2026 Gran Piemonte/Giro del Piemonte (1.Pro), Italy

Gran Piemonte podium history | 2025 edition | Course map & profile | Photos | Start list

Asti - Bra, 185 km

Dorian Godon wins the 2026 Gran Piemonte. Sirotti photo

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Weather at the finish city of Bra at 2:30 PM, local time: 19C (66F), partly cloudy, with the wind from the north-northeast at 10 km/hr (6 mph). There is a 7% chance of rain at 3:00 PM, rising to 41% at 4:00 PM.

The Course: A demanding route featuring around ten climbs of varying length, with Manera, Tre Cunei and Roddino among the most notable, before the two ascents of La Morra on the final circuit. Starting from Asti, the race enters a very undulating opening section that ends in Dogliani, with a relentless succession of climbs and descents along hilly, sometimes narrow roads. A less demanding, although still rolling, section follows before the first ascent of La Morra, where the riders enter the 34.7 km final circuit, to be covered once.

The final circuit passes within a few hundred meters of the finish in Bra before heading towards Cherasco, approached via the Strada Vecchia climb. The riders then tackle La Morra for a second time before descending towards Verduno and then Pollenzo, leaving the circuit with around 500 metres to go and head towards the finish.

Final kilometers
The final kilometers are flat until around 1,800 meters from the finish. The road then begins to climb gently at 2–3% before, with 1,500 meters to go, the gradient rises to around 5% for one kilometer, with peaks of 8% shortly before the final kilometer. The road gradually levels out before two bends, left and right respectively, at 500 meters and 250 meters from the finish. The final straight is 250 meters long and rises gently at around 1%.

The race: Here's the race organizer's report.

After a fitting tribute to two highly respected team players—Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek)—riding the final race of their careers, the action kicked off with a breakaway group of nine riders. Aless De Bock (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), Alex Díaz (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Valentin Ferron (Cofidis), Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ United), Santiago Umba (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali), Germán Darío Gómez (Polti VisitMalta), Luc Wirtgen (Tudor), and Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) managed to build a lead of up to two minutes over the peloton; however, the main group refused to take risks and kept them on a tight leash throughout.

Ferron and Umba were the last to hold out, finally being reeled in 40 km from the finish, immediately after the first ascent of La Morra. The climb—a steady, rideable ascent—did little damage on the first pass, despite an attempt by UAE Team Emirates-XRG to force the pace; they committed their entire squad to the effort but failed to achieve any significant result.

Consequently, on the second pass, defending champion Isaac Del Toro was forced to take matters into his own hands. He launched one of his signature attacks, putting the field under pressure—with the notable exception of a sharp Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), who managed to latch onto his former teammate's wheel, albeit with some difficulty. Unhappy with the company, the Mexican rider tried another surge approaching the summit (GPM); the New Zealander initially struggled to match the move but showed great composure to claw his way back on the descent. At that point, however, the partnership between the two began to falter, and the 30-second gap they held over the main pack at the summit of the climb shrank rapidly—partly because several teams found the strength to organize a chase. The two attackers were caught with 1,400 meters to go, making it impossible to avoid a sprint finish.

Bettiol moved to the front in the final few hundred meters to lead out Silva, but the last corner proved disastrous for the Uruguayan—a former Maglia Rosa wearer—who crashed into the barriers, fatally checking the momentum of the riders behind him. This left Bettiol, Charmig, and Godon to contest the victory, with the Frenchman demonstrating once again that he has a real knack for winning this year.