Sepp Kuss Made History at the Giro d’Italia. Derek Gee-West Is Still Haunted by Week One.

Sepp Kuss made U.S. cycling history at the 2026 Giro d’Italia. Derek Gee-West came within touching distance of a grand tour podium.

And North American cycling, with just four Americans and two Canadians in the corsa rosa, made an outsized impact on one of the sport’s biggest races.

Kuss lived up to his nickname — The Mailman always delivers — with an emotional stage win to complete the grand tour treble and create his own one-person club in American cycling history (see below).

Gee-West confirmed he’s a grand tour podium contender and could go even better if he can figure out what goes wrong in week one.

And the rest of the contingent — Larry Warbasse, Will Barta, Magnus Sheffield and Nickolas Zukowsky — provided key support that lifted their respective squads and lays the groundwork for bigger things to come.

Here’s how the North Americans fared at the 2026 Giro d’Italia.

Kuss delivers again and secures legacy

When the Colorado climber crossed the line first atop Piani di Pezzè on stage 19, he did more than win a mountain stage.

He became only the 116th rider in cycling history to win a stage in all three grand tours, and only the second U.S. rider to officially do it, joining Tyler Farrar.

And if you add his 2023 Vuelta a España victory, he is the only U.S. male rider to win stages in all three grand tours and win a grand tour GC.

Call it Club Kuss.

“I still can’t believe I won this stage,” Kuss said. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about for a long time, but I also knew it would be difficult to achieve. Every year the level gets higher, so I knew I wouldn’t have many chances left to win a stage in the Giro. Today, everything finally came together. This is special.”

For years he’s been cycling’s ultimate super-domestique, the mountain lieutenant who could climb with the very best before emptying himself for teammates.

And he did it again across this Giro, helping to tow Jonas Vingegaard to five stage victories and the pink jersey.

When Kuss is on the start line, Visma usually leaves with a trophy.

“Sepp Kuss always sacrifices himself for everybody else and never asks anything back,” Vingegaard said. “To give him something back is a real pleasure. He has been there in all my grand tour wins. I’m so happy he got his chance.”

Kuss has now been part of nine of Visma-Lease a Bike’s 10 modern grand tour victories. And he was the constant to the team’s historic sweep of all three grand tours in 2023, helping Primož Roglič win the Giro, Vingegaard the Tour, before himself winning the Vuelta.

Now, at 31, he continues adding to a legacy that the statistics can only begin to capture.

The Coloradan won’t have long to celebrate.

Next month, Kuss will line up at the 2026 Tour de France alongside  Vingegaard as Visma-Lease a Bike attempts to wrest the yellow jersey away from Tadej Pogačar and UAE Emirates-XRG.

Kuss remains one of the few riders in the peloton capable of influencing the outcome of cycling’s biggest race simply by doing his job.

He finished 13th overall at the Giro. The number tells you almost nothing about his value.

Gee-West and his first-week problem

There’s one thing standing between Derek Gee-West and a grand tour podium: the first week.

Or, more precisely, the Big Start — the grande partenza at the Giro d’Italia.

The affable Canadian proved yet again that he can hang with the best climbers in the peloton deep into a third week, when cycling’s cream rises to the top.

But it’s the getting there that’s been the hard part.

“To be honest, in the last two Giros, the first week has basically been about damage control,” Gee-West said. “Then things start to come around. Luckily, grand tours are built in a way where the third week can make the biggest difference, and that’s when my legs seem to come good. I’d love for them to come good in week one at some point, but better late than never.”

Gee-West finished fifth overall, 2:34 behind Felix Gall in second, 1:31 behind Jai Hindley in third, and 54 seconds behind Thymen Arensman in fourth. Winner Jonas Vingegaard was five minutes off the front.

In 2025, he lost time in Albania in the opening stages. And it happened again this year in Bulgaria.

He was caught up in the massive pileup in stage 2. Luckily, he could continue in the race, but he lost 1:01 on the day.

That time difference alone would have made him fourth in Rome instead of fifth, and it might have even cost him the podium simply for early setbacks and a loss of momentum that put him on the back foot from the start.

At 28, Gee-West is already the best Canadian grand tour stage racer since Ryder Hesjedal won the Giro in 2012.

Gee-West left Italy with mixed emotions and a fifth-place finish, one position lower than his fourth-place result a year ago.

“I think my level is higher,” Gee-West said. “It was such a hard race, and I think it’s really good for my confidence moving forward. Hopefully I can come back even stronger.”

Gee-West will take a break and look to the back half of the 2026 calendar. The Tour de France is not in the cards and he won’t want to miss the Canadian road cycling world championships in Montréal in June.

His fifth helped take the edge off a somewhat disappointing Giro for Lidl-Trek, which didn’t manage to win a stage until the final sprint into Rome.

For Gee-West, this Giro showed the brutal mountains of northern Italy aren’t the problem; it’s the first few days that cause him the most trouble.

How the North Americans fared at the Giro d’Italia

The four American starters in this year’s Giro were about par for the U.S. contingent in the 2020s, compared to a decade-low three in 2022 and 2025, and a high of eight in 2020.

Before Kuss, the last U.S. male to win a Giro stage was Brandon McNulty in 2023. The now-retired Joe Dombrowski is the other U.S. Giro stage winner this decade, with a win in 2021.

Last year’s runner-up Isaac del Toro — who rewrote racing history in 2025 with Mexico’s first grand tour podium — skipped the Giro to focus on the Tour de France this year. Up next is the rebranded Dauphiné in June.

Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike): Stage 19 win, 13th overall

Kuss became the 13th U.S. male rider to win a Giro stage.

This was his first Giro since the historic 2023 season when he helped Primož Roglič win the maglia rosa, powered Jonas Vingegaard to Tour de France victory, and claimed the Vuelta a España himself.

The victory in stage 19 in the Giro’s “queen stage” made him only the second U.S. rider to officially win stages in all three grand tours.

Out of 16 career grand tour starts, Kuss has shown astonishing durability, failing to finish only once (the 2022 Vuelta due to illness).

Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek): 2nd in stage 19, 5th overall

Gee-West rode to second behind Kuss on stage 19 in the Dolomites, for his fifth career runner-up finish at the Giro.

He finished fifth overall, one place lower than his fourth-place result in 2025. Those two results make him the best Canadian at the Giro since Ryder Hesjedal’s historic overall victory in 2012.

Magnus Sheffield (Netcompany-Ineos), 42nd overall

The New Yorker worked quietly in the trenches to help Thymen Arensman finish fourth overall. He finished 12th in the youth category in what’s his second Giro and his third career grand tour.

Now on a contract year, it will be interesting to see if Sheffield extends with the team that he joined in 2022.

Will Barta (Tudor Pro Cycling), 36th overall

Barta took huge pulls in the Dolomites to help GC captain Michael Storer defend a top 10 overall. The rider from Idaho finished his fourth Giro, posting a Giro-best 14th in the time trial.

Larry Warbasse (Tudor Pro Cycling), 51st overall

Nicknamed “Mr. Giro” because he’s raced so many editions of the Italian grand tour, he rode into the winning breakaway in stage 13, finishing a Giro-best 11th on the stage. He also sneaked into the big break in stage 20 as well, but Vingegaard had other plans. The Michigander posted solid work in his eighth career Giro.

Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello Q36.5) — DNF

DNF stage 17 after crashing out. The Canadian rode into two breakaways, finishing a Giro-best 13th on stage 11. He will recover and be hoping to land a spot on the Canadian national team for “home worlds” in Montréal.