Those who know the story will cheer even louder for Michael Valgren in Tirreno

Valgren has been around for a while. He entered the WorldTour in 2014 with Tinkoff-Saxo, but his best years came in 2017 and 2018 at Astana. In 2018 he won Omloop and Amstel, and he also finished fourth at the Tour of Flanders. In 2018 and 2019 he placed seventh and sixth at the World Championships, but after that we rarely saw him at the front in the very biggest races.

After spells with Team Dimension Data (later NTT), Valgren joined EF Education-EasyPost in 2021 and immediately won the Giro della Toscana and the Coppa Sabatini that season. He finished third at the World Championships in Flanders and looked like he had truly rediscovered the legs from his Astana days. His spring of 2022 was certainly not bad — but at La Route d’Occitanie, it all went terribly wrong.

The crash itself is nowhere to be found, but Valgren went down heavily in the finale of stage 4 and broke his pelvis, while also dislocating his hip. For a brief moment it seemed like things might be okay, but Valgren was set back a long way and was out for almost a year. With EF’s development set-up, he was given time in 2023 to rebuild rhythm and confidence.

Within the American team, they will also have had doubts about whether Valgren could return to the very top, after going through brutal physical and mental struggles. Slowly but surely, decent results did come again in 2024 and 2025 — but nobody could have predicted the way Valgren rode in stage 5 of Tirreno.

He made the early break alongside strong riders, whittled the move down until only he and Julian Alaphilippe remained, and then dropped the Frenchman on the final climb of the day. For a moment it looked as though the GC group might still steal the stage, but Valgren crested the climb in time and did not give the win away on the run to the finish.

The post-stage reactions were predictable: joy, disbelief, and emotion. Valgren looked slightly stunned in his flash interview. “This is unbelievable, it’s been so long since I won. We’ve all worked so hard for this. I had a really good winter with my family, who have always supported me. One month ago we had a baby — this victory is for him and for the team.”

In every interview afterwards, Valgren spoke of “a hard race, with lots of attacks”. “But I had good — really great — legs.” Or, as he put it in the mixed zone on YouTube: “This feels amazing. You train to win, but winning this one is still a surprise. I realised quite quickly I was good, but I tried to stay calm. In the end, I had enough left to stay ahead.”

Actually Valgren was in the race, to be able to assist Ben Healy still in the final. 'But they didn't get me back, that happens sometimes. That is also the DNA of this team; we attack, are creative and try to create something. Today I took my chance.'

In truth, Valgren had originally gone up the road to be able to support Ben Healy later in the finale. “But they didn’t bring me back — that happens sometimes. That’s also the DNA of this team: we attack, we’re creative, and we try to make something happen. Today I took my chance.”

“I’ve been back for a while now, but it was difficult to find my level again after my injury. Eventually I found that level, but I had to look for an even higher one to be able to compete with the best,” Valgren explained at the press conference. “This winter I made a step, and this victory means everything to me. I never lost my winner’s mentality, even if it had been a while. I still feel young.”