Tour of the Alps 2026 stage 1 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Can Tom Pidcock recover from his injuries to win opening day?

From the 20th to the 24th of April the riders will take on the Tour of the Alps. This is often used as the ultimate preparation race towards the Tour of the Alps, whilst in itself it is a very prestigious race with plenty high mountains and its international course, often crossing borders. We preview stage 1, which is expected to start and finish at 11:55 and 15:15CET.

The race was created in 1962 and initially won by Enzo Moser. However there was a long break and in 1980 the race finally picked up speed. Some big Italian names conquered the days-long stage-race. The race, due to its position in the calendar, was a match made in heaven for the Giro contenders and plenty have won it. Only in the last decades the likes of Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego, Vincenzo Nibali, Ivan Basso, Michele Scarponi and Domenico Pozzovivo all won the former 'Giro del Trentino'.

The last Italian win was in 2013 however. Ever since there has been more international list of winners, of great quality. Cadel Evans, Richie Porte, Mikel Landa, Geraint Thomas, Thibau Pinot, Pavel Sivakov, Simon Yates, Romain Bardet, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Juan Pedro López and most recently Michael Storer took the overall wins. Storer won last year after five brutal days of racing with plenty big changes due to his battle with Thymen Arensman.

The race begins in Austria in the city of Innsbruck. It is the easiest stage of the race, one that may even perhaps finish in a sprint. The climb to Gotzens is ridden twice, it's 4 kilometers long at 7% and ends with 25 kilometers to go.

It's by no means a brutal stage but if it's attacked hard, then we can see gaps. If not, then we can see a reduced bunch sprint or a finale that can be very tactical in the flat roads leading back into the beautiful city that hosted the 2018 World Champions.

*** Tom Pidcock, Lorenzo Finn

** Michael Storer, Matteo Sobrero, Felix Engelhardt, Giulio Pellizzari

* Jakob Omrzel, Derek Gee, Paul Double, Ben O'Connor, Egan Bernal, Thymen Arensman, Aleksandr Vlasov, Sean Quinn

Pick: Matteo Sobrero

How: Small groups sprint.