OFFICIAL Stage 19 Results: Narváez, Vernon ABANDON!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Giro d’Italia Gamers!
STAGE Grade: A-
I rate today’s stage an A-. In terms of just watching a bike race, you can’t do better than when the peloton is in the beautiful Italian Dolomites, and today did not disappoint. The race was a little lackluster, with a surprise winner and some minor changes to the general classification. A good day to watch pro cycling, but not historic.
Route: 5/5 GC: 3/5 Tactics: 3/5 Sprint: 3/5 Surprises: 3/5
The Giro d’Italia Woman starts tomorrow. It is the longest-running pro cycling stage race for women. In 1988 it was won by Maria Canins, la Mamma volanta. But that’s about all we know without going into paper archives. Very little exists about women’s cycling from those days in the digital databases.
But okay! Tomorrow is the start of the 37th edition and of course we play our game. If you haven’t already, enter your 18 riders HERE.
As for the men, we almost saw Einer Rubio win stage 19 of the 2026 Giro d’Italia. “You mean Giulio Ciccone,” you say. Well, yeah, but only because of Rubio. Although …
What happened was that after a number of riders had gotten into a breakaway that would never last, the rider we all expected to go to the front did. Ciccone. He was going to attack that Maglia Azzuri for the King of the Mountains prize. The first question was: is Jonas Vingegaard going to defend that jersey? He did not, it turned out. Sepp Kuss immediately went with Ciccone, that was clearly as planned. But Kuss never tried to stop Ciccone from gaining KOM points, so Kuss was there to win the stage. Which he did.
When the lead group, with Ciccone and Rubio, approached the sprint in Palafavera, we saw the two conferring. Undoubtedly they agreed: KOM points for Ciccone, everything else for Rubio. That seemed reasonable.
But, for misunderstanding or true treachery, or for other reasons, the Red Bull KM was contested by Ciccone’s teammate, Derek Gee-West. I can see why Gee did that, he wanted the bonus seconds that were also up for grabs at the Red Bull KM. But he forgot, didn’t know, or didn’t care that Rubio wanted the Red Bull KM points. Because he wants to win that competition. Before today he was tied with Manuele Tarozzi. Points at the Red Bull KM are 15-8-5-3-1. With 15 points today, he’s as good as won the competition. And he expected to get first, he had been pulling the group up to the Red Bull KM for, well, at least a kilometer. First place is 15,000 euros. Even for a pro cyclist, that kind of money matters.
Rubio was furious. With Gee-West, for obvious reasons. With Michael Storer, who had also beaten him, in pursuit of bonus points. And with Ciccone, for being the Lidl-Trek rider responsible for the agreement Rubio thought they had.
Therefore, the predictable happened: at the next KOM sprint, Passa Falzarego, Ciccone accelerated to take his points, but Rubio outsprinted him. Ciccone: furious. Arm gestures, shouting. Rubio, in response, pointing at Gee-West. “If you guys don’t give me points, I’m not giving you any points, either.”
“Fine!” said Ciccone. “Then I’ll win the stage my damn self.” And he took off, into the valley.
An incredibly stupid move. Riding through the valley to the next climb by yourself is an excellent way to lose the race. But, imagine that it had worked. How objectively comical would that have been. It didn’t work, but Ciccone finished third. Meaning: if Kuss had hesitated, or collapsed, Ciccone would have won.
Gee managed second place between Kuss and Ciccone. I don’t know why. Lidl-Trek must be convinced that Vingegaard is not going to attack the Maglia Azzura on Saturday. If he does, then Ciccone’s lead is not safe. And it was Lidl-Trek’s plan to prioritize the KOM points over Gee’s general classification: the whole time, Gee couldn’t attack because his teammate was ahead of him.
But in the end Gee passes Ciccone, which yeah makes it 200% certain he’ll pass Afonso Eulálio in the GC instead of 100%, but now they might end up without a blue jersey.
Who knows! It’s not what I would have done, though.
Today we saw mountain goats running with the peloton. These specific mountain goats are called chamois. The same word for our cycling shorts’ padding. This is something I learned today.
