Tirreno-Adriatico 2026 Stage 7

photo credits @ Tirreno-Adriatico 

Jonathan Milan claimed the final stage of this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, after the Italian rider powered his way to victory in a messy sprint finale with perfectly-timed acceleration finish to beat Ineos Grenadiers’ Sam Welsford and Soudal QuickStep’s Laurenz Rex on the line.

Meanwhile, despite being caught up in a late crash during the last 3 kilometers, Del Toro rolled across as the GC victor ahead of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma–Lease a Bike) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe).

Race Highlights

Xabier Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5), Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla), and Roberto Carlos González (Solution Tech-Nippo-Rali) escaped the peloton early on, later building up a maximum advantage of over four minutes after 10 kilometers of racing.

From there, the riders held onto their gap until the first climb of the day with 100 kilometers still remaining. However, the trio saw its lead steadily evaporate to just over two minutes, as the peloton turned up the heat.

Still, it wasn’t until the final climb of the Ripatransone, that the peloton bridged the gap to the leaders.  

In the meantime, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), who had originally fallen behind the chase group up the Ripatransone, managed to claw back some time before the descent, sticking with the Matthieu Van der Poel’s front group, who built up an advantage of over 20 seconds with 90 kilometers to go.

However, the peloton managed to rein in the leaders some 10 kilometers later, as Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led the chase group in support of Del Toro.

Elsewhere, the intermediate sprint provided its own drama as Jorgenson crossed the line first ahead of Van Aert to take the full five points, as Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) trailed to take just two points.

With the bonus seconds, Jorgenson also leapfrogged Pellizzari in the GC to take second place with 30 kilometers to go.

With 7 kilometers remaining, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) upped the pace, subsequently opening up a 10-second advantage into the final kilometer. 

Back in the peloton, a crash saw Philpsen go down, but the Belgian managed to quickly regain peloton.  

Up front,  Abrahamsen was still managing to hold onto his lead until the final meters, when Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers) tried to animate things with a late surge. But Milan timed his sprint to perfection to snatch the win.