Results Tour of the Alps 2026 stage 1 | Arensman and Pidcock near-miss as Tomasso Dati takes breakthrough win on opening sprint

The Japanese Team UKYO has a base in Italy and is one of the best teams when it comes to developing young Italian talent. After winning a stage at the Settimana Internazionaler Coppi e Bartal, Tommaso Dati has taken the victory on stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps, beating Tom Pidcock in the final sprint.

Three men attacked at the start of the stage and formed the day's breakaway, a modest one including Tobias Nolde as well as the two Austrians Josef Dirnbauer and Emanuel Zangerle. The group didn't threaten the peloton but, above all, didn't force the peloton to push the pace over the day's double ascent of the Gotzens climb (4 kilometers at 7%).

The pace over them was controlled, and so the peloton didn't lose many riders, meaning a sprint would be hard to prevent. The last of the three, Zangerle, survived until 5 kilometers to go, with the pace then ramping up as a full-on leadout by INEOS Grenadiers into a small ramp meant the race would change face once again.

The British team set a very high pace up it and stretched the peloton, and on the short descent, the British team played it tactically, letting a gap open up to Thymen Arensman who went off the front then with 4 kilometers to go.

The catch was made only inside the final meters of the stage, with Team UKYO saving their bullets towards the decisive meters of the stage. The leadout for Tommaso Dati was perfect, and the Italian sprinter managed to take a superb victory, withstanding the sprint of Tom Pidcock from behind to take his second pro win.

The victory for Tommaso Dati in Innsbruck is a tactical masterclass for the Japanese-Italian Team UKYO project. While INEOS Grenadiers burned their entire lead-out train to set up Tom Pidcock and launch a tactical foil in Thymen Arensman, Dati remained invisible in the draft until the final 150 meters. The Italian had the 'discipline' to wait through the chaos of Arensman's 4 km solo raid, trusting the peloton to close the gap.

For Pidcock, the second-place finish is a bitter pill; despite a perfect lead-out onto the Brandjochstraße, his sprint lacked the final 'pop' needed to hold off Dati’s slipstream acceleration. This result not only gives Dati the leader's jersey heading into the mountains but also signals a shift in the hierarchy of the 'development' teams, as UKYO continues to produce WorldTour-ready talent capable of beating the sport's biggest names.