Of the 184 riders on the starting line for the 113th edition of the French stage race, only 12 Italians have been selected for the Grande Boucle: Davide Piganzoli, Antonio Tiberi, Filippo Ganna, Edoardo Affini, Lorenzo Fortunato, Giulio Ciccone, Marco Frigo, Mattia Cattaneo, Matteo Trentin and Damiano Caruso. In the general classification, the best of the Italians is Piganzoli, Vingegaard’s domestique, who is currently in the top 20 but over 10 minutes behind the leader.Even further back is Tiberi, currently outside the top 30 and 27 minutes behind. To find the third Italian, we have to look beyond 50th place in the standings.

We’re pinning our hopes on Filippo Ganna (whose annual salary is 2 million) for a stage win. The time trial specialist finished second in the time trial at the Grand Départ in Catalonia, where he rode alongside his teammates from Netcompany Ineos (a British team with a season budget of 50 million).

Italian teams not taking part

At the 2026 Tour de France, the three teams holding UCI ProTeam licences – namely Bardiani CSF 7, Saber Solution Tech Nippo Rali and Team Polti Visitmalta – are not among the teams in the second tier of professional cycling. For ProTour teams, participation in the French stage race is guaranteed for the top three in the UCI seasonal rankings.

In addition, the ASO organisers can invite two teams via wildcards. For the Giro d’Italia, however, RCS Sport has invited Polti and Bardiani. The Italian-Japanese team Nippo took part in Tirreno-Adriatico and Strade Bianche.

Number of Italian runners halved

In the men’s category, there are 526 cyclists competing in the main circuit organised by the International Cycling Union. There are 57 Italian riders registered with World Tour teams. Italy ranks second in terms of the number of representatives, behind only Belgium, which boasts 76 riders including Remco Evenepoel, sprinter Jasper Philipsen and Wout van Aert (who is absent from the Tour due to injury). Next come France (56), the Netherlands (45), Great Britain (32), Denmark (29), Norway (29), Spain (29), Germany (27), Australia (26), the United States (14), Colombia and Slovenia (11).