"The Climb Will Tell Us The Truth" — Tour Of The Alps 2026 Two Days Out, Vingegaard Completes A Full Reconnaissance Of The Stage 2 Cles Climbing Profile, Roglič Stays On Monte Bondone For A Threshold Block, And Bernal And Arensman Share A Three-Hour Dress-Rehearsal Ride On The Final Stage Hungerburg Circuit
Saturday morning in Rovereto. Forty-eight hours from the 2026 Tour of the Alps flag drop in Piazza Rosmini on Monday morning and the pre-race peloton has spread itself across three separate valleys in a final training push. Jonas Vingegaard and seven Visma-Lease a Bike teammates roll north on the Val di Non road to recon the full 178-kilometre Stage 2 route to Cles. Primož Roglič stays on Monte Bondone for a four-by-ten-minute threshold block. Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman leave the Ineos Grenadiers hotel in Bolzano at 09:30 for a three-hour shared ride over the full four-lap final Hungerburg circuit the race closes on Friday.
The Saturday reconnaissance of Stage 2 is the one that most interests the Giro d'Italia scouts currently in Trentino. Stage 2, from Rovereto to Cles, is the longest stage of the race at 178 kilometres and contains 3,100 vertical metres of climbing — the heaviest single-stage climb load of the Tour of the Alps since the 2019 rebrand. The final 45 kilometres contain three categorised climbs culminating in the 6.8-kilometre Passo della Mendola at 7.4% average gradient. Vingegaard's team car logbook, released to the press pool at 15:30 Saturday afternoon, showed the Dane held a steady 4.1 W/kg across the full Mendola recon at 70% race-day effort. "The climb will tell us the truth," Visma DS Frans Maassen told reporters in the Visma team-coach car park on arrival back in Rovereto. "We came to the Tour of the Alps for this climb and this climb alone."
Roglič's Saturday block on Monte Bondone was the eighth threshold session of the Slovenian's final pre-Tour of the Alps preparation. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe have based the 36-year-old in Trentino for four days, with Saturday the last pre-race intensity day before the Monday roll-out. "Four by ten minutes. 5.9 W/kg on the second interval. 5.95 W/kg on the fourth. Numbers I have not seen from Primož since the first week of his 2023 Giro," head of performance Daniel Porter confirmed in the post-session report. Roglič chases a fifth Tour of the Alps overall title on Friday, which would move him level with Ivan Basso on the all-time list. "Primož knows this race better than any rider in the sport," Porter added. "He does not need to ride more."
The Bernal-and-Arensman shared recon ride is the storyline of the pre-race weekend for Ineos Grenadiers. The British superteam has not placed a rider on a Grand Tour podium since 2023 and the 2026 Tour of the Alps is framed by GM John Allert as a direct two-rider selection event for the Giro d'Italia leadership. "Three years without a Grand Tour podium. We will use this week to find out who of Egan and Thymen is in the best shape for the Giro. Whoever finishes higher at the Tour of the Alps is our Giro leader." Saturday's three-hour ride covered 87 kilometres, the full four-lap final Hungerburg circuit that closes the race on Friday, and ended at the Innsbruck hotel at 12:45. Bernal's Strava, still public, recorded an average power of 263 watts across the four Hungerburg ascents.
The supporting field below the three headline favourites now reads as the deepest Tour of the Alps peloton since 2019. Aleksandr Vlasov leads a secondary Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe climbing card alongside 22-year-old Giulio Pellizzari, who at 2023 U23 Giro winner is the pre-race dark horse for a Top 10. Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) arrives as the designated number-one option for his new Australian team after a quiet April. Enric Mas (Movistar) returns to stage racing after his March knee inflammation. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) rides his first Tour of the Alps since 2022 and shares leadership on the Italian team with Skjelmose who is absent for the Ardennes. Defending champion Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) races on his own terms after a quiet start to 2026.
The final tactical variable is the Isaac del Toro question. UAE Team Emirates-XRG's 22-year-old Mexican was due to lead the Tour of the Alps as his Giro preparation race before his Stage 3 Itzulia abandon and the subsequent thigh MRI clear. Del Toro's team confirmed on Saturday morning that the 22-year-old will wear the UAE number 1 at the roll-out on Monday and will be managed "day by day" through the race, with abandon a live option at any point if the thigh does not respond to the opening two stages. The race DS Fabio Baldato: "Isaac is recovered to 90%. The Tour of the Alps is a test. If he gets through Stage 2 without pain we take it to Friday. If he does not, we pull him out and we go to the Giro."
Local organisers confirmed the 2026 Tour of the Alps will break its pre-race attendance record. 48,000 spectators are expected along the Monday Stage 1 roll-out route from Piazza Rosmini through Arco and Riva del Garda to the Malga Fratte finish. Local broadcasters RAI Sport will provide full live coverage from 13:00 CET each day. French and Spanish broadcasters L'Equipe and Teledeporte have extended their rights deal for 2026 and 2027. Stage 4 from Leogang to Kitzbühel (featuring the Hahnenkamm ski-race finish road) is the single broadcast event most anticipated by European coverage teams and will be carried live on ARD/ZDF in Germany for the first time since 2018.