From pee bidon gate to the grinta of Eulálio - 7 things we’ll remember from the 2026 Giro d’Italia

The start on Blockhaus still carried a little uncertainty, but by the time the Giro finished on Piancavallo three weeks later, Jonas Vingegaard had the race firmly in his grip.

Five stage wins and a lead of more than five minutes over his closest challenger Felix Gall made for an outstanding report card, especially as the Dane never seemed to have gone to his absolute limit to achieve it.

With his Giro victory, Vingegaard became only the eighth rider in cycling history to win all three Grand Tours, completing the so called Grand Tour Treble.

He did it with an impressively strong Visma | Lease a Bike team, in which every rider seemed to deliver, despite the early loss of Wilco Kelderman after a crash. Vingegaard and Visma always appeared to have a plan, and almost always executed it to perfection.

The desired result followed: winning the Giro, joining one of cycling’s most exclusive clubs and, as the Visma | Lease a Bike rider himself suggested, doing it in a way that did not bring him to his knees.

Paul Magnier was, of course, not an unknown name before the Giro. His star had already been rising after 19 victories, mostly in smaller races, in 2025. In the opening months of 2026, however, things had not quite clicked yet, with only two wins in the Volta ao Algarve.

Even so, the Soudal Quick-Step rider was certainly regarded as one of the faster men in the peloton. But in the sprinting hierarchy, he was not the outright top favourite, and there was still a question over whether he could also do it in a Grand Tour.

How different things look three weeks later. The 22-year-old Frenchman won three stages and claimed the points jersey, turning a promising Giro debut into a breakthrough at the highest level.

Magnier struck early in Bulgaria with two stage wins, which immediately gave him a strong position in the points classification as well.

His third victory was the most impressive. On the day of the Muro di Ca’ del Poggio, he managed to stay close to the front over the decisive climbs before being guided to victory by teammate Jasper Stuyven. It was also the day on which he made the decisive move in the battle for the maglia ciclamino with Jonathan Narváez.

On paper, it had looked more like a day for Narváez, with the muri suiting the Ecuadorian and the difficult final week still offering him opportunities to collect points. But Magnier turned the race in his favour there.

Narváez would eventually leave the Giro injured after a crash with a bus, but in the end that did not change the story of the points classification. Magnier had simply proved to be the strongest.

What comes next? Not the Tour de France, at least not this year. Magnier himself clearly pointed towards teammate Tim Merlier for July. But one way or another, this Giro made one thing clear: these will not be Paul Magnier’s last Grand Tour wins.

It was not just one stage. On several days, Tim Rex pulled the peloton for Visma | Lease a Bike like a steam locomotive.

The 22-year-old Belgian domestique seemed almost tireless, even when the road started to rise and he had to drag his 1.90 metre frame uphill, shoulders rocking from side to side.

They became some of the most striking images of the Giro: Rex, nicknamed T-Rex, emptying the last part of his tank for the team before swinging off and almost parking himself across the climb.

His work was one of the reasons Visma achieved a perfect six out of six in the Giro’s mountain stages, with five wins for Jonas Vingegaard and one for Sepp Kuss. Thanks in part to Rex’s brutal pulls, the breakaway always remained within reach.

It will be interesting to see how Rex, the younger brother of Soudal Quick-Step rider Laurenz Rex, develops from here. One thing became very clear in this Giro: he has a huge engine, and one that could prove valuable in several different roles.

For those who follow the sport closely, the 24-year-old Eulálio was not an unknown name. Last year, at the brutally hard World Championships in Rwanda, the Portuguese rider finished an impressive ninth, more than seven minutes behind Tadej Pogačar. It was not a result that screamed superstar, but it was an important signal of his potential.

Eulálio made his move by getting into the breakaway on stage 5, where he was eventually beaten by Igor Arrieta after a chaotic finale, more on that later in this feature. But he did take the pink jersey, and with a lead of more than six minutes over the favourites.

At that point, we already wrote that some GC contenders might have given him too much time. In the end, that may well have been right. From there, Eulálio gradually lost parts of his advantage in every mountain stage and in the time trial, slipping down the overall standings bit by bit.

Still, he never disappeared. He eventually finished sixth overall and claimed the white jersey, helped in part by a disappointing Giro from Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

What will stay with us from the Bahrain Victorious is his fighting spirit, his grinta, and the way he kept going on the climbs, always trying to limit the damage as much as possible.

There is a good chance the GC contenders will not give him six minutes again next time.

It certainly felt like it in Potenza on stage 5.

Igor Arrieta and Afonso Eulálio looked set for a fairly straightforward two up battle after going clear from a strong breakaway, with the Portuguese rider also riding himself into the maglia rosa. But then the Giro did what the Giro often does: it turned everything upside down.

First, Arrieta crashed on a wet corner with just over 13 kilometres to go, seemingly handing Eulálio both the stage win and the race lead. A few kilometres later, Eulálio hit the deck himself, allowing Arrieta to make his way back to the front. And even that was not the final twist, because inside the last two kilometres Arrieta misjudged a corner and went off course.

At that point, it really should have been over. But somehow, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider dragged himself back one more time, caught Eulálio in the final few hundred metres and came past him in the closing straight, in a finish that had more than a hint of Mathieu van der Poel’s 2019 Amstel Gold Race comeback.

For Arrieta, it was a first Grand Tour stage win he will never forget. For Eulálio, there was the consolation of pink. For everyone watching, it was pure Giro chaos at its absolute best.

Never a dull moment with Victor Campenaerts. Jonas Vingegaard’s super domestique at Visma | Lease a Bike was once again invaluable on the road, but he also became one of the characters of the race off the bike, thanks to his vlogs.

The highlight? Pee bidon gate. After stage 9, the jury announced that riders were no longer allowed to urinate into bidons. Several riders quickly pointed to Campenaerts as the inventor of the bidon trick, something which he addressed in his own unmistakable style in his vlog, together with Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard.

Ironically, Campenaerts was fined in stage 19 for urinating in a public place after his trick had been taken away from him. 

Let’s hope Visma | Lease a Bike allows him to keep riding at least two Grand Tours a year.

And finally, the much discussed 'U turn' in stage 6 in Naples. After the spectacle between Arrieta and Eulálio the day before, there was plenty to talk about again the next day. Even before the stage, riders and teams had already warned about the 180 degree turn on the cobblestones.

And, of course, you can almost predict what happens next: it started raining. The peloton came storming into the corner at full speed, with Elmar Reinders and Dylan Groenewegen leading the way. Unibet Rose Rockets were perfectly positioned for a historic victory, but they slid out, taking almost all the other favourites with them.

The first riders to stay upright? Davide Ballerini of XDS Astana and Jasper Stuyven of Soudal Quick Step, with the Italian proving the fastest of the two.

Naturally, there was plenty of debate after the stage. Jonathan Milan was furious: “Yeah, I really don't get why we have to try to find these complicated finishes. I really don’t get it,” he said. Other riders also described the corner and the detour over the cobblestones as unnecessary.

But in many ways, it was a fitting end to a first week of the Giro that had already delivered more than its share of drama.