy (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
Peloton races through a quaint village (Image credit: Getty Images)
With an almost certain sprint finish on the menu for the final day of Tirreno-Adriatico 2026, it didn't take long for the day's breakaway to form, with Xabier Mikel Azparren (Pinarello Q36.5), Roberto Carlos González (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali) and Dries De Bondt (Jayco AlUla) getting more than three minutes up the road.
With two long but shallow climbs on the route, the Montefiore d'Aso (10.9 km at 3.4%) and Ripatransone (8.4 km at 4.6%), Alpecin-Premier Tech took over to try and sting the legs or even drop some of the other sprinters who would be taking on Jasper Philipsen.
Their aggressive pace on the front, which even Mathieu van der Poel contributed to, was such that the break's advantage evaporated to under a minute in quick time. With the peloton fully lined out by the Belgian team's efforts, splits started to form all over the road.
It had the desired effort, too, with pure sprinters like Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Sam Welsford (Ineos Grenadiers) getting dropped into the various chasing groups.
Van der Poel continued to turn the screw on the front group, which was filled mostly with the top 10 riders on general classification, with Philipsen sitting down in the lead bunch and race leader Del Toro being the closest to the Dutchman's back wheel.
With 2km of the climb left to be completed, Van der Poel's infernal pace mopped up the three riders from the breakaway, and he only pushed on out of the saddle, clearly looking for some more stimulus in his last race before next week's Milan-San Remo.
The pace was actually so fast that even Philipsen got dropped, curiously, into the lead chasing group alongside Milan, who were around 20 seconds down. But even this didn't prompt Van der Poel to stop pushing on the front.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) put in massive turn at the front of the field, (Image credit: Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) was the biggest name in real difficulty, as he descended off the climb with a 1:27 deficit to make up on the Van der Poel-led group. The sprinter who had best survived the onslaught was stage 3 winner, Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), who made it into the front group over the climb on his own.
After putting everyone to the sword for the best part of 30km, the chasing group finally caught Van der Poel and the leaders with 67km to go, finally reforming the peloton.
The pace was kept high, though, with a highly anticipated intermediate sprint set to shake up the GC. Visma-Lease a Bike took control, looking to get Jorgenson the three bonus seconds on offer to leapfrog Pellizzari and move into second on GC.
He was piloted perfectly to the front by the men in yellow and black, with a final turn from Wout van Aert giving him the red carpet ride to the bonus seconds. He celebrated the move up on GC before sharing a respectful fistbump with Pellizzari, the rider he overtook, following the sprint.
Following this, the sprinter's teams were finally able to take control, with Decathlon CMA CGM and Soudal-QuickStep moving into the front spots on the peloton. Not long after, De Lie's Lotto teammates were eventually rewarded with a return to the bunch after quite the chase.
Without a nominated sprinter, Jayco AlUla's Dried De Bondt and Covi tried another move off the front on the penultimate lap of the finishing circuit, but Decathlon were having none of it and quickly pulled them back in. Just 17km remained in the day, and the sprint was looking certain.
Uno-X Mobility stole a march into the final 7.5km, launching two riders off the front to try and snatch the win from the sprinters, with breakaway expert Jonas Abrahamsen scorching away after a lead-out from a teammate.
Racing was hotting up, and with the raised tension came a big crash in the bunch, taking Philipsen and Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) out of contention for the finale, with the Frenchman slow to get up due to his injuries.
Racing raged on in front with Abrahamsen still a few seconds in front. He was closed down eventually by a powerful pull from Ganna, but the Italian's teammate Welsford was unable to capitalise on his work as a late charge from Lidl-Trek took them to the front position.
A magic turn from Theuns brought Milan back into the frame, but without any more teammates, he had to launch his effort early. This gave him the jump on Welsford and Rex, who tried to close him down, but Milan was able to use brute force to propel his bike across the line first, after a tough day in the saddle.
Del Toro did slide out during the late crash as he was caught behind it, but the three-kilometre rule meant he lost no time and was able to celebrate over the finish line with several teammates and only some minor scratches.
Isaac del Toro celebrates his overall victory as he crosses the finish line with his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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