OFFICIAL Stage 1 Results: Ferguson ABANDONS, Wiebes DISQUALIFIED!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Giro d’Italia Women Gamers!
STAGE Grade: B+
I rate today’s stage an B+. A straightforward but well-executed sprint stage turned into an unprecedented disqualification. Five out of five stars for that surprise, the only reason why this stage isn’t a B- or C+.
Route: 1/5 GC: 1/5 Tactics: 2/5 Sprint: 5/5 Surprises: 5/5
About forty years ago, a friend of mine was barred from starting a race because he wore purple socks. Nothing is as immovable as an official with a rulebook in their hand. The rules at the time required riders to wear white socks. My friend could not start.
Nothing is as immovable as an official with a rulebook in their hand. Lorena Wiebes won today’s bunch sprint, with completely zero opposition. As long as they keep sprinting in the 2026 Giro d’Italia Women, Wiebes is going to win those races.
A few hours later, the organizers announced: “Lorena Wiebes was expelled from the Giro d’Italia Women following a breach of article 2.12.007 – 2.2.” Her bike did not meet the UCI’s minimum weight requirement of 6.8-kilogram. I thought that was an odd weight but it turns out it’s exactly 15 pounds. For some reason, the UCI is using SAE units for their regulations. The difference was just 20 grams (although an earlier attempt to weigh the bike showed 6,830 grams); 20 grams is a tablespoon of sugar. But 6,780 grams is less than 6,800 and nothing is as immovable as an official with a rulebook in their hand.
A catastrophic mistake — by Team SD Worx – Protime, or by the UCI official, who knows. This is very rare, I can’t easily remember this ever happening. And by the time you read this, maybe SD Worx’ protested and the decision was reversed. I still find it hard to believe that her team sent her out on a bike that was too light.
The race itself was, dare I say it, as boring as expected. I got up early to watch it, no idea why because the breakaway wasn’t worth following, the scenery wasn’t worth watching, and the commentary wasn’t worth listening to. This race was always going to be about Wiebes doing her kicks and winning the stage. It was so flat that there weren’t even any KOM points to be had. Usually the organizers find a bridge or something that can function as a category 4 climb, so someone can wear the KOM jersey the next day. But they didn’t even bother with that today. This was all about that one sprint at the end.
Other than the Wiebes sprint, we’ll talk about it below, the only other highlight was not positive. A crash involving 25 riders that came out of nowhere took Cat Ferguson out of the race. I write these reports so that our juniors can learn about bike racing, and the lesson from this crash is: experience and skill matter! Riding in a peloton, anything can go wrong. In this case, though, almost nothing happened and the chain reaction was out of proportion. I have seen skilled riders deal with much more shenanigans in a peloton, and nobody crashed.
I’ve not analyzed every move of every rider, and perhaps I’m wrong here. But that doesn’t matter: the truth is that riding in a pack requires skill, and skill requires experience. Here in Michigan, we see too many riders in the pack who have no idea what skills are required. Crashes can happen, but they can also be avoided. Let’s do our part to avoid crashes, not cause them.
Okay, then, the Wiebes sprint. Throughout the final kilometers, Wiebes was consistently further ahead than you would expect. My explanation: those kilometers had lots of twists and turns. Better be in second position and maybe compromise your lead-out, than twelfth and be taken out in a crash.
Also, I don’t know how much a lead-out matters for Wiebes. She can just pick someone else’s wheel, launch, and win. That’s pretty much what she did. After the final S-curves, she jumped out of Millie Couzens’ wheel, kicked, and won the 200-plus-meter sprint. A long sprint, but Wiebes made it long for everyone.
Couzens, by the way, earned respect today. She had to fight for the third wheel behind Barbara Guarischi (Wiebe’s lead-out woman) and Wiebes herself, with Elisa Balsamo. Balsamo blinked first. Unfortunately for Couzens and her sprinter, Charlotte Kool, it was Wiebes who took advantage of that. Guarischi pulled the plug, Couzens went around her, and Wiebes took Couzens’ wheel.
That’s how you win sprints.
The Giro d’Italia Women doesn’t have the same minor competitions as the men’s edition. Sad, it gave us an easy reason to focus on a single team and their daily battles. And double sad: there are so many small Italian women’s teams to choose from. In the breakaway today were Vini Fantini – BePink, Isolmant - Premac – Vittoria, and the questionably named Top Girls Fassa Bortolo.
The latter is literally made up of girls. That is: riders under the age of 23. Every single one of them competes in the Youth classification. That is not a lot of experience or skill. But okay.
The rider in the breakaway for Isolmant was Valeria Curnis. A slalom racer turned cyclist. In the winter she is a ski instructor in St. Moritz. I should ask her what she thinks of ski lifts. If I ever meet her. Or I might ask: Coppi, or Bartali? The Italian fascination with the eternal rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali has not been forgotten: on her LinkedIn profile she greets us with the famous moment in the 1952 Tour de France when these two rivals shared a water bottle on the Col du Galibier. The date is unknown, who gave whom the bottle is unknown, but it is an iconic moment in Italian cycling. The two rivals helping each other.
