Tour of the Alps 2026 stage 2 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Pellizari, Arensman and Storer take on first pre-Giro battle

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 2, which is expected to start and finish at 11:35 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 second stage is rather short, only 147 kilometers in length, but quite hard. The beginning is flat out of Telfs, however the race goes into the mountains and faces three categorized climbs. The first of which is quite difficult, with around 22 kilometers in distance and just under 5% average gradient.

But the action will most likely all be left to the final climb, where the riders return to Val Martello - the climb made famous for being the end of the 2014 Giro d'Italia stage where Nairo Quintana flew away from his rivals in a snowstorm. But the riders won't go as high, instead racing the first 5 kilometers which average around 9%.

*** Giulio Pellizzari, Thymen Arensman

** Michael Storer, Derek Gee, Egan Bernal

* Tom Pidcock, Ben O'Connor, Mathys Rondel, Finlay Pickering, Aleksandr Vlasov, Jakob Omrzel

Pick: Giulio Pellizzari

How: Late attack