Results Giro dell'Emilia 2026 - Visma dominate as Piganzoli takes career-changing victory; Pidcock and Onley on the podium
Cycling
Davide Piganzoli has won the 2026 Giro dell'Emilia. Team Visma | Lease a Bike had several riders at the head of the race in its final phase, and the young Italian climber had the legs to finish off a strong tactical move that came in the final lap.
The 197-kilometer race is a staple of the Italian autumn classics, coming in the weekend before Il Lombardia - and colliding with the European Championships. The riders started the race from Ferrara and headed towards Bologna where they would find the final circuit around the Madonna di San Luca (2 kilometers long at almost 10% average gradient).
The breakaway of the day, which thrived over the race's flat kilometers, was made up of Manuele Tarozzi, Tommaso Nencini, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Andrii Ponomar, Adne Holter, Ben Granger, Diego Pablo Sevilla and Kevin Pezzo Rosola.
The eight-rider group had health and survived all the way until the beginning of the first climb to San Luca. Like clockwork, the peloton caught up with the front riders at the start of the crucial phase of the race.
Over the top of the first ascent Luke Plapp attacked together with Pello Bilbao, Juan Felipe Rodríguez, Quentin Pacher, Andrew August and Marcel Camprubí. The peloton was thinned down significantly within a few kilometers. By the time the riders arrived to the second ascent, they would go on to catch the front group, with Visma controlling the peloton with Wilco Kelderman mostly.
UAE and Visma open up the race
The attacks then began once again, with Brandon McNulty, Tom Pidcock and Davide Piganzoli all launching attacks. The favourites' group would thin down to the very best only.
With 17 kilometers to go McNulty would be joined in front by teammate Adam Yates, Tom Pidcock, Oscar Onley, Ben Healy and Matteo Jorgenson. The group grew in size once again but on the penultimate lap Matteo Jorgenson and Ben Healy's accelerations thinned the group down once again.
Healy, Onley and Pidcock were joined by Visma duo Jorgenson and Piganzoli. The Dutch team had the majority in front, and used it to their advantage. Jorgenson attacked on several occasions but with just under 5 kilometers to go Piganzoli hit the front on the technical and fast descent and grew a strong gap.
Pidcock led the chasing group all the way up behind, but the 15-second gap was too big to close. Davide Piganzoli would still have the legs on the final climb and rode to victory in the Italian classic. For a third year in a row Tom Pidcock was second; whilst Oscar Onley closed out the podium.
Results Giro dell'Emilia 2026
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
claps 3visitors 3
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- PR to Tudor hardly means the end of WorldTour, they basically get invited to everything. Lidl-Trek German now??? Instead of asking if their football team is white enough, maybe that crowd should ask if their cycling team is German enough. American owner, main sponsor Hardly a German rider or staff member or equipment provider. Anyone have background to this decision, was it gifted to guarantee a long-term commitment from Lidl the way Ineos brown-nosed Netcompany?Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- What a shame Pogačar can't fulfill his promise. It'll have to be next year
Rafionain-Glas03-10-2026 - Maybe their mechanics are willing to step in? Or they can convert a few on the bench of ManU.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- Opening a gap over Pidcock (who must know the course by heart now) on a technical descent must take some doing.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- This poll placed here is like asking something about Trump on Fox, really unbiased ;-)Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- I will first look at results, not budgets to judge who is falling behind. I’m no fan of teams increasing budgets because others do, it’s an unhealthy spiral that can only lead to problems and complications. If cycling were as strict with spending rules as some other sports, UAE would now be digging themselves out a City sized hole.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- You forgot the probably fake doping disqualification at another Giro to ensure an Italian win. Probably worse than the individual hitting him to ensure a French TdF winner as it was orchestrated by cycling officials. I wouldn’t be surprised if mafia and betting had something to do with it but it was a smart enough tactic to avoid any kind of suspicion or investigation, almost impossible to prove but knowing the way the world and humanity works, completely plausible.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- You’re giving yourself away (as usual) with all the details and expressions we’re used to here.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- Ask Skjelmose, buy Seixas.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
- It may look like that to you but I wonder. Given his strength, given the lack of commitment in front sometimes among some of the chasers, given his advantage on the climbs, given the small and changing gaps throughout, given a few more details we can assume, how come if he had so much energy to pull (and why would he just for the sake of those behind) he never rode a bit smarter or more efficiently by joining up with another group of chasers, either by detachment from wheelsuckers on the climb or falling back to other more collaborative chasers behind to form a bigger more useful chasing group. Something in all his work doesn’t make sense.Jumpyjohn03-10-2026
Loading
1 Comments