Tour of the Alps 2026 stage 5 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Pellizzari takes on INEOS on queen stage

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 5, which is expected to start and finish at 12:00 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 fifth stage of the race is the final one and is also very short, only 128 kilometers in length but with a meaningful ascent right at the star to kick things off. However before ending the week of racing in Bolzano, there will be two climbs that will require tough work from the GC contenders.

The first is Montoppio (12.7 kilometers at 7%) which ends at 35 kilometers to go; whilst the second is Cologna di Sopra - an 8-kilometer ascent which starts off with double-digit gradients and has an intermediate sprint in its middle. The top is with 16 kilometers to go.

Anything can happen there and its still a day for the pure climbers. They will have to be careful with the technical descent to the finish where the race can still be lost.

*** Giulio Pellizzari, Thymen Arensman

** Egan Bernal, Aleksandr Vlasov, Michael Storer

* Mathys Rondel, Jakob Omrzel, Chris Harper, Tom Pidcock, Domenico Pozzovivo, Ben O'Connor, Derek Gee

Pick: Giulio Pellizzari

How: Solo win