Feature

Value picks for your Cycling Fantasy Giro team

The Cycling Fantasy app prices riders based on recent form and updates every 15 days. That means heading into a Grand Tour, the numbers reflect who has been winning in March and April, not necessarily who is peaking for May. That gap creates value. A strong fantasy team is not just climbers, it spreads risk across GC riders, sprinters and breakaway specialists. Here are five picks who look set to return more than they cost.

May 5 2026 - 8:00 PM

Cor Vos

Our selections are based on our partner Cycling Fantasy, where players have a 5,000 credit budget to build a nine-rider team.

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1. Giulio Pellizzari - The value GC pick

The young Italian’s price (800) will reflect his Tour of the Alps overall win and a strong spring, but probably not the full ceiling of what he could do in front of the tifosi. The app’s 15 day price update cycle tends to lag genuine breakthrough form, especially for under 25 riders.

He finished sixth at last year’s Giro d’Italia at +5:32 from Isaac del Toro and backed it up with sixth at the Vuelta a España, then added third places at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tirreno Adriatico before his commanding overall win at the Alps. He was also third on stage 16 to San Valentino last May.

The presence of Jai Hindley alongside him at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is a fantasy gift. If Hindley is the protected GC card, Pellizzari has a licence to attack from distance, which means stage wins and breakaway points on top of GC points. Even at a mid to upper price, he is likely to outscore more expensive established names.

2. Christian Scaroni - The climber

With Lorenzo Fortunato withdrawn from the start list, the obvious value pick on the climber slot has shifted to his XDS Astana teammate at 600 credits. Scaroni now becomes the team's leader at the race, and the points logic that made Fortunato a value pick a week ago transfers almost cleanly to him.

The pedigree is real. Scaroni won stage 16 of last year's Giro to San Valentino, taking Italy's first home stage win at the race since 2022, and finished second in the mountains classification on 201 points behind Fortunato. He picked up a third on stage 15 to Asiago for good measure. His 2026 form has carried over: a devastating late attack on the slopes of Jabal al Akhdhar clinched him both the stage and the overall at the Tour of Oman in February, and he was eighth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

XDS Astana now have the breakaway licence to throw at the race rather than the points-counting role they played last year. Scaroni at the front of the team's mountain plans is exactly the kind of rider whose fantasy price won't reflect his change in role until well into the race.

3. Casper van Uden - The cheap sprinter

The sprinter slot is where the obvious play is Jonathan Milan or Paul Magnier at premium prices. The contrarian value play is van Uden at 400 credits. The Team Picnic PostNL Dutchman beat Olav Kooij on stage 4 of last year’s Giro in Lecce, taking his first Grand Tour victory at 23 on debut.

His 2026 form has been quieter than Milan’s or Magnier’s, which keeps him priced below where his stage win potential sits. With several of the world’s quickest sprinters skipping the race for the Tour, the sprint field is thinner than it looks on paper.

One stage win plus a few top fives from a budget sprinter can outscore a marquee name who wins twice and gets boxed in on chaotic days. The credits saved go straight into a better climber elsewhere.

4. Davide Piganzoli - The wildcard

The pure dark horse at 400 credits. Piganzoli signed for Team Visma | Lease a Bike on a three year deal after two seasons with Team Polti VisitMalta, and the app prices new domestiques low because their results history does not reflect the opportunities a new team setup can bring.

His pedigree is real. Two Giro appearances, finishing 13th and 14th overall, the latter making him fourth in last year’s young rider classification. He also won the Tour of Antalya and finished third in the Tour de l’Avenir behind Pellizzari and Del Toro.

The fantasy angle is that Visma will control the GC group on summit finishes, and any rider supporting Jonas Vingegaard up the climbs will pick up steady points. The team has framed his role as supporting Vingegaard or Adam Yates while developing as a GC rider himself.

As a budget pick whose role sits above his price, he is exactly the kind of value the Cycling Fantasy model tends to miss.

5. Mathys Rondel - The young gun

The 22-year-old Frenchman is one of the most interesting names on the start list, and almost certainly underpriced for what he could do across three weeks. Rondel rides his first Grand Tour for Tudor alongside Michael Storer, and the team have framed his role as a co-leader rather than a pure domestique and he costs just 200 credits.

This year alone, he has already shown that form. In January, he was the last rider able to follow Remco Evenepoel’s attack at the Trofeo Andratx. He then battled through a brutal Paris-Nice to finish eighth overall, before warming up for the Giro with fifth place at the Tour of the Alps, just behind Storer.

A rider with that kind of week-long form, given a co-leader's licence on a route stuffed with summit finishes, can rack up GC points, stage results and breakaway points across three weeks. Tudor's sports director, Matteo Tosatto, told Domestique they have aims for him of a top-15 or top-10. At his expected price, that's the kind of return that can't be matched by riders priced double.