"I made the mistake of following Jonas" - Pellizzari followed Vingegaard on the Blockhaus; then he cracked

Giulio Pellizzari followed Jonas Vingegaard on stage 2 when the Dane launched his first attack at the 2026 Giro d'Italia. However, when he tried doing the same this Friday at the climb to Blockhaus, it cost him dearly. The Italian cracked and suffered his way to the finish line, but learnt his lesson.

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe came into the Giro d'Italia with two co-leaders, but with Pellizzari coming in with much better results. However the big goal is the Corsa Rosa, and the first summit finish to Blockhaus was a perfect test - since the majority of the stage didn't have major obstacles, and the final climb was so steep that tactics were not overly important.

Pellizzari reacted to Jonas Vingegaard's initial acceleration with 7 kilometers to go. But this was a mistake, he admits: “I made the mistake of following Jonas. It's a shame because I was feeling good. He has a very strong start, but then I couldn't keep up with him. In the end, I lost a minute, which wasn't so bad".

Pellizzari cracked, and lost contact with the chaser Felix Gall as well. "When he started, I felt good; the sensations were good. It's a shame I threw everything away for this. But it's a lesson I learned.”

The Italian rider learnt the hard way that, despite his quality and potential, there is still a gap to the Visma rider who eventually rode to the stage win. Afterwards, he recovered slightly and was joined by his teammate Jai Hindley and his compatriot Ben O'Connor. The trio finished just over a minute behind Vingegaard, third and fourth on the day.

In the bigger picture, it doesn't change much for the 22-year old, who did however shed significant time to Felix Gall in the fight for second place. The goal is still to get on the podium".