Adoring Italian fans, turning off social media, and playing FIFA on Mount Teide – Getting to know Giulio Pellizzari, the Giro d'Italia's home star ready to challenge Jonas Vingegaard

As Cyclingnews sits with Giulio Pellizzari in the sunshine outside Red Bull’s Innsbruck hotel on the eve of the Tour of the Alps, a group of children - autograph hunters - come back three times during our interview. "I am a big fan," one assures him. Five minutes later, another gives him a drawing of a yellow flower with 'danke schön' written beneath it.

Everyone seems to love Italy’s cycling champion-in-waiting. The race ends as it started, with young fans clamouring for mementos from the 22-year-old. "Giulio! Giulio! Giulio, per favore!" The cries echo beneath one of Trento’s churches as the race leader prepares to take on the Tour of the Alps’ fifth and final stage.

He signs a Red Bull cap and reaches over to put his signature on a green Tour of the Alps flag. It is the race’s decisive day, and he is in a position he has never been in before as a pro cyclist – defending a lead, one of four seconds to Ineos Grenadiers duo Thymen Arensman and Egan Bernal.

His Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team had talked about the possibility of bonus seconds coming into the equation in their internal pre-race plan, but the man from Le Marche had other intentions. "In my mind, I just wanted to drop everybody and arrive alone at the finish," he said afterwards.

Job done, with his high cadence, pulling away from Bernal and Arensman in the final kilometres of the Montoppio climb and doubling his 15-second advantage on the descent to the finish at Bolzano.

Pellizzari started the week at the Tour of the Alps as a favourite and finished with two stage victories and his first professional stage race win, possibly the first of many, won in exciting fashion, à la pedale.

More than a confidence boost, it is also an important last step towards his confirmation as a stage race leader on a team brimming with them.

"Last year, I was just a helper, and I started the race always thinking 'I hope I will perform'. This morning, I had no choice, I had to perform," Pellizzari tells Cyclingnews in the race's final press conference. "And this makes a lot of difference. Now I'm understanding what it means to be the leader. When you have one big team like Red Bull working for you, you cannot just say, 'I don't have the legs.' You have to give a lot, and I'm learning this."

If the Tour of the Alps was a dress rehearsal for the 2026 Giro d’Italia, it was passed with flying colours. Not off the podium in his three stage races this year, Pellizzari's star continues to rise. With João Almeida and Richard Carapaz both set to miss the year’s first Grand Tour, he is the second favourite with most bookmakers.

With his Alpine masterclass, the 'Duke of Camerino' has arrived, a serious pretender to the crowns of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard – and a possible successor to Vincenzo Nibali.

What's in a nickname, then? Every great Italian cyclist is given a moniker, and most of them belong in a menagerie: Fausto Coppi was 'The Heron', Nibali 'The Shark', Paolo Bettini 'The Cricket'. Pellizzari has been anointed with something more regal. "I prefer that to the animals," he says.

Devised by Italian commentator Luca Gregorio at the 2025 Vuelta, it connects to his background. Pellizzari grew up in Italy's central Le Marche region, his hilltop hometown of Camerino devastated by a 2016 earthquake. It has a rich, proud history as the ancient capital of the Duchy of Da Varano. Every May sees a festival, complete with a Renaissance costume parade and a foot race where town suburbs compete for a sword. "Unfortunately, I won't be attending this year because I'll be at the Giro," Pellizzari adds.

He lined up at the Tour of the Alps, his first race in a month after doing altitude training on Mount Teide, not 100% confident in his form and unsure how his legs would fare.

As it happens, he had little cause for fear. He was at the front, as he has been at his other stage races this season. Alongside his third places at the Volta Valenciana and Tirreno-Adriatico, it appears that he has taken another step up, physically and mentally, since finishing sixth in the 2025 Vuelta.

"I changed. I think I grew up," Pellizzari says. "I'm still young, last year was a really hard season, and I had a lot of recovery in the off-season, almost five weeks [off the bike]. I took on all the work we did last year."

There is not just one factor behind his improvement, but several. "Everything: the materials made a lot of difference, but also the food, the training," he says. Working with coach and ex-pro Sylwester Szmyd, he is incidentally onto his third coach in as many years, having previously collaborated with Leonardo Piepoli and Paolo Artuso.

"I changed training a lot from last year, maybe that made a difference, but I don't know if I can say what [I changed]. Maybe I just grew up. These two Grand Tours made a difference when I started [this season]," he says, referring to his Giro and Vuelta showings in 2025.

