Schmid Snatches Coppi e Bartali Overall From Laurance in Thrilling Final-Stage Sprint
Mauro Schmid has completed one of the most dramatic final-day overhauls of the 2026 season, winning the closing stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Gemona del Friuli and flipping a two-second general classification deficit to snatch the overall title from Axel Laurance. The Swiss rider of Team Jayco AlUla crossed the line in Friuli with both arms raised, aware that the ten bonus seconds awarded for the stage win had just rewritten the standings in his favour.
Laurance, the French time trial specialist of INEOS Grenadiers, had led the race since his stage one triumph and defended the maglia azzurra through four brutal days in Emilia-Romagna and Friuli. The 24-year-old looked set to seal his first stage race overall of the year until Jayco AlUla tore the final 40 kilometres apart on the last ascent of Monte Stella.
The decisive move came from an unlikely source. Alan Hatherly, the reigning XCO World Champion and a rider still feeling his way into road racing with the Australian squad, detonated the front group with an uncompromising dig on the upper slopes of the climb. Schmid, sensing the opportunity of the entire race, immediately surged across to his teammate. Within a kilometre the pair had opened a small but significant gap that INEOS could not close.
Laurance, stranded in a chasing group that included Antonio Tiberi and Jefferson Cepeda, refused to panic and steadily clawed back on the long valley drag into Gemona. By the 3km banner the Frenchman had rejoined Schmid and Hatherly, setting up a tense three-up finale with the overall balance resting on bonus seconds.
In the final 500 metres Hatherly buried himself in the wind, before peeling off with 200 to go and gifting his teammate the perfect lead-out. Schmid held his nerve, accelerated off the right-hand side of the road and edged Laurance by half a bike length on the line. The timing board confirmed what the Jayco bus already knew — Schmid had won the stage, the ten-second bonus and the overall by a margin of eight seconds.
Alan Hatherly's willingness to work for a teammate on a road race capped a breakout week for the South African, while Alan himself tucked third on the final podium behind Laurance on GC — a result that will only increase speculation about a possible Giro d'Italia debut later this spring. Tiberi finished fourth, with Romain Bardet, riding one of his final professional stage races, rounding out the top five.
For Schmid, the victory is arguably the biggest of a career that has taken in Swiss national titles, a Giro stage and a World track championship. The 26-year-old joins the Coppi e Bartali roll of honour alongside former winners Jai Hindley and Diego Ulissi, and arrives at next week's Tour of the Alps as one of the in-form stage racers of the early season.
Laurance, despite the heartbreak, walked away with the points classification and four days in the leader's jersey — invaluable experience for a rider whose Paris-Roubaix debut is just eight days away. "We lost by ten seconds on a bonus sprint," the Frenchman said afterwards. "That's bike racing. I'll take the lessons and use them."