"It's been on my mind for a few weeks": Diego Pablo Sevilla enjoys a well-earned 'King of Mountains' jersey at the Giro

The opening stage of 2026 Giro d'Italia was a massive success for Polti VisitMalta. The Italian ProTeam was among the recipients of a wild card to this year's edition and as such, tradition commands to enter the first breakaway. And this year, a 30-year-old Spaniard Diego Pablo Sevilla was entrusted the privilege. Going up the road alongside fellow Italian ProTeam rider Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber), it quickly became clear the wearer of first mountain's jersey of this Giro will be decided among the two adventurers.

And to everyone's delight, Sevilla proved to have much better turn of speed than Tarozzi on both 4th category mountain sprints, comfortably securing a lead in the mountain classification with six points to his name.

"I think it's been on my mind for a few weeks now," he said in an interview afterwards about his decision to join the breakaway. "I knew that it was a good opportunity to achieve it, and that's how it turned out. In the end, it was an easy breakaway; there were only two of us. I just had to keep an eye on Tarozzi and I know him quite well."

Sevilla had won the mountain classification at Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this spring, but today's result might be the biggest success of his career. "I'm a veteran rider... I'm over 30, but I haven't achieved many results in my career to be honest. I think being on the podium at the Giro d'Italia is something big, it's not something common, it's not normal, so I'm very happy, and we're going to enjoy it."

The second stage with three 3rd category climbs (5 points awarded for crossing the top first) will be a whole another beast. For Sevilla, it won't be easy to continue his stay in Maglia Azzurra - although his goal is already completed. But if he can hang on to his lead tomorrow, then there is a chance he can continue wearing blue until Blockhaus summit finish on stage 7.

"For that we have to go in tomorrow and win. So let's see if there's much of a fight tomorrow; if not, I'll definitely try. But, as I said, we have to take it one day at a time. For now, we have it; nobody can take that away from us. Let's enjoy it and see how long I can hold on to it."

Underlining the successful day for Polti VisitMalta was Giovanni Lonardi who emerged in a sixth place out of a crash-marred sprint in Burgas.