The Real Giro 2026 Afternoon

[team fl]

Ciao tutti! Va bene?

The spring classics are over (just forget that German race at 1 May) - it’s time for the Grand Tours. And as everyone knows, the best comes first: the Giro d’Italia. Time to put on those rose-colored glasses, wear that violet shirt with the azure shorts and the red socks.

And as everyone also knows, the afternoon edition is the only real Giro on C4F! That's where Team FL will be, most likely with the following line-up:

X1 Manfred Matt
As No. 1, "Manni" will be protected in the GC stages (mountains) and try to get the best out of everything else too. But then again nothing really MATTers, if he can't spark a match in Italy.

X2 Arturas Andriuskevicius
The young lithuanian is the latest addition to the line-up. He will help the leaders and have some freedom from time to time.

X3 Erasmus Erpelding
Main job: Lead out for Vincent. Second job: have a decent time trial result. Third job: Finish the Giro...

X4 Felikss Fokerots
Felikss will be the key domestique for Manni, with some little chances to go for his own interests, if there's an opportunity for that.

X5 Raimo Rautsepp
Raimo will try to keep everybody in time. Might be the king of the Gruppetto already.

X6 Ricardo Rocha
In football terms, Ricardo is the libero of the team. He does whatever he wants.

X7 Rik Ribbens
Rrrrrik in the house! Most likely. Depends a bit on his first training in May...

X8 Vincent Verwimp
Easy: Goes for bunch sprints, if possible. The Maglia Ciclamino might be out of reach due to this year's course, but who knows.

X9 Wim Wijkstra
Wim is the third wheel in the sprint department as there is not pavé stage where he could shine.

Alternatives: Zenobio Zalazar for Rik Ribbens or Arturas Andriuskevicius. He's younger than Rik and has the better flat skill than Arturas. But he's not known for his regenartion skill.

Goals: No Fürst, weak classic department and little chances for bunch sprints. So, wasting lots of money and gruppetto work will be the main focus for Team FL in this year's edition. Cannon fodder in other terms. Other than that, we try to enjoy the bulgarian and italian landscapes with no pressure at all. Ah yes, try to be online more than 50% of the stages. That's also a thing.

[Tukhtahuaev]

Most likely also joining here though a few sitter days will be needed for sure.

Lineup not entirely sure yet, but probably something like this:

1: Graziano Alborghetti
Probably won't be able to win the team a third Maglia Rosa in a row, but will try his best to at least win the white jersey

2: Tlaloc Coyotecatl
Helper for Alborghetti and will most likely be seen in a few escapes to try for a stage win

3: Shohrat Dawamat
Helper, early tempo, maybe some escapes. Will pretty much have a different role every day

4: Zhansultan Dosmagambetov
Maybe the best rider of the spring classics, so he can't really stay at home. Will have a free role most of the time

5: Deimantas Girdvainis
Blocker for flat stages

6: Shokhzhakhon Mamatkhodzhaev
Similar to Dawamat, helper for the flat stages, free role everywhere else

7: Artem Palamarchuk
Sprint leader. Profiles are not looking especially sprinter friendly, but as MSR winner he has to be here

8: Kensi Taiwia
Flatmonster and blocker for the final kms

9: Terentiy Tikhomirov
Young classic with plenty of potential. Will do whatever he wants

Other potential candidates are Corentin Poitrenaud, Zemenfes Mengisteab and Oleksandr Piskun.
The aim for this Giro is to win at least 3 stages, the white jersey and get into the top 10 in GC

[Falcor CC]

Finally the Real Giro thread is here!

Falcor will start here too of course. Lineup isn't definitive yet, but it won't be until we see the field. Our provisional lineup includes:

X1 Magnus Jensen
Arguably the best classic of 2026 so far, Magnus starts the Giro after already having won Tirreno-Adriatico, the Brabanste Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race. He wants to end his career with a bang in Italy and because of his status and palmares he gets our #1, breaking the teams tradition of giving that to our best climber.

X2 Oscar Avalos
The young Mexican sprinter has only just joined the team, but gets the tough task of launching Max to sprint wins.

X3 Cesare Baddetti
As for most races, Cesare was the first name on the signup sheet. Having racked up over 200 races at 29 by the time the Giro starts, he is known for his incredible motor, willingness to ride and tireless work ethic.

X4 Loïc Callard
Always reliable, and can ride super fast above all. Here for an allround role, but his main goal is getting sprints.

