Pellizzari rockets to stage win and overall victory at the Tour of the Alps

Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull) won the first stage race of his career in style as he soared to a 20-kilometre solo victory on stage 5 of the Tour of the Alps.

The Italian went clear on the final climb of the day, and descended his way to victory 0:30 ahead of Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Michael Storer (Tudor).

In the process, Pellizzari secured the first GC victory of his professional career, marking a fine week ahead of the Giro d'Italia where he will hope to be one of the closest challengers to Jonas Vingegaard for the pink jersey.

The fifth and final stage of the 2026 edition of the Tour of the Alps began with a breakaway of 12 riders going clear and included some notable inclusions. Inside it were stage 3 winners, Tom Pidcock, Mark Donovan, Nicolò Garibbo, Sam Oomen, stage 4 winner, Lennart Jasch, Mattia Bais, Juan Felipe Rodriguez, Alastair Mackellar, Vicente Rojas, Koen Bouwman, Márton Dina, and Rainer Kepplinger.

The 12-rider group was given a short advantage of just over 3 minutes, which proved slim due to the two ascents located in proximity to the finish line, and the break co-operated well until the first of the two ascents, which was the Montoppio, coming in at an average gradient of 7.1% for 12.7 kilometres.

Traversing the Montoppio, one by one, riders began to drop out of the breakaway group on the steeper gradients of the climb as Pidcock and Rodriguez pushed on together, but the freshly formed duo had just over 30 seconds over the peloton, who could feel the duo within touching distance. 

Within the peloton itself, riders too began to drop out the back, thanks to the relentless pace on the mentioned climb, with fewer than 15 riders left at the summit after Ineos had taken control.

Pellizzari was briefly isolated near the summit, but Giovanni Aleotti and Aleksandr Vlasov fought hard to serve their teammate for the final ascent, which was the upper half of Montoppio.

On the early slopes of the final climb, Pidcock had opened up a small gap over Rodriguez, but the Colombian closed it quickly, with the peloton now under 20 seconds behind.

With 23 kilometres to go, the breakaway catch was made, and it was Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe who came to the fore for race leader Giulio Pellizzari.

At 20 kilometres to go, Pellizzari made his move for glory, and nobody could match the tempo of the young Italian. Riders regrouped, including a chasing group 2 containing Egan Bernal, Michael Storer, and Thymen Arensman, 13 seconds behind Pellizzari, and not long after, Storer shot away, with Bernal latched on until Arensman fought back.

It wasn't to be for group 2 as Pellizzari flew down the descent and continued his effort to the line to win the first professional stage race of his career, along with his second stage of the 2026 edition of the Tour of the Alps.