Not just Vingegaard - Carapaz and Mas join list of Giro d'Italia contenders
Ahead of Jonas Vingegaard's expected confirmation of his Giro participation, it has emerged that both Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas are set to ride the race this year, while Derek Gee-West is set to outline his 2026 schedule when he meets the press on Wednesday.
“Certezza Carapaz” read the headline in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Tuesday morning and, well, they ought to know. Although EF Education-EasyPost have yet to make a formal announcement on the matter, reports of Richard Carapaz’s return to the Giro d’Italia in 2026 have been deemed a “certainty” by the newspaper that founded the race.
Carapaz won the Giro in 2019 after taking fourth on his debut the previous year, but he will still feel he has unfinished business with the race. In 2022, he lost the pink jersey to Jai Hindley on the final mountain, and last year, he finished third in what had looked like a two-man race after Simon Yates’ late raid on the Colle delle Finestre.
The Ecuadorian arrived at his European base in Monaco this week, and according to both La Gazzetta and Ecuadorian podcast Radio Pedal, he will begin his season at the Challenge Mallorca, which gets under way on January 28.
In February, Carapaz is slated to ride the Figueira Champions Classic and the Volta ao Algarve before lining up at the Trofeo Laigueglia and Tirreno-Adriatico in March. Per La Gazzetta, the Tour of the Alps is also a possibility in the build-up to the Giro, which starts in Bulgaria on May 8.
The news of Carapaz’s likely return to the Giro comes in a week where Jonas Vingegaard is expected to confirm his corsa rosa debut. The Dane is due to outline his schedule at the Visma | Lease a Bike media day in Benidorm on Tuesday, and it is widely anticipated that he will ride both the Giro and the Tour in 2026.
Vingegaard will be the logical favourite for the Giro as he bids to complete a full set of Grand Tour victories, but he will not be without high-level opposition in Italy, despite the absence of both Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.
João Almeida has already been confirmed as UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s leader for the Giro, and the Portuguese rider will be enthusiastic about the 40km time trial on stage 10 to Massa. He will also be flanked by Jay Vine and Adam Yates in a strong UAE team, and he pushed Vingegaard all the way to the final weekend at last year’s Vuelta a España.
Elsewhere, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have already announced that Jai Hindley, Giulio Pellizzari and Aleksandr Vlasov will all be in their deep Giro line-up.
Enric Mas is also due to throw his hat into the ring for the Giro this week, with AS reporting that he will make the announcement in the fifth season of the Movistar fly-on-the-wall documentary, ‘The Least Expected Day,’ which has its premiere on January 19.
The arrival of another GC leader in Cian Uijtdebroeks has facilitated Mas’ long-awaited Giro debut. In his previous years at Movistar, sponsorship demands had meant that the Tour and Vuelta were fixed points on his schedule.
Meanwhile, Lidl-Trek’s latest arrival Derek Gee-West is due to hold a press conference on Wednesday in what will be his first public appearance since his transfer from Israel-Premier Tech (now NSN Cycling Team).
With Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose both earmarked for the Tour, the Giro would appear to be the logical target for Gee-West, who placed fourth overall in 2026. Lidl-Trek have already confirmed that Giulio Ciccone will ride the Giro, but the Italian has insisted that he is hunting stage wins rather than a high overall finish.
Vingegaard might be the headline act at the 2026 Giro, but the undercard is an increasingly intriguing one.