X5 Domingo Cruz
The Mexican champion is looking to confirm his status as Magnus' successor by getting some good results in Italy and supporting our #1 and #2 where needed.

X6 Antonio Diego
The second part of our Mexican trio. Gets a pretty open role, where he can go for escapes, but also support both our mountain and sprint leaders.

X7 Max Dokker
The fastest man from Limburg is here to give the FLs a tough battle in the sprint!

X8 Jordan Henkey
Seems to love his sprint stat way more than his flat stat, so he gets to use all of his experience to launch the sprints.

X9 Luca Parri
Il Partigiano gets the nod to present the team as the main climber this year. More news about this decision soon!

Alternatives: While we look very much forward to competing against the (on paper) slightly stronger FL train, we know that we will have to adapt if a much better train joins the field. In that case, Thibault Kerken will replace Loïc Callard, Dave Barlington will replace Jordan Henkey, and Mick Rory will replace Oscar Avalos.

Goals: We hope to re-live last years dream of winning 4 stages (or even more this time!). No GC chances, so we focus on stages, the Maglia Ciclamino or even the Maglia Azzurra. Jensen and Parri are of course free to chase a top 10 GC finish as well.

[Robyklebt]

Falcor with an embarrassing lineup. Is something like that even allowed at the Giro? Afternoon Giro. Seems better suited to some lesser time. The real Giro has class. That means..... compare the announced lineups of FL and Tukh to yours, what is different?

[Falcor CC]

Falcor with an embarrassing lineup. Is something like that even allowed at the Giro? Afternoon Giro. Seems better suited to some lesser time. The real Giro has class. That means..... compare the announced lineups of FL and Tukh to yours, what is different?

Their #2 riders are losers?

[Rexona]

Welcome to the Giro 2026!

Also SouthWest Packers will start here to fight up the Maglia Rosa.

Following guys are registered.


1. Jamshid Abdurashitov ( The Captain)
2. Iwan Bondarew ( Mountain helper)
3. Jorge Icaza ( classic specialist)
4. Kamila Cichon ( classic specialist)
5. Indji Lub ( classic specialist)
6. Miodrag Belodedici ( classic specialist)
7. Adam Darski ( 60-80 guy to control the field after the first siebs)
8. Jin Zhiyi ( Rouleur with reg)
9. Danil Skutin ( Rouleur with reg)


Lets have some fun and hope for a nice field

[Robyklebt]

SWP too, not worthy!!!

[Rexona]

SWP too, not worthy!!!

More Mountain= more better?

[Falcor CC]

SWP too, not worthy!!!

More Mountain= more better?

Amen!

[Robyklebt]

No

Look at FL and Tukh: Donkey says, good!
Look at Falcor and you: Donkey says, not good!

[drei.zehn]

These lineups look horrible...
Cycling has his unwritten rules!!!

[Falcor CC]

After immense pressure from the press, the team conducted an extensive study (checked the starting list for the 2025 real life Giro) and has decided to change the order for our riders. I hope you're happy!

[Robyklebt]

We love Falcor!

[Nomorelulz]

Will probably ride here as I am in love with falcor and I want to get on Donkeys purple list. Lineup will follow when I'm more sure to ride here or giro at all.

[CircleCycle]

Unfortunately CC with most likely no time for the Giro (also no Team, but thats a different story), and even if, no time for the afternoon race.

[Robyklebt]

1 G. Lafuente: Leader, 83 mountain, 58 TT, so with a bit of an advantage on other climbers, so might even have a chance. I thought until I finally checked SWPs riders... OH well, 83 and 76 TT, might as well leave Lafuente at home actually But he stays, keeps number 1, but as often happens lately, might change leader

2 A. Bongiorno 89 sprint, sprint leader without train, so relying on his flat, 60, to get the right wheels. Nominally one of the best sprinters I expect, reliance on other trains might make us work very little for him, but we'll only know once we see who wants to get the same wheels we do...

3 A. Bonjour 68-77, with pavé, which is not useful, but expensive here. Second classic helper, with downhill. Escapes possible, has reg.

4 P. Gallego 74-79, no downhill. good otherwise, but no downhill.. reg too, so escapes are allowed for him too.

5 B. Gjeldnes 50-82 with reg, And pavé, another guy that is more expensive that we like. Tempo maker for Bongiorno (depending on opponents, see above) possible escape puller

6 A. Iskanderov 85 climber, 55 sprint, no reg, little downhill. Puller for Lafuente in the final climb was the original plan, but SWP has a 86 guy to pull his 83 guy (who hopefully doesn't train anymore, but still youngish), so now Iskanderov is just a guy hanging around in the climbers group hoping for a lucky punch.

