American Sepp Kuss (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) has won stage 19 of the 2026 Giro d’Italia, the 151 km long Feltre-Alleghe (Piani di Pezzè), ahead of Derek Gee (Lidl-Trek) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Kuss’ win completes his trilogy of a stage win in each of the Grand Tours.
Ciccone tackled the last climb of the queen stage in the Dolomites alone in the lead but Sepp Kuss and later Derek Gee-West overhauled him.
Nevertheless, the Italian scored a lot of points in the mountains classification, which was his goal after he wore the Maglia Rosa for one day after stage 4 in Calabria. He took the Maglia Azzurra over from Jonas Vingegaard who was just happy to not lose any time on Felix Gall, still second overall, and Jai Hindley, newly third.
Speaking in the press conference, the stage winner Kuss said: “Honestly, i didn’t believe I’d catch Giulio Ciccone when he had one minute lead. I was very frustrated with that race situation because I had super legs. I should have followed him, I knew it was a technical descent. I thought I had wasted this chance to win the stage, but I tried to refocus. I knew the last climb would be a test of legs. At half way when I saw him, I realized I had made it up and I was in contention for the win again. In the last km, I went quite deep, I didn’t calculate, I probably didn’t look pretty pretty, I suffered so much but I wanted to finish with no regrets. My biggest goal at the Giro was to help Jonas [Vingegaard]. For me as a rider, that’s where I get my biggest motivation and the best out of myself. Being a domestique is my best character as a rider. It says a lot about Jonas that he was so happy for me. That’s the kind of leader he is. It also says a lot about our team. There are always doubters and it was understandable after what we achieved in 2023 that people thought it would be difficult to do as well as that [winning all three Grand Tours with three different riders] but we’re still doing well. For us that flow is racing our bikes, not overthinking it… With that, it means opportunities for riders like me, we don’t always race textbook tactics, but we have good and committed riders. I didn’t know until I got the Premio Pantani that he also won here, I’m not a cycling historian, but I enjoy watching old Giro stages, 6000m of climbing and more than 200km in mountain stages. It wasn’t that much today but it was a spectacular finish.”
Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) retains the Maglia Rosa as he leads the General Classification.
Vingegaard said: ““Sepp Kuss always sacrifices himself for everybody else and never asks anything back. To give him something back is a real pleasure. He has been there in all my Grand Tour wins. I’m so happy he got his chance. We mentioned that possibility earlier in the Giro. For me, Visma-Lease a Bike is really a dream team here. Everyone is in top form and does everything for me and today for Sepp to win the stage. Today’s win is the top 3 highlights of this Giro so far. We’ve now won five stages, we have the Maglia Rosa with an advantage of four minutes… The big goal tomorrow will be to retain the Maglia Rosa, then we’ll see what else is possible. It would be extremely nice for Davide [Piganzoli] to take the Maglia Bianca, he recovered one and half minute today.”
Stage 19 Brief Results
- Sepp Kuss (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) – 151 km in 4h28’33”, av. speed 33,736 km/h
- Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) at 13″
- Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) at 36″
General Classification After Stage 19
- Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike)
- Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) at 4’03”
- Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) at 5’04”
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