Looking back twelve months to his Grand Tour breakthrough, his big memory was the gravel stage finishing in Siena, albeit not the race itself. "The stage went really shit because Primož crashed and had a flat tyre a few times, so we lost almost three minutes to [Isaac] del Toro. But after, we stopped in a gas station and had some beers – the next day was a rest day, so we could do that – and then Primož said, 'We are still here, and we will fight until the end.' I think this was the most important day in the Giro for me."

The plan had been to help Roglič to victory, yet Pellizzari emerged in sixth place himself, finishing in the same group as Del Toro and Carapaz on the decisive stage 20 to Sestriere to move up a place overall.

"I think it was unexpected when I started the race. From June 1 last year, when the Giro finished, I started to think about the next one because I already wanted to come back for more," he says.

His leadership lessons continued at the Vuelta. Pellizzari went into it going for a stage victory and switched objectives for GC after ending up in the front group after the first week.

"It was a bit not a real goal. And when I won the stage [at El Morredero], from there, my shape went down. Maybe my mind more," he says. "Of course I wanted to take the white jersey [of best young rider], but maybe mentally, the job was already done."

It also led Pellizzari to a realisation that what he does is never good enough for some people. The climber made the mistake of going on Facebook and reading negative comments after he dropped a place to sixth on stage 20, three days after his stage win. In one fell swoop, he was no longer the next Nibali to some.

"Everybody is ready to give you shit. Today, you win, you are the idol; one day after you lose, you are the shittest rider in the world," he says. "I shouldn't have read, but I'm too curious: 'We don't have an Italian who is good two days in a row'. I understand how it works from that." Pellizzari adds that this won't be a problem at the Giro because he will turn off his social media.

After sixth at the Giro and Vuelta, there is still pro cycling's blue riband race to sample. "Of course, I would like to race the Tour de France. When I was a kid, it was always my dream to win it. It would be nice to race, but I want to go there when I'll be really ready to race it and enjoy it," he says.

Who or what decides that? "Me. And then I will ask the team and see if they say yes or no. But I would like to do it a bit like Lipowitz: first Tour, finish on the podium," he says.

First things first: winning a stage race as a pro. After the Tour of the Alps, Pellizzari tells Cyclingnews that it is the first time in his life that he has achieved that – not even as a junior racer or before that.

As a youngster, it was difficult to imagine him reaching such heights. "I was born at the end of the year [November 2003], and I was always smaller than the others," he says.

"When you're 13, 14 years old, this makes the difference. Also, because all the races were flat, it was harder; I was always dropped. I grew up, got taller and heavier, and when I started to be good, I could race strongly in the mountains."

Pellizzari liked to attack from far out on the climbs. He remembers winning the 2019 Gran Premio Mocaiana, a small race in Gubbio, for his third victory as a junior. Alone in front and about to be caught, he accelerated on a two-kilometre kicker to open a gap to the chaser and won by 25 seconds in front of his parents.

They were simpler times. When his dad bought him a €2,000 Canyon as a junior, Pellizzari already felt it was too much – also given the risk of crashing and breaking it.

"Not only me but everybody was more chill," Pellizzari says. "I think my process was perfect because when I was a junior, I had a normal bike, I did normal training.

"Then I went to Bardiani [turning pro in 2022], it was already a ProTeam, but it did not have the best materials. I think it's the best because every year it was something more for me, every year I was excited. Now, you see juniors with bikes like ours. When they turn pro, it's the same for them: nothing is changing. It's important to have your feet on the ground."

Pellizzari certainly still does. He impressed with his down-to-earth nature around the public and press at the Tour of the Alps. The kid who stood as a tifoso on Monte Grappa as eventual winner Nairo Quintana passed by him in the 2014 Giro still relates to the fans. If he can sign an autograph at the start, he will. Wearing a ready smile, he radiates positive energy.

"I think I am quite balanced with life and sport. I am not too serious and not only joking," Pellizzari says. "When I have to do the right things, I do them. I want to enjoy myself, I want to believe there is a life outside of cycling. That's the most important thing – because we cannot race until we're 43 years old like Pozzovivo. I will stop before then, for sure."

He does not block out the media: before the press conference in Trento after stage four, he delves into his bag for his post-race tupperware meal and cheerfully says that it is rice and chicken. At another of his leader's press conferences, although there is a translator on hand daily, he cheerfully does the work himself, switching into Italian after giving an English answer. His authenticity and friendly nature are a refreshing change to the norm.

One journalist remarked on how easygoing he is, asking whether he enjoyed being there and talking to the media, as it appeared to be the case.