7 E. Ousland: 60-80, reg and pavé, our only 60-80 this time around, escapes, help for the climbers.

8 O. Søvndal. 52-77, should get better in flat, 23 years old. Unpopular since FL opined that Pogacar should be written Pogačar ingame, since then I don't dare writing his family name, and too lazy to regularly copy it. But in principle this FL is even right, so... Ole it is most of the time. But will refrain from buying more guys with strange letters...He's there for his low salary, 52 mountain makes him not the weakest on paper in the mountains, not furthest behind.

9 F. Vigni 85 flat man, our last man for Bongiorno. And second sprinter, we might go for our own train? Hihi, unlikely. He'll be a money sprinter hopefully gets a few top 20 placements

Too expensive, haven't checked exactly yet, so we might call up our reserves, R. Kagge, B. Kotibaruly and O. Sherifo especially now that we realized that SWP is so superior. We made the team without knowing much about our opponents, just the ones we keep meeting around often, which didn't include SWP. So now we're a bit lost actually....This team makes much less sense than if SWP wasn't here. Gjeldnes at risk, Kotibaruly cheaper and as fast in flat. No reg, but Ousland-Gallego have reg, just let them work a bit early if it ever actually makes sense for us to work. Sensible thing of course would be to drop Lafuente, but that won't happen, after all he promised us to train 4 times in May. Rather Bonjour, he prefers the Tour anyway and with 68 mountain he still will be dropped early when the pace gets hard. Sherifo for him gives us a second great second sprinter, another 55 (oh, forgot Iskanderov, 3 55 then) for 29k less. Hm, we still have till Friday to think, so...

[Michael Redrocks]

[team fl]

Yeah, we love it!

And it looks like we have the team with the strongest nominal sprinter in the game in the afternoon with Jokers being singed up atm. Which means I have to overthink my lineup as well and maybe send young Steingrimur with lots of reg instead of Zalazar f.e. Things to think about until Friday

[Robyklebt]

Good!

Donkeys react immediately to this weakening of the field and kick:

Gjeldnes: Good for gruppetto work, good for control (but unlikely to be needed) good for escapes with R. Kagge. Good for nothing? No, no, good for well, nothing I guess. Lower salary! 78 flat. Kotibaruly being almost as expensive as Gjeldnes... we bring Kagge. A big star. Even if possibly good for nothing. We might change back to Gjeldnes...
Bonjour: Good for everything, but costs a lot for O. Sherifo. Young, eager, cheap, future star, here to learn and impress. We lose our 4th man in the mountains, who might hang on quite long on some stages, and has the downhill Gallego lacks, but when the race gets really hard he would be dropped as well. First sieb ok, second not kind of thing. Seems fine without him.

That's the team that is inscribed now, changes possible. Of course all alphabetical, but, warning, late changes from Thursday on won't be done alphabetically, if Bonjour comes back in for Sherifo, Bonjour won't get his old no. 3, but no. 7, Sherifo's number.
Salary down to 482k, nice, always our goal to be under 500k, we always fail for the Giro, this year we will manage it seems. Might get Gjeldnes back in for Kagge even, would only be 496, but 482 sounds better.

[drei.zehn]

Just to go in week 3 as a 83 climber

[Falcor CC]

Following the surprising announcement from Michael, of which the team wasn't aware at the time, we now announce our revamped and official lineup for the Real Giro:

X1 Michael Redrocks
85 64 59 48 56 61.6 55

X2 Oscar Avalos
48 58 72 54 80 57.4 41

X3 Cesare Baddetti
50 86 80 48 51 75.5 54

X4 Dave Barlington
49 86 78 50 47 74.3 36

X5 Domingo Cruz
74 78 71 51 58 72 52

X6 Antonio Diego
57 84 74 48 59 72.3 40

X7 Magnus Jensen
78 76 73 50 61 67.9 44

X8 Luca Parri
81 63 78 52 56 61.2 57

X9 Mick Rory
47 72 67 52 53 65.7 42

See you on Friday!

[team fl]

Signed up at the moment, in alphabetical order:

Big Donkey
-> Climber duo Iskanderov and Lafunete and sprinter Bongiorno. Salary under 500k feels cheap.