I told you yesterday to pay attention to the battle among Felix Gall, Thymen Arensman, and Jai Hindley. Those three were all in the group Vingegaard. Gall once again proved the best climber, staying with Vingegaard and in fact finishing ahead of him. The mano-a-mano between Arensman and Hindley was decided by Arensman: he could not keep up with the others and finished over a minute behind Hindley. The podium is for the Australian, not the Dutchman.
That sprint in Palafavera that I mentioned earlier is on the side of the Ski Civetta resort that time forgot. Here, no heated gondolas with glass bottoms. A single two-seat chair takes you to the Col di Dof. Built in 1982, it takes a leisurely nine minutes to get to the top, from where you can ski down to Pian di Pezzè, exactly where today’s stage finished. Take the gondola from there up to Col di Baldi and you can ski back to Val de Zoldo. A valley, by the way, where the lowest point is higher than the finish of today’s stage. It gives you an indication of how much up-and-down action the peloton had to deal with today.
Ludovico Crescioli was in the decisive breakaway today. He finished 19th. That puts him in 28th in the general classification. Last year, our Polti-VisitMalta team did exceptionally well in the general classification, thanks to Davide Piganzoli’s 14th place. This year, a top-30 is about as good as it gets. There’s a bump in UCI points for a top-30 position, and another bump for the top-25. Something to work for on Saturday.
Watch the final kilometers HERE.
Watch the TNT Sports highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Jhonatan Narváez abandon hurts Team Charles and Team Sam. He was on his way to win the Maglia Ciclamino and that would have been 20-ish points. Plus whatever he might have managed today and on Saturday in stage results.
Ethan Vernon's disappearance affects Team Tadej, but it's not like he had been scoring big points. I'm sure Team Tadej were hoping for a miracle day from their man in Rome, but fate decided otherwise.
Spoiler alert: there were no changes in the standings today.
With Sepp Kuss’ victory, Team Ansel did what seemed impossible yesterday: make this game close again. They took first place today, with most points from the stage, most points from classifications, most points overall, and most riders in the Top-25 (eleven).
Team Hugo finished second and Team Grace managed third. Further back were the ones that were dropped, all pretty close to each other: Team Charles, Team Tadej, Team Amalia, Team Felix, and Team Sam.
If we calculate the Final Standings bonus points, then Team Grace is leading by just 32 points. That looks more safe than not, but it is a fragile lead. It will be decided on Saturday because both teams have the same sprinters. Unless you count Ben Turner.
On Saturday, then, pay attention to these riders: Sepp Kuss, Enric Mas, Michael Storer (Team Ansel) versus Mathys Rondel and Ben Turner (Team Grace).
In terms of predictions, stage 20 is similar to stage 19. We don’t know what Team Visma – Lease-a-Bike talks about in the team bus. Does Vingegaard want to win the final stage? Does he want the Maglia Azzura? If so, he’ll get those things. But if not, then I think it should be a Davide Piganzoli kind of day. Vingegaard has said that his team worked hard for him, they deserve stage wins. Okay, Kuss today — Piganzole on Saturday?
Now, plot twist: Piganzoli is only a minute behind Afonso Eulálio. How the Portuguese rider is still leading the Youth competition is a mystery to me, and he’s also still sixth in the general classification. He’s there, but surely Piganzoli and Visma want him out of there.
I think Visma will control and attack the race so that a lead group of GC contenders will reach the final climb. And then Piganzoli can go solo, or Vingegaard will pace him. For the Italian’s win, a year after leaving Polti – VisitMalta.
