Five favourites for the King of the Mountains at the 2026 Giro d'Italia

The 2026 route offers six high mountain stages, all finishing uphill at Blockhaus, Corno alle Scale, Pila, Carì, Piani di Pezzè and Piancavallo, plus the Passo Giau as Cima Coppi. Plenty of points on offer, and plenty of ways to take them.

With Fortunato absent, the most obvious points hunter in the race becomes the natural favourite. Ciccone already has a Tour de France mountains title, won in 2023, and a Giro stage victory on the Mortirolo in 2019. Now back at the Italian Grand Tour for the first time in three years, the Lidl-Trek climber returns with a role built around stage hunting and breakaway aggression rather than GC ambitions.

Ciccone is one of the few climbers in the field who can attack on long mountain days, collect points repeatedly and still remain dangerous in the third week. With six summit finishes on the route, the terrain is there for him. 

The maglia azzurra at the 2026 Giro would be the second to his collection, and without Fortunato sweeping up points from the breakaway, this may be Ciccone’s clearest chance yet.

Jay Vine is another notable points hunter on the start list. Two Vuelta a España mountains classifications, in 2024 and 2025, underline his credentials, along with a track record of long range moves on summit finish days. He confirmed at UAE Team Emirates-XRG's media day in December that he would ride the Giro, telling CyclingUpToDate he wanted to finish it and was looking forward to the 40 km time trial.

But the asterisk behind his name is a serious one. Vine fractured his scaphoid in a crash on stage 5 of the Tour Down Under in January and underwent surgery, with team medical director Dr Adrian Rotunno describing it as a “significant” fracture. UAE confirmed at the time that his return to racing was uncertain, even if the Giro remained one of his targets. A rider coming back from wrist surgery into a three week race is always a question mark.

If he makes the start in good shape, he is probably the most dangerous long range attacker in the field on summit finishes. UAE will likely use him as a breakaway option once João Almeida is out of the GC picture, which fits the maglia azzurra profile perfectly.

The Pogačar template from 2024 is the obvious reference point here. Jonas Vingegaard arrives at his Giro debut as the clear GC favourite, with the Giro d’Italia the one Grand Tour missing from his palmarès. If he wins the race, he will likely take the mountains jersey as well, simply because the route stacks points on summit finishes and he is the favourite to win them.

The tactical question is whether Team Visma Lease a Bike let him chase points actively. They tend to ride controlled rather than aggressive Grand Tours, which means Vingegaard could win multiple summit finishes without ever targeting the earlier categorised climbs. That is how a dominant race favourite can still miss out on the maglia azzurra.

If he really opens up in the third week and starts attacking from distance, the jersey is his by default. If he sticks to a more conservative approach, it likely goes elsewhere.

The 21-year-old Italian fits the maglia azzurra profile almost perfectly: aggressive, attacking, and already proven at Grand Tour level with sixth place finishes at both the 2025 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España. He arrives here off a commanding overall win at the Tour of the Alps. Speaking to media including Domestique, he said he now sees himself differently, as a rider who wants to win rather than just compete.

At Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, he lines up alongside Jai Hindley as a more experienced co leader, which may actually work in his favour. If Hindley is the protected GC option, Giulio Pellizzari should have the freedom to attack on days when the team does not need him to ride conservatively. 

He is unlikely to out climb Jonas Vingegaard in a straight summit finish, but the Giro rewards riders who take points throughout the stage, not just at the top. Pellizzari is exactly the kind of rider who goes on the move on those middle climbs while the GC group hesitates.

His ceiling here is high. A top five overall with a stage win in front of the tifosi would already mark a breakthrough, and the maglia azzurra could easily come with it.

The 2022 KOM winner is the pure outsider on this list, but his profile fits. Koen Bouwman won two Giro stages and the mountains classification in 2022 from breakaways, and his move from Visma | Lease a Bike to Team Jayco AlUla was built around exactly that kind of freedom. He told IDL Pro Cycling after signing that, after years of riding with GC as the main focus, he wanted “to race aggressively and on the offensive again”.

Jayco AlUla bring Ben O'Connor as their GC card, but he is unlikely to fight for the overall win, which leaves room for Bouwman, Alan Hatherly and the rest of the team to go up the road. Bouwman knows how to ride for this jersey: get into the early break, take points on the early climbs, and recover well enough to do it again the next day.

His ceiling is a stage win and a top three in the classification. His floor is a quiet race riding in support of O’Connor. Both are realistic, but on a route packed with summit finishes and categorised climbs, a rider with his pedigree and that kind of freedom earns his place on this list.