The 2026 Giro after three days: where do the GC contenders stand?

Starting with the abandons, stage 2 was a disaster for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. In the high-speed mass crash, the team lost three key riders: Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler. With Yates and Vine out, UAE have immediately lost their two main GC cards, leaving the pressure on the shoulders of young Jan Christen.

Bahrain Victorious also saw their original plan fall apart. Before the race, much of their GC hope was built around Santiago Buitrago, with sports director Gorazd Štangelj targeting a strong overall result for the Colombian.

“We say top five is achievable. I believe we will be happy with the places between fifth and eighth,” Štangelj said on the Domestique Hotseat. “This is somewhere we belong, looking at the start list. It is not impossible to be fifth, I would say.”

That plan is now in the bin as well. The question is whether Bahrain Victorious can still lean on good old Damiano Caruso for a GC result in what is his final Giro d’Italia.

The stage 2 crash also created gaps in the general classification. The main casualty was Lidl-Trek rider Derek Gee, who lost more than a minute. The same goes for Aleksandr Vlasov, although Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have not presented him as their main GC option, with the team instead focusing on Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley.

Sepp Kuss also lost a minute for Visma | Lease a Bike. The American is primarily in Bulgaria to support Jonas Vingegaard, although the team management had not ruled out a strong GC result for him before the race.

There were also a few small winners. Netcompany Ineos riders Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman picked up four and six bonus seconds respectively on stage 2, while Lidl-Trek’s Giulio Ciccone also collected four bonus seconds.

The next real test for the general classification is expected to come in the 244-kilometre monster stage, with its brutal summit finish on Blockhaus. 

But that does not mean the Giro will stay quiet until then. As the opening days have already shown, an unexpected situation can appear at any moment, and the GC contenders will need to stay alert.