Confidential Era
-> looks like Rodriguez is the best climber in the afternoon regarding mountain skill only, supported by Bennett and Whelan. Very strong team in the mountains.

Credit Pommes
-> Burger the clear leader, the rest most likely seen in escapes.

Falcor
-> Harry P.! Helper for Jensen

Jokers
-> Rajbanshi most likely the king of sprints. Bekele and McNulty maybe something for hilly stages.

L RSV
-> Trkman and Urbanek for the mountains, Frizzante for sprints. Somehow similar to the Big Donkey line-up, only a bit better.

NoMoreLulz (announced but not signed up yet)
-> Liiv, Viitanen and Sarma. Climber, classic, sprinter. They look like the best shot for stage wins or NML. Support for Liiv looks good, but is it good enough?

SouthWest Packers
-> So far GC favourite No. 1 with Abdurashitov. Team seems eager to support him fully with no distraction. But there is some competition in the mountains that could be dangerous.

Team FL
-> Verwimp for the sprints, Matt for the hilly stages. But most likely not competitive anywhere. Predestined for Gruppetto work

Tukhtahuaev
-> Him begint not the top GC contender feels weird after last year's dominance. Alborghetti looking for the Maglia Bianca though and the monument winners Palmarchuk and Dosmagambetov for a stage win (or more).

[Tukhtahuaev]

Really not hopeful at all looking at the current opposition. Seems like there is a stronger team for every type of stage. At first glance this looks like the strongest edition so far

[team fl]

Way too early favourite check (will be updated before Friday):

Maglia Rosa
***** Jamshid Abdurashitov (SouthWest Packers)
**** Xavi Roriguez (Confidential Era), Erki Liiv (NoMoreLulz)
*** Tilen Trkman (L RSV), Gabriel Lafuente (Big Donkey)
** Iwan Bondarew (SouthWest Packers), Arjen Burger (CreditPommes), Uros Urbanek (L RSV), Azimbek Iskanderov (Big Donkey), Michael Redrocks (Falcor)
* Magnus Jensen (Falcor), Luca Parri (Falcor), Graziano Alborghetti (Tukhtahuaev), Finn Bennett (Confidential Era)

Maglia Ciclamino
*** Artem Palmarchuk (Tukhtahuaev),
** Avinash Rajbanshi (Jokers) Zhansultan Domagambetov (Tukhtahuaev), Nikita Viitanen (NoMoreLulz)
* Vincent Verwimp (Team FL), Magnus Jensen (Falcor), Robi Saarma (NoMoreLulz), Fabiano Frizzante (L RSV), Arcadio Bongiorno (Big Donkey)

Maglia Azzurra
*** The one who wants it
** Another rider
* A surprise rider

Maglia Bianca
*** Arjen Burger (CreditPommes)
** Finn Bennett (Confidential Era),
* Graziano Alborghetti (Tukhtahuaev)

Team classement
*** Confidential Era
** SouthWest Packers
* L RSV

[drei.zehn]

Way too early favourite check (will be updated before Friday):

Maglia Rosa
***** Jamshid Abdurashitov (SouthWest Packers)
**** Xavi Roriguez (Confidential Era), Erki Liiv (NoMoreLulz)
*** Tilen Trkman (L RSV), Gabriel Lafuente (Big Donkey)
** Iwan Bondarew (SouthWest Packers), Arjen Burger (CreditPommes), Uros Urbanek (L RSV), Azimbek Iskanderov (Big Donkey), Michael Redrocks (Falcor)
* Magnus Jensen (Falcor), Luca Parri (Falcor), Graziano Alborghetti (Tukhtahuaev), Finn Bennett (Confidential Era)

Maglia Ciclamino
*** Artem Palmarchuk (Tukhtahuaev),
** Avinash Rajbanshi (Jokers) Zhansultan Domagambetov (Tukhtahuaev), Nikita Viitanen (NoMoreLulz)
* Vincent Verwimp (Team FL), Magnus Jensen (Falcor), Robi Saarma (NoMoreLulz), Fabiano Frizzante (L RSV), Arcadio Bongiorno (Big Donkey)

Maglia Azzurra
*** The one who wants it
** Another rider
* A surprise rider

Maglia Bianca
*** Arjen Burger (CreditPommes)
** Finn Bennett (Confidential Era),
* Graziano Alborghetti (Tukhtahuaev)

Team classement
*** Confidential Era
** SouthWest Packers
* L RSV

Missing the comments