{"id":205312,"date":"2026-05-11T08:31:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=205312"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:31:37","slug":"paul-magnier-wins-two-of-first-three-giro-ditalia-stages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/05\/11\/paul-magnier-wins-two-of-first-three-giro-ditalia-stages\/","title":{"rendered":"A Superstar Is Born: Magnier Wins Two of First Three Giro d\u2019Italia Stages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remco who? The 22-year-old sprinter Paul Magnier has made his Soudal Quick-Step team quickly forget its failed GC experiment with Remco Evenepoel by winning two of the first three stages of the Giro d\u2019Italia and becoming the second young French rider, after Paul Seixas, to fill French hearts with joy this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Combining a smooth riding style, surprising power and brilliant timing, Magnier already looks like a superstar after winning his first two Grand Tour stages. To do that, he had to beat odds-on favorite Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), who had won the points classification in all three Grand Tours he previously entered.<\/p>\n

The young Frenchman now has 28 victories on his palmares and leads the race for the maglia ciclamino<\/em>, the purple jersey worn by the leader of the points classification competition, with 105 points, with Milan at 64 and Tobias Lund Andresen (Uno-X Mobility) with 42.<\/p>\n

The same, but different<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first three stages of this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia, which all took place in Bulgaria,<\/a> were both very similar and quite different. Ahead of Monday\u2019s rest and travel day, Thomas Silva (XDS Astana) is wearing the race leader\u2019s pink jersey, 4 seconds ahead of Florian Stork (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Egan Bernal (Netcompany INEOS).<\/p>\n

All three races began with a small breakaway (of wo or three riders), with the peloton shrugging its collective shoulders riding along at the pace of a walk in the park. Diego Pablo Sevilla (Polti VisitMalta) was in all three breaks, accompanied on Friday\u2019s stage 1 by Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), on stage 2 by teammate Mirco Maestri and by Tarozzi and teammate Alessandro Tonelli on stage 3. As I said, the same but different.<\/p>\n

The peloton eventually got into the spirit of the race and caught the breakaways late on all three stages, but not before the enterprising Sevilla had collected all the King of the Mountains points available on the three stages. But here is where the similarities ended.<\/p>\n

Magnier\u2019s first win<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On Friday\u2019s first stage, Magnier won his first Grand Tour stage by brilliantly navigating a chaotic finish and then perfectly timing his sprint to beat Lund Andresen and Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling). Milan was caught out and uncharacteristically began his sprint too late, finishing fourth.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he was distracted by the mass crash that took down about 20 riders on the narrow finishing straight about 600 meters from the line. Among the sprinters that hit the pavement were Kaden Groves (Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech) and Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets), who both suffered minor injuries but were able to continue.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Velon CC (@veloncc)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n