Throughout all of 2025 Paul Magnier wasn’t just threatening to deliver, but was delivering. 25 wins he racked up in total, six of them at WorldTour level. At one point, he won 14 races in just 17 race days. If Tadej Pogačar was a sprinter, that’s what he’d do. But there was something rather big missing from Magnier’s palmarès: a Grand Tour stage win.
On day one of the 2026 Giro d’Italia – just his second participation in a three-week race – he ticked that box. Most of the talk pre-race was about Jonathan Milan. Lidl-Trek, struggling for form as a collective this season, have been relying heavily and leaning on the Italian, and in his home Grand Tour Milan doesn’t usually fail. Dylan Groenewegen, too, consumed many people’s thoughts, the team debut of Unibet Rose Rockets an interesting sub-plot in the race. But Magnier doesn’t pay attention to what other people assume will happen. He’s on a mission to be the world’s best sprinter – and the sooner the better as far as he’s concerned.
Read more: Giro d'Italia 2026 stage one results
On the Black Sea coast of Burgas in Bulgaria, the furthest east the Giro has travelled in Europe (the 2018 stages in Israel were even further east still), Magnier was well-positioned at the very front of the race inside the final kilometre, when a big crash with 650m to go stopped the rest of the bunch – approximately 90% of them – dead in their tracks. Only around a dozen riders would get to sprint for victory.
Max Walscheid, Milan’s leadout man, briefly had a gap that was widening, but then the sprinters who weren’t caught out by the pile-up assembled and let their firepower rip. Milan was behind, jockeying for an improved position, while Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA GCM, in the form of his life, marched to the front. For a moment, the Dane was favourite, on the verge of securing his maiden Grand Tour stage win.
Yet Magnier doesn’t hand out gifts. He doesn’t give up opportunities like this. In all those races he was winning last year, there was the notable absence of high-profile riders such as Milan and Jasper Philipsen, but he learned how to win and got the taste for it. The big names would come later. Such as the Giro’s first stage. In the final 20 metres, Magnier’s front wheel edged in front of Andresen’s and victory was his.
“I’m so proud of the team and also my performance,” Magnier beamed. “I was already happy to be at the start of the Giro with nice shape and a special [aerofit] jersey from Castelli, and now I can change it for the pink jersey. I’m so happy.”
How Soudal Quick-Step have a talent for unearthing sprint gems and then nurturing them into the best on the planet. Tom Boonen, Marcel Kittel, Mark Cavendish, Fabio Jakobsen, Elia Viviani and Sam Bennent have all passed through the Quick-Step school and graduated as world-beaters. The moment they left (Boonen never did) their careers were worse for it. Some, like Kittel, Bennett and Jakobsen, never recovered. If you want to be the world’s fastest man on two wheels, you sign for Quick-Step and stay at Quick-Step.
Read more: Back on the Wolf Tracks: How Soudal Quick-Step are going back to their roots
Right now in Tim Merlier they have one of the three fastest – Milan and Philipsen are the two others. Is Magnier the fourth? Is Magnier soon to be the best? Over the forthcoming three weeks, the Frenchman potentially has another eight – yes, eight – chances to win more stages and challenge Merlier’s title as the Belgian team’s lead sprinter. With Merlier having 11 years on Magnier, it’s obvious who’ll take centre-stage in the coming years, but for now it’s Merlier. For now.
Until now, Magnier and Milan had only raced head-to-head in two stage races: the last two editions of Tirreno-Adriatico. The stage win score was a resounding 3-0 to Milan. Both times, though, Magnier was the apprentice, still learning the ropes, still figuring out what to do. At the Giro, he’s much wiser, more finely-tuned, and comes as an established regular race winner. “There are a lot of sprinters here at the start, and it was the first time that I could sprint against these big sprinters,” he said. “I’m super happy I can beat them with a team performance.”
Given Merlier’s advancing years, and Philipsen’s tendency for not shining in stage races unless it’s the Tour de France (you could argue that’s peaking done to precision), we could be witnessing the start of a new sprint rivalry that will dominate the sport for years to go: Milan v Magnier. The young man from France was so strong, so fast, that Andresen knew he had no chance. “Honestly, if it had been anyone other than Paul Magnier in my wheel, I think I would have won,” the Dane said. Proof, already, that the peloton is aware a star is rising.
Read more from the Giro: Giro d'Italia 2026 stage two preview: Puncheurs' paradise
