"Tobias Has Three Sprint Days Inside The First Eight, Felix Has The Closing Mountain Block, And Johannes Has The Numbers To Be A Top-Ten Card In Three Years' Time" — Decathlon CMA CGM Names Andresen-Gall Dual-Brief Giro 2026 Squad, Staune-Mittet The Third-Week Mountain Co-Card, Naesen The Stage 1 Nessebar TT
Sunday evening Boulogne-Billancourt. Five days from the 8 May Nessebar Grande Partenza, Decathlon CMA CGM have confirmed an eight-rider Giro d'Italia 2026 squad built around two parallel campaigns: Tobias Lund Andresen as the protected sprint card on a programme that puts him on the start sheet of every flat day inside the first eight, and Felix Gall as the protected GC card on a top-eight overall tilt that the team's published brief now treats as the more realistic of the two leadership briefs.
The eight-rider roster reads: Andresen, Gall, Johannes Staune-Mittet, Oliver Naesen, Gregor Mühlberger, Callum Scotson, Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen, and Tord Gudmestad. The published brief frames the eight as a "two-track Giro" — a Bulgarian-and-Italian sprint week with Andresen at the centre, and a third-week Alpine-and-Dolomite block with Gall and Staune-Mittet as the dual mountain hand. Naesen carries the Stage 1 Nessebar individual time trial card and the puncheur-day insurance through the second week.
Andresen's pricing on the Giro outright sprint markets shortened from 5/1 to 9/2 over the weekend after the 28-year-old's Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 6 win in Foligno on 14 March was followed by a closing-week training block at the Sierra Nevada altitude camp that the team's published power numbers describe as "the best we have ever recorded for the rider on a Giro build." The Dane goes off as third favourite for the maglia ciclamino points jersey behind Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan and Soudal Quick-Step's Paul Magnier, with the team's internal model identifying Stage 3 Bourgas, Stage 6 Naples, Stage 9 Cesenatico and Stage 13 Nova Gorica as the four flat days where Andresen's lead-out template is mathematically the most efficient in the race.
Gall's GC brief is the more cautious of the two. The Austrian climber comes into Bulgaria with a 14/1 outright price after a spring built around the Itzulia Basque Country top-ten he delivered in early April and a closing 23-second test ride at the Tour de Romandie queen stage on Saturday, where Gall finished 14 seconds behind Florian Lipowitz in the chase group on the closing 12.4km Anzère switchback. Team manager Dominique Serieys named the brief in the team's launch document as "top-eight overall, one stage win, and a podium ride on the Mottarone if the form is there in the third week."
Staune-Mittet is the squad's quiet headline. The 23-year-old Norwegian, in his second Grand Tour after a 31st-place finish at the 2025 Vuelta, has been the team's most-improved rider on the closing-mountain power-curve numbers across the spring, and the team's published brief gives him the third-week co-leader card on the explicit understanding that he rides for Gall through the first two weeks. Serieys: "Johannes has the numbers to be a top-ten Grand Tour card in three years' time. The Mottarone day is the day we want to see those numbers on the road."
Naesen's selection closes a four-year wait for a return to the Corsa Rosa for the 35-year-old Belgian, who last rode the Giro in 2022 and goes off this time as the Stage 1 Nessebar TT card after a 6th-place finish at the Lausanne TT this afternoon, eleven seconds behind the day's winner Joshua Tarling. Naesen is also the team's puncheur insurance for the Stage 5 Matera and Stage 8 Naples-circuit days, where the team has the bunch-sprint template lined up but reserves the right to release the Belgian onto a closing breakaway if the lead-out window closes.
Mühlberger and Scotson make up the mountain-and-flat support core. Mühlberger climbs for Gall and Staune-Mittet through the third-week Tre Cime-Sestriere-Manghen block; Scotson holds the lead-out lieutenant role for Andresen on every flat day from Bourgas to Cesenatico. Pedersen and Gudmestad complete the squad as the rouleur-and-classics insurance, with Pedersen the designated Stage 14 Anzio-Trieste TT card on a 28-year-old's first career Grand Tour and Gudmestad the closing Stage 21 Rome-circuit lead-out.
The published team brief closes the same way every Decathlon CMA CGM Grand Tour brief has closed since the team rebrand in January: "We go to the Giro to win bike races, not to wait for them." Stage 1 of the 109th Giro d'Italia rolls out from Nessebar, Bulgaria, on Friday 8 May, with the 19km individual time trial along the Black Sea waterfront the first verdict on what the team's published brief calls "a two-track campaign that has every realistic outcome priced inside our top-three pre-race scenarios."