The 2026 Giro's breakaway king on the effects of 3 attacking stages

The Giro d'Italia has so far been largely the Paul Magnier show, though Guillermo Thomas Silva's stage win and the many heavy crashes also left their mark on the opening weekend. Somewhat less in the headlines, but very much in the camera's eye, was Diego Pablo Sevilla. The Spaniard from Polti VisitMalta crowned himself the breakaway and mountains king of the Bulgarian stages by getting into the front group on all three occasions.

In the opening stage of the Giro d'Italia, rolling out from the coastal town of Nessebar, it was Sevilla who formed the race's very first breakaway alongside Manuele Tarozzi. He immediately laid his hands on the mountains jersey, picking up six classification points along the way.

On day two, Sevilla was in the move again — this time alongside teammate Mirco Maestri. Eighteen more points brought his tally to 24, a figure he improved on once more on day three. In a three-man breakaway, the Spaniard crested the Borovets Pass first and boarded the plane to Italy with 42 points to his name.

That gives Sevilla a commanding lead in the mountains classification: second-placed Tarozzi trails him by a full 30 points. The opening weekend has taken its toll on the Polti VisitMalta rider, though. Speaking to the race's media after stage three — by which point he had spent 491 kilometres in the breakaway — Sevilla admitted: "I'm starting to get a little tired. Yesterday I was telling myself I shouldn't be at the front today, that I needed to recover."

Yet on Sunday he attacked again all the same. "But we knew it would be a good opportunity to pick up some points. And that's how it played out. For now, we're holding onto this jersey and we'll try to keep it for as long as possible."

On the stage's dramatic finale — where the breakaway stayed clear until the very last kilometre — he reflected: "That wasn't what we were looking for, but sometimes you can win like that. In this kind of race, you never know when your chance might come. Today, we came close. The peloton let us go."

All in all, Sevilla has every reason to feel satisfied with the opening three days. "I've only ridden the Giro d'Italia once before. I don't have much experience at this race. Enjoying the whole race, getting noticed... I think there's plenty of reason to be very happy."

The cycling world hp[es that Sevilla can rest up on Monday, so we can enjoy more attacking riding from the blue jersey in week two!