"We Came To Innsbruck Because The Final Three Laps Of The Hungerburg Are The Hardest Thirty Minutes Of The Race" — Jonas Vingegaard Completes A Full Reconnaissance Of The 2026 Tour Of The Alps Queen Stage Three Days Out, As Visma-Lease A Bike Confirm The Same Eight-Rider Giro Roster Will Ride Both Races Back-To-Back
13:20 Friday afternoon in Innsbruck. Jonas Vingegaard rolls up to the Hungerburg funicular station in Visma-Lease a Bike team kit, clips out, and spends the next seven minutes taking notes on the handlebar-mounted tactical sheet that has become the signature image of the Dane's 2026 altitude-first preparation. Three days out from the 2026 Tour of the Alps roll-out in Rovereto on Monday morning, Vingegaard has just completed a full reconnaissance of the queen-stage finale — three laps of the Hungerburg circuit that will decide the Stage 5 finish in Innsbruck on 24 April and, organisers hope, the overall title.
"We came to Innsbruck because the final three laps of the Hungerburg are the hardest thirty minutes of the race," Vingegaard told the waiting press corps of four. "It is the same finishing circuit as the 2018 UCI Road World Championships. I raced here as a 21-year-old amateur in a Visma development kit. The road has not changed. The gradient on the final hairpin is still 17%. You can win or lose a Tour of the Alps in those three laps. We are preparing for that." Visma sports director Grischa Niermann confirmed the team has booked a seven-day rental of a Hungerburg-facing apartment specifically so Vingegaard can open on the circuit every morning until race day.
The reconnaissance signals the end of Vingegaard's three-week altitude block at Sierra Nevada and the start of the race-specific preparation for what his team is calling "the most important dress rehearsal since the 2022 Vuelta". Visma confirmed Friday afternoon that the same eight-rider roster would ride both the Tour of the Alps and the Giro d'Italia back-to-back, a deliberate choice designed to lock tactical combinations in for the three-week race. Christophe Laporte will ride as road captain. Sepp Kuss will ride as Vingegaard's last man in the mountains. Dylan van Baarle will lead out the bunch sprints.
The headline tactical story of Friday was the confirmation of Ineos Grenadiers' co-leadership model. Four days after general manager John Allert's Thursday press conference in Bolzano, Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman confirmed jointly that they would race as co-leaders from the roll-out in Rovereto. "I have not been on a Grand Tour podium since 2023," Bernal told reporters at the Ineos team hotel in Bolzano. "Thymen has not been on one ever. We both want one. We race for the team until the queen stage tells us which of us has the better legs. It is that simple." Arensman: "No number one, no number two. We race for whoever is strongest on Stage 4."
Primož Roglič, the four-time Tour of the Alps champion, completed his own Hungerburg reconnaissance on Thursday morning. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe confirmed that the Slovenian's Tour of the Alps is not a Giro dress rehearsal — Roglič has elected to ride the Tour de Romandie as his final pre-Tour de France block — but rather a stand-alone attempt to extend what is already the most successful race-specific palmarès in Tour of the Alps history. "Primož came to Innsbruck to win his fifth Tour of the Alps. That is the plan. The Tour de France is in July. The Tour of the Alps is next week." Giulio Ciccone and Enric Mas round out the headline GC card.
The 18,300 metres of climbing across the five stages make the 2026 Tour of the Alps the hardest since the race's 2017 rebrand. Stage 2 includes the Passo Duran and the Passo Giau. Stage 3 finishes on the Monte Grappa summit. Stage 4 is the queen stage at 192 kilometres with 5,200m of climbing and a summit finish on the Marmolada. Stage 5 — the three-laps-of-Hungerburg circuit — is the traditional GC decider. Defending champion Juan Ayuso, absent after his Itzulia comeback, will not defend his title: UAE have confirmed Isaac del Toro will wear race number 1 in his place.
Five days from the Rovereto roll-out, the startlist will be published in full at 10:00 Sunday morning. The final team presentation is at 18:00 Sunday evening in the Piazza del MART in Rovereto. Giro d'Italia pre-race training sessions begin two weeks later in Sardinia. The Tour of the Alps runs from 20 to 24 April 2026 and, for both Visma and Ineos, represents the last opportunity to test the tactical combinations that will decide the three-week race in May.