End of year, time for statistics and reviews, starting with the Grand Tours which saw victories for Jonas Vingegaard (Giro d'Italia), Tadej Pogacar (Tour de France) and Enric Mas (Vuelta a España). Only one rider reached the podium on two occasions, Austrian Felix Gall, who finished 2nd at the Giro and 3rd in Spain. Italy in the three final classifications achieved only two top-ten placements, both at the Giro: the 8th place of Davide Piganzoli and the 9th of Damiano Caruso.

There were 36 riders who won at least one of the 61 individual stages contested in the three 2026 Grand Tours, representing 16 nations. The best was Slovenian Pogacar with 8 stages conquered (5 at the Tour and 3 at the Vuelta), followed with 5 apiece by Danish Vingegaard and British Brennan.

Belgium and Slovenia with 9 victories each were the nations with the most partial successes, while Italy closes the season in seventh position with the 4 wins obtained at the Giro d'Italia by Davide Ballerini, Filippo Ganna, Alberto Bettiol and Jonathan Milan. For the Italian cycling movement, this represents a negative record in the history of the Grand Tours. The picture is completed by 19 total stage podiums (4 fewer than 2025) and 80 top-ten finishes (14 fewer than 2025).

Italy led the general classification of one of the three Grand Tours for just one day and won one specialty classification. In both cases thanks to Giulio Ciccone who wore the pink jersey in the Cosenza stage and finished the Giro in the blue jersey as best climber. A Grand Tour victory has been missing since Vincenzo Nibali's triumph at the Giro in 2016, a podium finish since Damiano Caruso's 2nd place at the 2021 Giro.

There were 8 riders who led the general classification of the Giro, Tour and Vuelta for at least one stage. Among them, Pogacar was still the best with 24 days in the lead (17 at the Tour and 7 at the Vuelta).

Source www.ciclopico.it - full article and other statistical curiosities at the link https://ciclopico.it/grandi-giri/grandi-giri-2026-italia/