"So far, yes. Winning is always good, and it's a way to relax and relieve the tension with people outside of the team who you don't spend all day with. Maybe I still like it because I'm not very used to it; maybe in a month's time, I'll hate it," he said, smiling.

There will no doubt be more attention at the Giro. In contrast, his form for the year's first grand tour has been honed up in the rarefied air of Mount Teide. Pellizzari enjoys the purity of altitude training, able to fine-tune his training, recovery and nutrition.

All work and no play is not his style, though. As well as going on TikTok to relax, he plays football console game FIFA on the PlayStation with his Red Bull teammates, usually as Real Madrid. (Normally, it is two-versus-two, but they only had two controllers at the recent camp on pro cycling's most renowned active volcano.) He reckons he is the best.

"I always bring it, I play a lot at home," he says. "Jai Hindley is really shit. Aleotti is pretty strong. Zwiehoff is good, Lipo[witz] also."

Despite this FIFA fighting talk, there is a budding bromance with the Australian Giro co-leader, seven years his senior. After winning on Gran Martello on stage 2 in a five-up sprint to move into the Tour of the Alps lead, Pellizzari said that he thought of the 2022 Giro champion in the last kilometres, owing to their training rides together in Tenerife. "We went for it, sprinting for every road sign. Sometimes I beat him, so I said today, 'I can win'," he says.

Pellizzari thinks having two options for leadership is better than one in the Giro d'Italia. "Of course, it depends what [kind of] person you are, but I think me and Jai are really friends off the bike. He helps me a lot."

"We were on Teide speaking about the Tour of the Alps and I remember he said to me 'don't be excited if you are strong, don't be frustrated if you are shit.' This is important for a young rider, it's still two months away from the last week of the Giro. We just have to be calm and believe in progress."

The Red Bull team around him is also showing its strength. Giovanni Aleotti pulled an almighty turn on Montoppio to set up his decisive attack, and Pellizzari has also become closer with the experienced Aleksandr Vlasov, fourth in the 2021 Giro himself, during their time on Teide. "We have a really nice team, we are really friends, also because we spend a lot of time together. I think we can go, have fun and be strong at the Giro," Pellizzari says.

While Pellizzari has not done any mountain stage recon trips, he has been working on his TT position and tried the 40km time-trial stage route before Tirreno-Adriatico.

The million-euro question is whether he, or any fellow contender, can match Jonas Vingegaard. "I hope I will not be so far from him and that the Giro will be open until the end," Pellizzari said in his post-Tour of the Alps press conference. "But of course, we have to see. I'm missing some shape to be ready for the Giro; there are some things to improve."

The fine-tuning will be carried out at Schfanastal, doing a last bit of altitude training in Trentino with trusted gregario Gianni Moscon before flying to Bulgaria for the grande partenza.

Whatever happens during the race's three weeks, Pellizzari is still a work in progress. "I have to improve moving in the group a bit, take the climbs in the front. I already got better from last year, but there are still things to do," he tells Cyclingnews. "It will be important because at the Giro, you can lose the race in a stupid moment when you are not in the right position. So this is the most important thing I have to prove," he says.

It has been five years since an Italian won a men's WorldTour stage race, Sonny Colbrelli successful in the mountain-free 2021 Benelux Tour; ten years since the last Italian Grand Tour winner, which saw Vincenzo Nibali crowned in Turin. "I'm still young, so I can try to catch him," Pellizzari said in his post-race press conference.

The palpable hope is that the drought could be over with the 'Duke of Camerino'. After his final Tour of the Alps press conference, former Giro winner Stefano Garzelli wanted a selfie with him; his great rival Gilberto Simoni already got his photo with him that morning. Everyone wants a piece of Pellizzari.

"He is the hope of Italian cycling," Francesco Moser tells me, squinting in the sunshine, after handing the Tour of the Alps winner a prize on the final podium in Bolzano.

"We hope he can carry on with this form. He's a strong climber, and to win stage races, that's what you need. And he has a good team, that counts for a lot."

No pressure then, Giulio. "I just have to do my thing, I cannot think about outside [expectations]. We will see; for now, it's too early maybe to say if I will win a grand tour or not in my life. But we are working for that," Pellizzari says.

In the 2024 Giro d'Italia, after being passed by Tadej Pogačar on Monte Pana and condemned to second place on the stage, Pellizzari spontaneously asked the superstar for his maglia rosa, and he obliged.

This time round, he can win and wear the hallowed jersey for himself on his own merits. "This is the dream," he says.