Five contenders for the youth classification at the 2026 Giro d'Italia
At the Giro d’Italia, the white jersey goes to the best under-25 rider on GC. The 2026 race features an unusually deep pool of young contenders, making it less about who takes it early and more about who can hold it over three weeks, with recent winners like Tadej Pogacar and João Almeida showing it often belongs to a podium-level rider.
Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
The 22-year-old Italian is the obvious favourite. Sixth at both the 2025 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, plus third at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tirreno-Adriatico, the latter despite knee pain, and a commanding overall win at the Tour of the Alps, and he has been openly aggressive about his ambitions since the spring.
He arrives at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe with Jai Hindley as his more experienced co-leader, and that arrangement helps rather than hinders him for white jersey purposes. If Hindley is the protected GC card, Pellizzari has a licence to attack on stages where the team does not need him to wait, which means stage wins and time bonuses on top of GC points. He was also third on stage 16 to San Valentino last May, so he scores in front of the tifosi.
The real concern is not Pellizzari’s form - it is the calibre of the rest of this list. He is the best under-25 GC rider in the field on paper, but the field is unusually deep, and the race will not be over by week one.
Mathys Rondel (Tudor Pro Cycling Team)
The 22-year-old Frenchman is one of the most intriguing names on the start list. Rondel rides his first Grand Tour for Tudor alongside Michael Storer, and the team have framed his role as that of a co-leader rather than a pure domestique.
This year alone, the Le Mans native has been the last rider standing against Remco Evenepoel's onslaught at the Trofeo Andratx in January, weathered an attritional Paris-Nice to finish eighth overall, and warmed up for the Giro by placing fifth at the Tour of the Alps.
Tudor sports director Matteo Tosatto told Domestique that the team have aims of a top-15 or top-10 finish for him, and that Rondel and Storer will go to the Giro as joint leaders rather than with one defined captain.
His first three-week race is the unknown for Rondel, with the route's long ITT on stage 10 and six summit finishes set to quickly tell us whether his one-week race form translates.
Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
The 21-year-old Swiss is the second of UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s white jersey options and probably the more developed climber of the two. Jan Christen has been used as a stage hunter and breakaway weapon through 2025 and into 2026, and the team’s Giro brief for him sits somewhere between GC support for Adam Yates and a protected card when opportunities arise.
UAE tend to race aggressively on stages where their leader is not controlling the GC group, which suits Christen perfectly. He may not match Giulio Pellizzari in a straight climbing duel, but he does not need to. The white jersey rewards consistency over three weeks, and a young rider given the freedom to chase his own results can gain time whenever the favourites hesitate.
The time trial is where he could quietly make the difference. Christen is a stronger time trialist than most of the climbers on this list, and 40 km against the clock.
Davide Piganzoli (Team Visma | Lease a Bike)
The 23-year-old Italian arrives at his first Giro for Visma | Lease a Bike, having signed a three-year deal from Polti VisitMalta over the winter. His role within the team is initially set as a Vingegaard support rider in the high mountains, but the team have been clear from the outset that he will have opportunities of his own across three weeks.
Head of Racing Grischa Niermann said upon signing him that they want to grow with him to the next level as a GC rider.
Two Giro appearances have produced 13th and 14th overall, the latter coming in last year's race, along with overall victory and a stage win at the 2024 Tour of Antalya on his palmarès. He also finished third at the 2023 Tour de l'Avenir behind Pellizzari and Isaac Del Toro, and third at Giro dell'Emilia in 2024 behind Tadej Pogačar and Tom Pidcock.
What helps him here is the team. Visma will dominate the front of the GC group on summit-finish days, and any rider in their colours pacing Vingegaard up climbs will pick up time on his rivals. Piganzoli told IDL Pro Cycling that supporting Vingegaard is the priority, with the Italian planning to do everything he can to help the Dane win overall.
Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility)
The Uno-X Mobility leader is the white jersey's pure outsider, but his profile travels well. The 22-year-old is Norway's first-ever rider to lead a WorldTeam at the Giro, and the team have been open about targeting a top-ten on GC as part of his long-term development. That target is ambitious, but it would put him squarely in the white jersey conversation.
His preparation has been bespoke. Four weeks at altitude in Sierra Nevada over the winter, a redesigned time-trial position, and a training emphasis shifted from Zone 2 to Zone 3 efforts - all aimed at building durability across three weeks rather than peaks for one-week races. Whether that work translates into results is the open question.
Kulset's floor is to lose time on a single bad day in the high mountains and slip out of the maglia bianca top three. His ceiling is a top-ten on GC and the white jersey on the podium in Rome. For a team in their first year at WorldTour level, either of those is a result that justifies the project.
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