Standings after stage 19:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Grace* |
2787 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
2721 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Sam* |
2469 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Tadej* |
2324 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Charles* |
2298 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Amalia* |
2273 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Hugo* |
2218 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Felix* |
1877 |
8 |
0 |
Standings after stage 19 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Grace* |
2788 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
2722 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Fran |
2639 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Amelia |
2605 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Julie |
2566 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Doug |
2562 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Sam* |
2469 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Craig |
2452 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Corsa |
2445 |
10 |
1 |
|
10 |
Team Paul |
2432 |
12 |
2 |
|
11 |
Team Laurens |
2431 |
9 |
-2 |
|
12 |
Team Kent |
2420 |
11 |
-1 |
|
13 |
Team Tadej* |
2325 |
13 |
0 |
|
14 |
Team Charles* |
2299 |
14 |
0 |
|
15 |
Team Amalia* |
2269 |
15 |
0 |
|
16 |
Team Adam |
2237 |
17 |
1 |
|
17 |
Team Hugo* |
2224 |
18 |
1 |
|
18 |
Team Zach |
2219 |
16 |
-2 |
|
19 |
Team Rob |
2163 |
20 |
1 |
|
20 |
Team Jake |
2148 |
19 |
-1 |
|
21 |
Team Kari |
1903 |
22 |
1 |
|
22 |
Team Felix* |
1882 |
21 |
-1 |
|
23 |
Team Kate |
1755 |
23 |
0 |
|
24 |
Team Jonwaine |
1704 |
24 |
0 |
|
25 |
Team Roslyn |
619 |
25 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 19:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
PINK JERSEY |
PURPLE JERSEY |
BLUE JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
137 |
31 |
9 |
5 |
1 |
46 |
183 |
2090 |
2273 |
|
Team Ansel* |
213 |
45 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
65 |
278 |
2443 |
2721 |
|
Team Charles* |
137 |
41 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
51 |
188 |
2110 |
2298 |
|
Team Felix* |
139 |
28 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
37 |
176 |
1701 |
1877 |
|
Team Grace* |
174 |
41 |
9 |
10 |
4 |
64 |
238 |
2549 |
2787 |
|
Team Hugo* |
195 |
41 |
4 |
10 |
1 |
56 |
251 |
1967 |
2218 |
|
Team Sam* |
124 |
30 |
9 |
9 |
1 |
49 |
173 |
2296 |
2469 |
|
Team Tadej* |
137 |
37 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
50 |
187 |
2137 |
2324 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 19 (including adults):
|
Team Adam |
186 |
37 |
4 |
10 |
1 |
52 |
238 |
1993 |
2231 |
|
Team Amalia* |
137 |
31 |
9 |
5 |
1 |
46 |
183 |
2090 |
2273 |
|
Team Amelia |
178 |
45 |
4 |
10 |
1 |
60 |
238 |
2361 |
2599 |
|
Team Ansel* |
213 |
45 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
65 |
278 |
2443 |
2721 |
|
Team Charles* |
137 |
41 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
51 |
188 |
2110 |
2298 |
|
Team Corsa |
152 |
41 |
9 |
10 |
0 |
60 |
212 |
2232 |
2444 |
|
Team Craig |
138 |
31 |
9 |
10 |
4 |
54 |
192 |
2259 |
2451 |
|
Team Doug |
190 |
45 |
4 |
10 |
4 |
63 |
253 |
2303 |
2556 |
|
Team Felix* |
139 |
28 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
37 |
176 |
1701 |
1877 |
|
Team Fran |
166 |
37 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
57 |
223 |
2415 |
2638 |
|
Team Grace* |
174 |
41 |
9 |
10 |
4 |
64 |
238 |
2549 |
2787 |
|
Team Hugo* |
195 |
41 |
4 |
10 |
1 |
56 |
251 |
1967 |
2218 |
|
Team Jake |
138 |
30 |
4 |
10 |
1 |
45 |
183 |
1959 |
2142 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
140 |
32 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
37 |
177 |
1522 |
1699 |
|
Team Julie |
152 |
45 |
9 |
5 |
1 |
60 |
212 |
2358 |
2570 |
|
Team Kari |
177 |
34 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
44 |
221 |
1672 |
1893 |
|
Team Kate |
104 |
22 |
1 |
9 |
1 |
33 |
137 |
1610 |
1747 |
|
Team Kent |
152 |
45 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
55 |
207 |
2212 |
2419 |
|
Team Laurens |
151 |
33 |
9 |
5 |
1 |
48 |
199 |
2236 |
2435 |
|
Team Paul |
223 |
38 |
9 |
12 |
1 |
60 |
283 |
2146 |
2429 |
|
Team Rob |
186 |
41 |
4 |
10 |
0 |
55 |
241 |
1916 |
2157 |
|
Team Roslyn |
9 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
610 |
621 |
|
Team Sam* |
124 |
30 |
9 |
9 |
1 |
49 |
173 |
2296 |
2469 |
|
Team Tadej* |
137 |
37 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
50 |
187 |
2137 |
2324 |
|
Team Zach |
144 |
30 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
50 |
194 |
2024 |
2218 |
-Laurens.