Norwegian talent Johannes Kulset embraces Giro leadership role

If you have been on social media over the past month, you would have noticed that the Uno-X Mobility squad has been on a long altitude camp in Sierra Nevada in preparation for a long season ahead after their promotion to the UCI WorldTour.

While other teams have been enjoying the bright skies and relative warmth at this time of the year in places such as Calpe along the Costa Blanca, Uno-X have endured weather that would be awfully familiar to them, including bitterly cold conditions and snow. 

For Kulset, the four-week early-season altitude camp has been part of what he terms as “unusual winter”. 

“It was for sure something new. My shape was really bad when I came into the altitude camp, but then we built it up slowly,” Kulset tells Domestique. “It was a really good start of the training period, you get a boost in your shape that you can build on when you come home. When you start after the off‑season, you’re pretty motivated and ready to get those four pretty tough weeks done so soon. I think it was smart for me.”

Kulset will be aiming to build on his 2025 season, where the young Norwegian picked up some solid results across the board, but that elusive first professional victory has still eluded him. He suffered a not insignificant portion of bad luck in the finale of races across the year, mechanical issues to crashes.

During his four weeks at altitude, Kulset has worked on two priorities: getting faster against the clock by working on his TT position, and lifting his threshold. 

“I've worked a lot on TT,” Kulset says. “I've had a lot of bike fits and we've tried different stuff to find a good position… and I've done much more training and efforts on it now versus before. My numbers are much better on TT than before.”

He's also rethinking how he trains day to day, ditching the old fixation with Zone 2 work. “Zone 3 is more important than Zone 2 for me,” he explains. “A lot of LT2 work, like six times ten minutes, hard but controlled efforts.”

The 2026 calendar is already mapped out, with a clear trajectory towards the Giro d'Italia in May. After starting at Challenge Mallorca, he tackles the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Ruta del Sol before another altitude block and the Itzulia Basque Country.

From there, all roads lead to the Giro. After a mid-summer break from racing, Kulset is eyeing a familiar finale to the campaign, with San Sebastián, the Italian one-day races and perhaps the Canada Worlds on the programme, while he might ride the Tour de Pologne instead of the Vuelta Burgos. “Pretty similar Autumn program as last year,” he says. “But something always changes after the Summer.”

The centrepiece of Kulset's season is the Giro in May, of course, and he is enthusiastic about the route, which sees the mountain stages spread more evenly than in recent years. 

“I really like it… so many open stages,” he says. “Instead of having nine sprint stages that are super boring and then four, five, six crazy mountain stages, they have now two or three crazy mountain stages and no boring sprint stages. It will be a really open GC, pretty close in the top 10 until the last three days.”

The start list looks strikingly deep this year, Jonas Vingegaard making his debut at the race, and João Almeida, Derek Gee, Jai Hindley and Felix Gall also among the podium contenders. With Tadej Pogačar so dominant at the Tour de France, it seems many top riders are looking elsewhere for their shot at Grand Tour glory, and Kulset believes that the fight for GC at the Giro will be more competitive as a result. 

“People have started to try to avoid the Tour because you know Pogačar, Vingegaard and Remco are there, the top three spots are taken unless somebody gets sick," Kulset says says. “As for now, probably the Giro will be higher level from, let's say, fourth place to 15th place than the Tour.”

Kulset will be get the leadership role in what is only his second-ever Grand Tour appearance. He placed 47th at last year's Tour de France. 

“As it is now, I will be GC leader,” Kulset says. “We will send a really open squad with a lot of breakaway and strong riders. Our idea is that everybody will get their own chance, and then when you're not in the break, you will fully support me.”

The Uno-X Giro team composition reflects the route's demands with a really challenging parcours with a significant build up to the third week.

“I will for sure have Anders Skaarseth as a road captain and kind of my super domestique because he's the ultimate helper,” Kulset says, while Andreas Leknessund and Fredrik Dversnes both suit the Giro's breakaway-friendly profile. 

And if the weather goes sideways? “Bad weather should absolutely suit us because we are more used to it than others, we know how to ride with it.”