Gran Piemonte 2026: The 110th Edition Hits the Langhe — and It's Wide Open

The Italian autumn classics season does not end with a whimper. On Thursday, October 8, the 110th edition of the Gran Piemonte presented by Crédit Agricole unspools across 185 kilometres from Asti to Bra, and the profile guarantees that no team can simply sit back and wait for a bunch sprint.

This is one of cycling's oldest races — older than the Tour de France — and it has a stubborn habit of defying prediction. Sprinters have won it, climbers have won it, classics punchers have won it. This year's course looks tailor-made for that last category, and the start list is loaded enough to produce a genuinely memorable October afternoon in the Langhe.

The Route: Ten Climbs and Two Laps of the Alba Circuit

The race rolls south from Asti through Piedmont wine country, passing through Santo Stefano Belbo before the terrain starts to bite. The course features around ten climbs of varying length, with Manera, Tre Cunei, and Roddino among the most notable early tests.

The key tactical element is the double circuit in the Alba area, completed twice in the race's finale. Riders tackle the ascents of Rocchetta Palafea, Mango, Barbaresco, and Diano d'Alba before entering the local circuit at Grinzane Cavour. Total elevation gain sits at approximately 2,500 metres — enough to fragment a large group but not enough to produce a GC-style attrition war.

The finish in Bra is the decisive detail. After descending from Morra, the route turns onto an uphill drag that holds at a constant 5–6% gradient before kicking to 8–9% with 600 metres to go. A final left-hand corner at 300 metres leads onto a 250-metre finishing straight. That is not a finish for pure sprinters, but it absolutely suits the sort of explosive-but-complete rider who can sustain power through a punchy final climb and then kick again at the line.

Who Won It Last Year — and Why It Matters

The 2025 edition was won by Isaac del Toro of UAE Team Emirates XRG, the young Mexican who has since established himself as one of the most dangerous riders in the sport at both stage races and punchy one-day events. His margin at the line over Marc Hirschi was a telling 40 seconds — he did not grind out a win; he attacked and rode away.

Del Toro also took the 2026 UAE Tour overall and was one of the key figures in UAE's season-long dominance. He lines up tomorrow as the defending champion in a team that, by most accounts, is the strongest in the field and fully motivated for one more result before the season closes.

For comparison: the 2024 edition was won by Neilson Powless of EF Education–EasyPost with a striking solo attack over 182 kilometres, and the 2023 edition went to Andrea Bagioli over a shorter 152-kilometre route. The race rewards both controlled aggression and smart positioning — the 2024 and 2025 winners got away from their rivals on the final climbs and held on.

The Contenders: UAE's Dilemma and the Challengers

UAE arrives as the clear favourite but with a tactical problem: they are almost too strong. Del Toro, Jhonatan Narváez, and Benoît Cosnefroy all represent credible winners if things come down to a small group. That means rivals can try to target whichever UAE rider is having the worst day rather than marking a single leader — a classic chess-match dynamic in pro cycling.

The punchy uphill finish also suits a handful of climber-classics hybrids outside the UAE train. Watch for:

• Riders with a background in the autumn Italian classics, where the course characteristics closely mirror Piemonte's rolling Langhe terrain
• Explosive GC riders who can sustain power over the final kilometre's gradient changes
• Teams willing to get in the break early, using the ten-climb route to make UAE burn matches in the chase

The double circuit structure rewards tactical intelligence: teams that get a man into the decisive move on the first lap of the circuit, when fatigue has not yet fully set in, will be better positioned than those who wait for a late firework display that may never come if UAE controls tempo effectively.

Historical Context: A Race That Rewards the Complete Rider

The Gran Piemonte's winner list is an education in cycling's archetypes. Philippe Gilbert won it. Sonny Colbrelli won it. Rigoberto Urán climbed to victory. Matthew Walls sprinted to it in 2021. The 3.8% average gradient on the main 7.1-kilometre finale — which ends with 14 kilometres remaining, not at the line — means the race is rarely decided there. Instead, the key move typically comes inside the final local circuit, when accumulated fatigue turns the 8–9% kicker in Bra into a genuine selector.

At 185 kilometres, riders will cover enough ground that even the deepest teams will feel it in their legs by the time the finishing circuit arrives. Total race time is likely to be in the four-hour range based on recent editions, meaning the finale hits somewhere around late afternoon Italian time — perfect television, brutal racing.

What This Means for Your Riding

The Gran Piemonte's finish offers a useful lesson for amateur cyclists who train on rolling terrain: the gradient change matters more than the average gradient. A steady 5% climb is a completely different physiological challenge from a ramp that starts at 5% and kicks to 9% in the final 600 metres, even over a short distance.

If you want to simulate what the pros face tomorrow, try this workout on your next hilly ride: find a punchy 1–2 kilometre climb with a steeper final third, and practice arriving at the base already fatigued from a hard effort — then accelerate through the steepest section rather than managing pace. That is exactly the skill Gran Piemonte demands, and it is the kind of repeated-effort capacity that separates the winners from the also-rans in autumn classics racing.

Tomorrow's race starts in Asti. By mid-afternoon, Bra will have its champion. Given what is on the start line, it would be a brave bet to put a name to the jersey before the second lap of that final circuit.