Almost two years after his debut in a Grand Tour at the 2024 Tour de France, this May Johannes Kulset returned to test himself against the challenges and stages of a three-week stage race by taking part in the 109th Giro d'Italia, the first of his career.

Starting from Nessebar with the idea of trying to contest the general classification (something he managed quite well last year in week-long races), the twenty-two-year-old Norwegian closed the first nine days of racing at the 2026 Giro d'Italia with a deficit of 8'48" from pink jersey wearer Afonso Eulalio and a 22nd place in the general classification, the result of an opening phase of the Giro that saw him alternate between moments of great difficulty and others where he appeared decidedly more brilliant.

"It has been an opening phase of the Giro with several ups and downs" admitted the 2004-born rider from Oslo, commenting through the official channels of his Uno-X Mobility team on what he has accomplished so far on the roads of our Grand Tour.

"Contesting the general classification represented a new challenge for me and it was from the fourth stage when the unfortunate wheel change I was forced to make essentially defined the pattern of the entire week. From that moment on, in fact, we went all out every day except for the Naples stage because towards Cosenza, precisely, I had to chase to avoid losing too much time in the classification, the day after I fought to recover the lost ground and then there was the Blockhaus where I really gave everything in what was the second longest day on the bike of my life" said Kulset with great clarity, reviewing one by one the stages disputed so far.

"The day after, in the Fermo stage, we hadn't planned to attack but we found ourselves up front and in the end it was once again an explosive day for me and also for this reason, at Corno alle Scale, I didn't expect to have good legs because I was already running on empty" admitted the younger son of Uno-X Mobility CEO Vegar before concluding his analysis of the progress made so far at the Giro d'Italia.

"I am very happy with the performances I managed to deliver in stages 4, 5 and 7 and less satisfied with what I did on Saturday and Sunday but there are still 12 stages to race and several opportunities to be aggressive and get some good partial results. We'll see what this brings in terms of the general classification" concluded the promising Scandinavian prospect who, while perhaps collecting less than he expected, still has plenty of ground to gain great satisfaction.