I’d better stop here because my cyberstalking this rider is borderline cringe. I only did it in pursuit of a good story, but in the end, I don’t think there’s enough there to focus on these minor teams.
Instead, we’ll focus on Eva van Agt. Again, I think for the third time. For those who don’t remember or weren’t here: van Agt is the grand-daughter of the Dutch prime minister Dries van Agt in the late 70s, early 80s. He was an ardent cyclist himself, often riding to work. The genes don’t lie: Eva had the talent to become a pro cyclist.
If Ronald Reagan’s grand-daughter became a pro cyclist, we’d all be interested. This is no different.
Van Agt was pacing the peloton in the final kilometers of the race. She came from FDJ United – SUEZ this year after three years with Team Visma – Lease-a-Bike. FDJ is Demi Vollering’s team, and I assumed Vollering wanted van Agt there. There are worse commendations than Vollering requesting your presence.
Van Agt did her job today. Keeping the pace up so Vollering could safely be in the front of the race during the high-risk finale. I assume that she will be shadowing Vollering for most of the Giro. She is a candidate for a breakaway, but I don’t think FDJ will let her race like that.
Watch the final kilometers HERE.
Watch the TNT Sports highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Just three entries for the AAVC Juniors Game … we’ve not seen that since the first time we played this game, back in — 2019? As a reminder, if you demonstrate you picked riders with no knowledge of the outcome of stage 1, you can still join HERE. (I know you’re being honest if you pick Lorena Wiebes.)
Cat Ferguson's abandon hurts Team Ansel and Team Charles. Lorena Wiebes' disqualification matters much more to her than to any of us. Everyone had her on their team. Indirectly, it still cost Team Amalia because they had not selected Elisa Bergamo, who won the stage today after Wiebes was disqualified. Those points matter.
Team Charles took the victory today, just a single point ahead of Team Ansel. Both had eight riders in the Top-25. The difference was Mavi García’s five points against Barbara Malcotti’s 4. One inspired pick can win this game!
Normally Team Amalia is our sprint team, but they simply picked the same mix of riders they always do. Five sprinters: no more, no less. For their effort, they get third place, well behind the two leaders.
Stage 2 will be won by Lorena Wiebes.
In the 2026 Giro d’Italia Women only two types of mass start stages
exist: pancake flat sprints, or devilish climbs. The sprints will all be won by
Lorena Wiebes. The climbs can be won by any one of a dozen riders.
So who will win stage 2? To be fair, they climb the same Muro di Ca’ del Poggio that the men did last week, that I expected to nullify the sprinters. That won’t happen on Sunday, though — after the Muro there follows 90 kilometers of flat. This will be a bunch sprint.
It’s easy to conclude that Elisa Balsamo was the closest to following Lorena Wiebes today, but that misrepresents what happened. Balsamo was beaten as much as any of the other women. My take is that former lead-out Charlotte Kool is the only one who can beat Wiebes straight up. She hasn’t, but nobody has. But she has the same lead-out that Wiebes had today: Millie Couzens. It wasn’t Couzens’ fault that Kool had separated from her. If they get it together on Sunday, nobody can beat Kool.
Except for an official with a rulebook. We shall see.
Standings after stage 1:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
|
1 |
Team Charles* |
186 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
185 |
|
3 |
Team Amalia* |
142 |
Standings after stage 1 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
|
1 |
Team Laurens |
186 |
|
Team Charles* |
186 |
|
|
3 |
Team Ansel* |
185 |
|
4 |
Team Kent |
181 |
|
5 |
Team Amalia* |
142 |
|
6 |
Team Kari |
140 |
|
7 |
Team Julie |
136 |
|
8 |
Team Kate |
135 |
|
9 |
Team Corsa |
116 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 1:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
RED JERSEY |
GREEN JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
112 |
23 |
7 |
30 |
142 |
|
Team Ansel* |
140 |
33 |
12 |
45 |
185 |
|
Team Charles* |
141 |
33 |
12 |
45 |
186 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 1 (including adults):
|
Team Amalia* |
112 |
23 |
7 |
30 |
142 |
|
Team Ansel* |
140 |
33 |
12 |
45 |
185 |
|
Team Charles* |
141 |
33 |
12 |
45 |
186 |
|
Team Corsa |
95 |
16 |
5 |
21 |
116 |
|
Team Julie |
106 |
23 |
7 |
30 |
136 |
|
Team Kari |
117 |
18 |
5 |
23 |
140 |
|
Team Kent |
136 |
33 |
12 |
45 |
181 |
|
Team Laurens |
141 |
33 |
12 |
45 |
186 |
|
Team Kate |
112 |
18 |
5 |
23 |
135 |
-Laurens.