“I learnt far more from when things went wrong” - Giulio Pellizzari reflects on painful Giro collapse as Red Bull back 2027 comeback
Cycling
Giulio Pellizzari won six races in 2026, including the biggest stage-race victory of his career, yet the 22-year-old Italian believes the setbacks he suffered taught him more than any of those successes. Illness derailed his Giro d'Italia ambitions, criticism left him struggling to enjoy cycling, and what should have been another breakthrough season instead became a test of how he handled the expectations surrounding his rapid rise.
With Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe still backing his Grand Tour ambitions for 2027, Pellizzari has reflected on why the experience may ultimately prove valuable.
"It was a fundamental season for my development. I've learnt a lot," he told Domestique in a recent interview. "It was great to win some races but I learnt far more from when things went wrong."
From Giro podium ambitions to a battle simply to finish
There had been little to suggest during the opening months of 2026 that Pellizzari's home Grand Tour would become such a difficult experience.
Sixth-place finishes at both the Giro and Vuelta a Espana in 2025, including a maiden Grand Tour stage victory in Spain, had established him among the peloton's most promising young general classification riders. He then finished third overall at Tirreno-Adriatico before claiming two stages and the overall title at the Tour of the Alps, becoming the first Italian winner since Vincenzo Nibali in 2013.
Red Bull entrusted him with joint leadership alongside Jai Hindley at the Giro, where Pellizzari initially justified the growing expectations. He followed eventual winner Jonas Vingegaard during an attack in Bulgaria and attempted to stay with the Dane again on Blockhaus, although the effort ultimately cost him time.
Giulio Pellizzari ahead of stage 6 at the 2026 Giro d'Italia
His problems extended beyond those ambitious early performances. A tendon issue had already been troubling him before the Giro began, while gastrointestinal illness subsequently undermined his ability to compete in the mountains.
A fifth-place finish on stage 14 briefly revived hopes that he could salvage a strong general classification result, but two days later, on the climb to Cari in Switzerland, Pellizzari was dropped while his own teammates were setting the pace at the front. He conceded more than 18 minutes to Vingegaard, falling from sixth to 19th overall in a single afternoon.
He continued to Rome in support of Hindley, who secured third overall, but finished 21st himself, fifteen places lower than the previous year.
The criticism surrounding that collapse was especially difficult for a rider who had entered the race with two top-six Grand Tour finishes already behind him. Questions over whether illness genuinely explained his performances added to the frustration, and the effects continued long after the race had ended.
In September, Pellizzari revealed to La Gazzetta dello Sport that he had begun working with a mental coach, having struggled to move beyond the disappointment. He described the Giro as a black hole in his season and admitted that the negativity had left him without the desire to ride his bike.
Those experiences have since influenced how he intends to approach the pressures of racing. "The Giro taught me lots of different things," he explained to Domestique. "It taught me how to handle Grand Tours and various situations. It taught me to stay calm, how to isolate myself, stay in my world and not worry about what people say."
Red Bull refuse to judge Pellizzari by one Grand Tour
While the Giro dominated much of the discussion surrounding his season, Pellizzari's results elsewhere offered Red Bull plenty of encouragement. He returned to finish second overall at the Tour of Slovenia in June, before winning the final mountain stage of the Vuelta a Burgos in August. Another victory followed at the Deutschland Tour, and he added the Giro della Toscana in September to complete a six-win campaign.
The victories did not translate into a sustained return to his early-season level against WorldTour opposition. His World Championships appearance ended without a finish, while he closed his season with 37th at Il Lombardia.
Nevertheless, Red Bull chief of sports Zak Dempster believes the Italian has made significant progress, even without the Giro result that both rider and team had hoped for.
"With Giulio, in the end I think you learn more from the bad things or the races where you don't hit the goals, than when you go top five or podium," Dempster told Domestique. "We've definitely learned things, but at the same time, he's won six bike races this year, which is pretty incredible. So even without the GC in the Giro, I think he's made huge steps. We're really excited to see him back in the Grand Tours next year."
That backing comes at an important stage of Pellizzari's career. Having demonstrated in 2025 that he could sustain a high general classification position across three weeks, he entered 2026 with greater responsibility and considerably higher expectations. His victories have continued to accumulate, but another opportunity to lead a Grand Tour will provide the more significant test of his development.
