Only once you know Giulio Ciccone's full Giro story can you appreciate what his first pink jersey means

For many followers of the sport, Giulio Ciccone in the pink jersey may have been little more than a footnote after stage four of the Giro d'Italia. Fantasy cycling players will mostly have had him in their teams for the mountains classification, where he is one of the top favourites. But for Ciccone personally, the pink jersey represented the fulfilment of a far greater dream. IDL Pro Cycling tells the story of why the maglia rosa matters so much to the man from Chieti.

When Ciccone lined up as a 21-year-old first-year professional for Bardiani at the 2016 Giro d'Italia and immediately won a brutally difficult mountain stage on debut, a phenomenon was born. In a country that hunts endlessly for potential Grand Tour winners, Ciccone looked like the answer.

In 2017, Cicco made little impression at the Giro — but in 2018 he came back and only narrowly missed out on the mountains jersey. Chris Froome, who also won that year's Giro overall, beat Ciccone to the blue jersey by just 17 points in that extraordinary edition.

Then in 2019, everything came together at last — and how. Ciccone made the step up to WorldTour team Trek-Segafredo, won the mountains classification at the Giro by a street, and added a stage win in the third week — on a day of rain, cold and the legendary Mortirolo. He took the blue jersey to Verona, and in the Tour de France that followed, he also wore the yellow jersey for a day.

Italy was convinced: with 2020 arriving and Ciccone just turned 25, the succession to Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru was in safe hands. But when the coronavirus arrived in March of that year, a sequence of setbacks began that would do enormous damage to Ciccone's seemingly preordained status as Italy's Giro hero in waiting.

At the 2020 Giro — moved to October because of the pandemic — Ciccone was forced to abandon after 14 anonymous stages with bronchitis. The following year he started brilliantly, even matching pace with eventual winner Egan Bernal in the early stages. But as the race wore on he faded, and then in the third week came disaster: a high-speed crash on the descent of the Passo di San Valentino left him unable to start Stage 18. He was lying tenth overall when the race ended for him. As if that were not enough, a crash in the same year's Vuelta a España also forced him out of that race.

Ciccone wanted to hit back in 2022, but physically he was not at his best in the first two weeks. Stung into action in the third week, he spent the entire final stretch animating the breakaways — and came away with one stage win for his efforts. It was small consolation, but even then Ciccone was already saying: next year, I'll be back to ride for the overall.

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After an excellent winter, Ciccone arrived into 2023 looking like a different rider. He won a stage at Valencia, put Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel to the sword in a stage at the Volta a Catalunya, and every sign pointed to him having taken a significant step forward. Then, just as the Giro was approaching, he contracted yet another bout of COVID. It was severe enough to rule him out entirely.

Ciccone found his form again and won a stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné and the mountains classification at the Tour de France — but his great Giro ambition was postponed by another year. And 2024 brought yet another delay: as if the cycling gods were conspiring against him, a saddle-area injury requiring surgery in February made it impossible to be ready in time for May. He started his season late, went to the Tour de France, and was set for a top-ten finish — only to lose that position on the final day.

Was it simply not meant to be? Ciccone refused to believe it. He rode a superb spring in 2025, arrived at the Giro in the best shape of his career, and for two and a half weeks did everything right. Then, in Stage 14, he was caught in a crash and tore a muscle in his upper leg. His Giro was over — and with it, the knowledge that not just a top ten, not just a top five, but quite possibly a podium or even overall victory had dissolved in an instant.

The crash in the 2025 Giro was the final straw. A ten-year pursuit of a role as a Grand Tour contender came to an abrupt end. Ciccone had had enough and announced a new focus: stages, one-day races, winning. He promptly won the Clásica de San Sebastián and a stage at the Vuelta a Burgos.

Ciccone has accumulated thirteen victories during his career, but it is possible that his GC obsession had cost him many more stage wins along the way. And so he arrived at his ninth Giro, starting in Bulgaria, as a free agent. No GC pressure — just attacking, racing freely and winning. Little knowing that approach might be the key to the pink dream after all.

Because Ciccone had dreamed, as a small boy — as every Italian cyclist does — of wearing the leader's jersey at the Giro. And at the very moment he had let go of that dream in the context of a GC battle, stage four of the 2026 Giro placed him in position to make it happen anyway. Bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint and the finish were enough to take the jersey.

A Giro career of extraordinary highs and crushing lows found a new chapter. "Today I am repaid for all the bad luck, injuries and COVID infections I have had at this race," he said — words that needed no further explanation. As if scripted, the Giro now travels to Abruzzo — Ciccone's home region — in the coming days. The dream is to be wearing pink there.

Or, as Italian observers quietly began to wonder: does this reignite his GC ambitions after all? Perhaps even Ciccone himself no longer has an answer to that question.