Alessandro Covi (Team Jayco AlUla) won the 2026 Giro del Veneto in Vicenza on 14 October. He went clear in the first metres of the final ramp of Monte Berico, after 167 km from Piazza Bra in Verona, and nobody caught him before the line on Viale X Giugno. Anthon Charmig (Uno-X Mobility) was second and Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) third.
It is Covi’s first win of the season and his first in Jayco AlUla colours. Five of the top ten are Italian. Isaac Del Toro, last year’s winner, was not on the start list.
Eight riders out front for 93 km
The flat and Barbarano
From Verona the race headed east through San Martino Buon Albergo, Belfiore, Cologna Veneta and Orgiano: sixty kilometres without a climb. At km 30 eight riders went clear: Tommaso Nencini (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali), Francesco Carollo and Giacomo Garavaglia (Swatt Club), Kevin Pezzo Rosola and Thomas Rossetti (General Store-Essegibi-F.lli Curia), Leonardo Volpato (Campana Imballaggi-Morbiato-Trentino), Riccardo Lorello and Andrea Scarso (S.C. Padovani Polo Cherry Bank).
They never had much room: their biggest lead was 2’40”. After the top of the climb at Barbarano Vicentino, at km 66, the race dropped towards Vicenza and onto the 15 km finishing circuit, five laps with the Monte Berico ramp on each.
The break comes apart on the circuit
Scarso was dropped as the race entered the circuit at km 92, and Nencini and Pezzo Rosola soon followed. Carollo, Garavaglia, Rossetti, Volpato and Lorello held on until 44 km to go, when they were caught.
Four kilometres later Andrea Pietrobon (Polti VisitMalta) tried on his own. He got no room, and the race stayed together until the last lap.
The world champion opens the finale
McNulty’s attack
With 14.7 km to go, just into the last lap, world champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) attacked. Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana), Fabio Christen (Pinarello Q36.5) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), third in 2025, went with him. They were caught.
Two of them paid for it. McNulty finished 37th at 50”, Abrahamsen 40th at 1’29”. Scaroni and Christen still had the legs for the final ramp.
Hirschi and Christen try once more
Marc Hirschi (Tudor) went next, and Christen followed for the second time in a few kilometres. The pair stayed clear until 6 km from the finish. Hirschi, once caught, finished 23rd: the last rider on the winner’s time.
Covi goes from the foot of Monte Berico
The long effort
On the last ascent of the ramp a group was still together at the front. Jayco AlUla had picked Andrea Vendrame for the sprint. Halfway round the circuit Vendrame, who was not feeling well, changed the plan: Covi said his teammate gave him a free hand for the finale. He did not wait: he went in the first metres of the climb and held a long effort.
Charmig tried to close him down and could not. Cosnefroy saved a podium place for UAE, who had started with three men for the finale. Vendrame finished 80th at 2’39”.
Monte Berico in metres
In our preview we estimated that dropping everyone on the fifth ascent would take about 7 W/kg for more than two minutes. It did not happen: the ramp thinned the group without breaking it, and the race was settled on the last ascent.
The first rider behind the group of twenty-three is Diego Ulissi (XDS Astana), 24th at 9”. On that gradient, at 20-22 km/h, that is about 50-55 m of road.
Covi’s sixth win
The record
Covi is 28 and comes from the province of Varese. Before Vicenza he had won five times as a professional: in 2022 the Vuelta a Murcia, stage 2 of the Vuelta a Andalucía and stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia; in 2025 stage 1 of the Giro d’Abruzzo and stage 3 of the Vuelta Asturias, on 26 April. This is the sixth.
At the Giro del Veneto he was fifth in 2021, the year the race came back; in 2024 and 2025 he did not finish.
The roll of honour
Covi is the first Italian to win the Giro del Veneto since Matteo Trentin in 2022. On Monte Berico, Dorian Godon won in 2023 and Corbin Strong in 2024. In 2025 the race finished in Verona, where Del Toro beat Pavel Sivakov and Abrahamsen; this time Sivakov was 75th at 2’25”.
Five Italians in the top ten
Alongside Covi are Scaroni, Alessandro Fancellu, Ludovico Crescioli and Simone Velasco. Scaroni is the only one of the five who was also in McNulty’s move. XDS Astana place two, him and Velasco.
Crescioli rides for the same team as Pietrobon: Polti VisitMalta tried from afar and finished with a man in the ten. Fancellu brings MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort into the top ten. 114 riders finished.
Top ten
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alessandro Covi | Team Jayco AlUla | 3h35’52” |
| 2 | Anthon Charmig | Uno-X Mobility | s.t. |
| 3 | Benoît Cosnefroy | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | s.t. |
| 4 | Fabio Christen | Pinarello Q36.5 | s.t. |
| 5 | Christian Scaroni | XDS Astana | s.t. |
| 6 | Alessandro Fancellu | MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort | s.t. |
| 7 | Roger Adrià | Movistar | s.t. |
| 8 | Clément Izquierdo | Cofidis | s.t. |
| 9 | Ludovico Crescioli | Polti VisitMalta | s.t. |
| 10 | Simone Velasco | XDS Astana | s.t. |
The race in numbers
- Average speed
- 46.4 km/h The winner’s time, from Verona to Vicenza.
- Weather at the finish
- 21.5 °C Clear sky, no rain; in Vicenza, at 16:00 local time.
- Wind at the finish
- 6 km/h From the south-west, gusts up to 15 km/h; same hour.
The estimates in metres and the weather: how we calculate them.
Sources
- PP Sport Events, press release on the finish of the Giro del Veneto, Vicenza, 14 October 2026.
- Giro del Veneto, “Percorso” (route).
- Palmarès and editions since 2021: UCI, official results.
- Weather: Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Written with the help of Mnemosyne.