Narváez strikes again: UAE unstoppable. Eláulio still in Pink!

They may be racing with three riders missing, but you wouldn’t know it. UAE Team Emirates-XRG claimed their third win in just eight stages at the 2026 Giro d’Italia in Fermo, executing the finale across the Marche walls to perfection. Once again, it was Jhonatan Narváez celebrating, after dropping Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) on the climb to Capodarco, 10 km from the finish, before riding solo over the brutal Via Reputolo wall and all the way to the line. The pair had gone clear together with Mikkel Bjerg with 75 km to go, just before the sequence of steep ramps began, and it was the Dane who kept the move alive with his relentless, measured pace — no surprise for a rider who was a three-time Under-23 world time trial champion.

Despite having the opportunity to try something, the GC contenders opted to stay relatively calm. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) picked up a couple of seconds in the final sprint, while Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) drifted backwards and conceded almost five minutes.

Full gas right off the bat

As expected, the opening half — and more — of the stage turned into complete chaos: everyone wanted to get into the breakaway, but on entirely flat roads, the peloton’s relentless 50 km/h average speed made any escape almost impossible. Filippo Ganna (Netcompany INEOS) and Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana) spent several kilometres out front, but eventually had to give up.

The race changed dramatically with 75 km to go, when strong crosswinds split the peloton, leaving almost all the GC contenders behind — Jonas Vingegaard included — with the exception of Maglia Rosa Afonso Eulálio and Jai Hindley. While the second group, led by Visma | Lease a Bike, managed to close the 20-second gap to the front section, up ahead Jhonatan Narváez, Mikkel Bjerg and Andreas Leknessund slipped away in what ultimately proved to be the decisive move.

On the first climb to Montefiore d’Aso, a chasing group of around 30 riders formed behind them, but never managed to close the one-minute gap separating them from the leading trio, while the peloton finally settled down and allowed the move to go clear.

Driven by an imperious Bjerg — undoubtedly the man of the day — the three riders extended their advantage and, on the climb to Capodarco (the timed ascent of the day), once the Dane’s work was done, Narváez also dropped Leknessund and surged away to claim his fourth Giro stage win, equalling Richard Carapaz as the most successful Ecuadorian rider in Giro history. Behind him came Leknessund, while his teammate Martin Tjøtta emerged from the chasing group to finish third, giving Uno-X Mobility a double podium.

Back in the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike kept everything under control even on the treacherous Via Reputolo wall, while Giulio Ciccone, after even attempting to join the breakaway in the opening kilometres, decided to ease off and drop out of GC contention with the aim of targeting a stage win in the coming days. The only rider to make a move was Afonso Eulálio, who once again showed excellent form and lit up the Marche crowd by honouring the Maglia Rosa with an attack of his own. Vingegaard, however, stayed alert, bringing the other favourites with him as he prepares to land another blow tomorrow on the climb to Corno alle Scale

Results

STAGE RESULT
1 – Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates XRG) – 156 km in 3h27’26”, media di 45.122 km/h
2 – Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) – 32″
3 – Martin Tjotta (Uno-X Mobility) – 42″

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1 – Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious)
2 – Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 3’15”
3 – Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) – 3’34”

CLICK HERE to check all the rankings.

Just seconds after crossing the finish line, stage winner Jhonatan Narváez said: “We knew this was a stage that suited me. We interpreted it well with my teammates. I think the man of the day was Mikkel Bjerg. He’s a rider who works incredibly hard all year round, and today he was decisive! In the finale, once I was alone, it all came down to the legs. The headwind made everything extremely tough. We never gave up and raced intelligently. It’s a great victory, especially after my crash in January and after the fact that here at the Giro we’re down to just five riders. There’s a great atmosphere within the team, and I think we’ll win more stages next week.”