On the 15th stage of the Giro d'Italia, a sprint royal was actually planned for the sprinters' teams. On the flat stage from Voghera to Milan, it was the penultimate chance for the sprinters at the Giro to take a stage win and collect crucial points in the points classification of the tour. In the end, however, the sprinters' teams were to lose out.

Dversnes wins out of a breakaway group

Shortly after the start of the race, a breakaway quartet was let go without much resistance from the peloton. The four riders were Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), Mattia Bais (Team Polti VisitMalta), Mirco Maestri (Team Polti VisitMalta) and Fredrik Dversnes Lavik (Uno-X Mobility). The quartet rode ahead of the peloton for the entire race and worked well together. Overall, however, the sprinter teams seemed to have the four riders under control. The lead of the leading group was barely more than two minutes at most.

But when the lead was still around a minute with 15 kilometres to go, it was clear that the sprinters were going to have their work cut out for them to close the gap at the end. When the gap was still around half a minute with 3 kilometres to go, the surprise was obvious. The escapees were to finish ahead of the sprinters, who had simply gambled.

Maestri bites his teeth out at Dversnes

On the finishing straight, Mattia Bais was the first to ride into the wind, setting the pace for his team-mate Mirco Maestri. But it was Dversnes Lavik who was on Bais' rear wheel and opened up the sprint. Maestri was unable to counter the powerful attack and was almost a bike length off the pace in the end. With the stage win at the 2026 Giro d'Italia, Dversnes Lavik can celebrate the biggest success of his career to date.

Magnier back in the Giro d'Italia points jersey

The peloton then crossed the finish line almost a minute behind. Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) won the sprint for fifth place. The Frenchman, who has already won two sprint stages at the 2026 Giro d'Italia, thus collects the necessary points to be allowed to wear the points jersey again on stage 16. He thus overtakes Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) again, who had snatched the purple jersey from him the day before. As expected, there are no changes in the battle for the overall classification of the Giro d'Italia.

Giro d'Italia 2026 - Results of the 15th stage

How the 15th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2026 went

On the 157-kilometre flat stage with the finish in Milan, the four breakaway riders who would later decide the victory between themselves made off a few kilometres into the race. Lidl-Trek in the person of Amanuel Ghebreigabhier was responsible for the chase. However, he was repeatedly replaced by the teams Soudal Quick-Step and Unibet Rose Rockets. All three teams endeavoured to keep the breakaways under control as much as possible and to offer their sprinters the best possible starting position in Milan. The maximum gap between the two groups was around 2:10 minutes.

When the breakaway group still had a lead of over a minute around 20 kilometres before the finish, the German rider Max Walscheid also had to integrate himself into the chase. He is actually part of the sprint train of his captain Jonathan Milan, so he had to take on responsibility earlier than planned on stage 15. When he went out of the wind 8 kilometres before the finish, it was clear to him that he could not act as Jonathan Milan's lead-out man on this day - his tank was already empty at this point.

But even Walscheid was unable to close the gap to the escapees decisively. The quartet made it onto the finishing straight. Dversenes Lavik won the breakaway sprint ahead of Maestri and Marcellusi. The best German was Pascal Ackermann (Team Jayco AlUla) in 15th place.

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