Mattia Gaffuri will be at the start of the Vuelta

Mattia Gaffuri will take part in the next Vuelta Espana, which starts on Saturday 22 August with the individual time trial in Monaco.

For the Team Picnic PostNL rider, this is the first Grand Tour of his career in his first year in the WT.

Gaffuri took part in several races in the first part of the season, to put some miles in his legs and, above all, to gain experience in the peloton, with a few breakaways between the UAE Tour, Tirreno Adriatico and Itzulia.

The first high-level success for the 1999-born rider came at the Tour of the Alps , on the uphill stage in Val Martello, with a fine third-place finish. Unfortunately, as Gaffuri himself revealed to us live in Trentino, the sheer volume of racing in the first few months of 2026 prevented him from being selected for the Giro d'Italia .

The situation is different now: since June, the Team Picnic rider has only competed in the Tour de Suisse (which he finished with a good 15th place overall), the Italian championships and the recent San Sebastián and Vuelta Burgos to fine-tune his preparation.

The rider from Erba is thus preparing to participate in the first Grand Tour of his career , after just nine months in the World Tour. The Spanish race also lends itself perfectly to Gaffuri's characteristics, with numerous climbs and breakaways that often have a good chance of reaching the finish line; in fact, it seems unlikely that the Italian will aim to stay in the general classification, while it seems much more plausible that he will attempt to frequently enter early stage attacks, especially on the toughest stages.