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Where does Pellizzari fit into Red Bull's 2027 plans?
A return to the Giro is expected in 2027, although Red Bull have yet to confirm Pellizzari's programme or precisely how leadership responsibilities will be divided.
The competition within the team is considerable. Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Primoz Roglic and Hindley all have established Grand Tour credentials, leaving Red Bull with several possible combinations across the Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.
Former Giro winner Nibali has backed Pellizzari to recover from his disappointment, expressing confidence in the youngster's talent at the recent presentation of the 2027 route.
Pellizzari, who turns 23 later this month, is keen to put his difficult experiences to use. "I hope that everything I've been through this year is useful in 2027," he told Domestique.
Should Red Bull send him back to the Giro as a protected leader, the circumstances would be very different from his unexpected emergence as a contender in 2025. He would return with more victories to his name, greater experience of carrying a team's ambitions and a year of dealing with the scrutiny that comes when those ambitions are not met.
For now, the question is not whether Red Bull still believe in Pellizzari's potential. Dempster has made that clear. It is how much responsibility the team will give him next season, and whether another opportunity at the Giro will allow him to build on the promise he showed before his difficult 2026 campaign.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Thats only cause he rides for UAE. In any other team he would be captain in many races atleast. UAE is just to crazymiguel06-11-2026
- He seems to be the rare athlete whose passion and curiosity about life beyond his sport equals his extraordinary achievements in it. It would be great for him to risk less of that life. He seems very grateful and joyful for what he has already attained.
MarkFour06-11-2026 - As much as I admire and even revere Wout, the less I know about his backside the better.MidnightRider06-11-2026
- Ok, Walt 🤣... Vingegaard would be lucky to get on the poduim. He would not beat Seixas or Del Toro, let alone TP. Then there are the Americans...BD06-11-2026
- So, for starters. Cycling is a saturated, static/dying sport in traditional lands, it will not have resurgences like eg running occasionally does because of several obstacular (yes, I know that’s not a word but don’t make me point out the obvious at your expense) factors. Obviously, like almost everything involving money, there is a desire/need/advantage to growth and that can only come from (developing or just testing) new markets. For me, the WC is the obvious and best choice for several reasons, it comes at the end of the season so is less critical season risk wise, it is not a “pro” team race but nation based which makes integration of uncommon participation more natural. It is a vehicle for redistribution (one of a very limited number of available mechanisms to develop new markers fairly) that the fixed calendar doesn’t allow and it helps make budgets fairer over the long run (moving the whole circus to everywhere evens out everyone’s budget as opposed to having everyone always come to the same location.Jumpyjohn06-11-2026
- Sad that a more refreshing article like this, which could generate discussion in a number of directions, gets completely ignored for the importance of debating the level of superiority of one rider into every single last detail, including a majority of totally hypothetical ones. People complain there is no news in the off season and it’s boring but don’t realise how boring it is to review the same old discussion over and over again, several times a day. In fact, you’d almost think this was a rider fan website. Instead of complaining about the FREE (as long as you pay attention to data use if not unlimited coz this site consumes almost as much for loading Youtube) content, the presence of cv of authors (for the missed obvious reason that it makes it easier to insert extra advertising without changing formats), the lack of quality/checking and depth of articles, why not also think about the content, quality and variety of posts that everyone can contribute to? The platform becomes irrelevant when discussion is interesting.Jumpyjohn06-11-2026
- UAE Team Emirates and Pogačar will officially unveil their objectives at the team’s media day, which will take place on December 18 in Benidorm, Spain. New information from the UAE Team: Exceptional recovery remains the cornerstone of success for the Slovenian cannibal-Pogi, whose sporting manager, Matxin, believes he will be even better in 2027 than he has been over the past three seasons.PogiSloFans06-11-2026
- Yeh, but he didn't and RE beat Pog & Del T 👍
leedorney06-11-2026 - Just my opinionleedorney06-11-2026
- Great win.However will the world champions jersey be simply a domestic for the season which will some what tarnish the jersey. I hope he is given free rein to try and win some races.paultryan200206-11-2026
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