Another, Thymen Arensman (INEOS GRenadiers), had tried to decide the stage on the last wave five kilometres before the finish. In the winding Innsbruck, where the 144-kilometre stage not only ended but also began, his team had ridden at full speed, but then braked behind the Dutchman, who was able to pull out a few metres lead. It lasted all the way to the finishing straight, but not over the line.

The field led by UKYO flew past Arensman. But none of the sprinters of the Japanese-Italian team, Dati, did. He won ahead of Pidcock and Florian Stork (Tudor Pro Cycling Team). "We knew that someone might attack on this last little climb," said Dati in the winner's interview. "I tried to go with them. When Arensman had the gap, I tried to save as much energy as possible. I was really looking forward to the stage. Now it ended as I had dreamed it would."

It was the 23-year-old's second victory in a professional race. He had celebrated his first around three weeks ago at Coppi e Bartali. There he had surprisingly held off Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) in a sprint from a small field.

Tour of the Alps 2026 - Results of the 1st stage

>> Tour of the Alps 2026: The contenders for victory in the check

How the 1st stage of the Tour of the Alps 2026 went

A German-Austrian trio dominated most of the day. Tobias Nolde (Vorarlberg), his team-mate Emanuel Zangerle and his Austrian compatriot Josef Dirnbauer (Austrian national team) rode the first 60 kilometres to a maximum of almost five minutes. After the gap shrank towards the middle of the race, it grew again to four and a half minutes before the first crossing of the second double climb.

After the second mountain classification, which, like the first, was won by Zangerle, who also took the mountain jersey, Jayco AlUla and INEOS Grenadiers increased the pace massively at the back of the field and halved the gap in just a few kilometres.

Arensman tries the last wave

First Nolde and then Dirnbauer dropped back on the final climb. However, the Austrian saved himself by a wafer-thin margin from the peloton and Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education EasyPost), who inherited two seconds in the sprint, via the bonus sprint. Zangerlege, on the other hand, fought against being caught for a long time and was only caught with five kilometres to go.

There, on the last wave of the day, the INEOS Grenadiers and their captain Arensman tried to make up a few seconds with a clever move. The Dutchman's lead was used up around 300 metres before the finish. The field raced up and past, with Dati at the front faster than Pidcock and Stork.