38 Years After Andy Hampsten, Will an American Ever Win the Giro d'Italia Again?

Twelve Americans have won stages at the Giro d’Italia. Three have worn the maglia rosa. Only one — Andy Hampsten — has won the race outright.

And 38 years later, his 1988 victory still stands in a class of his own.

The grand tour that first opened Europe’s doors to American cycling is still waiting for its next chapter. No stage wins since 2023 and no podium since 2002.

With half of the 109th edition still to go, an American overall challenge isn’t in the cards at the 2026 Giro d’Italia, but stage wins are a different story (see full list below).

Americans are winning races across Europe in 2026 at a remarkable clip, with 10 victories and counting.

Yet the Giro, the race that started it all in elite men’s European road racing, remains the one that has slipped furthest from their grasp.

How the Giro d’Italia opened the door for American cycling

The Tour de France is the only top European race most casual U.S. sports fans know.

It is a touch ironic that American cycling history saw its first big grand tour successes at the Giro, not at its more famous cousin across the Alps.

Back in 1985, the then-upstart, now-iconic 7-Eleven cycling team arrived in Italy as outsiders in a deeply European sport.

Against the odds, Ron Kiefel won stage 15 to become the first American to win a stage at any grand tour. Days later, Hampsten added another stage victory in his Giro debut.

That watershed edition got the whole ball rolling, and the Giro has been at the center of elite men’s American road racing ever since.

Greg LeMond finished third overall in 1985 — the first U.S. Giro podium playing wingman to winner and teammate Bernard Hinault — and won a Giro stage in 1986 to confirm that Americans were no longer novelty acts in Europe.

The first American wave peaked with the legendary 1988 Giro that remains as one of the greatest grand tours ever.

Hampsten survived one of the harshest days the sport has ever seen over the snowbound Gavia Pass deep in the Dolomites. Riders climbed through freezing rain, snowbound roads, and blizzard conditions at more than 2,600m. Visibility dropped to near zero and riders were near hypothermic.

Dutch rival Erik Breukink actually won the stage, but Hampsten became a cycling icon after emerging from the squall with his pink jersey caked in snow.

He carried the maglia rosa to Vittorio Veneto. A cruel final split stage — with a 73km morning road race and an afternoon 43km individual time trial — sealed history.

Hampsten became the first and still only American to win the Giro d’Italia.

No American has truly threatened in two decades.

Giro stage hunters but no GC contenders

There have been plenty of moments since in a wild mix of stage wins, days in pink, near-misses, crashes, and odds-defying exploits.

Tyler Hamilton won a stage and finished second overall in 2002, at 1:41 behind Paolo Savoldelli in what’s the closest an American has come to winning the men’s Giro since Hampsten.

There have been plenty of highlights in the men’s Giro, but the broader GC drought has only deepened.

Levi Leipheimer was ninth in 2009, the last top 10 by an American until Brandon McNulty was eighth in 2025.

Tyler Farrar won two sprints in 2010 to complete the grand tour stage sweep to open a new decade.

Taylor Phinney wore pink in 2012 after winning the opening time trial. Chad Haga delivered one of the great American Giro moments in Verona in 2019, beating time trial specialist Victor Campenaerts on the final day.

Joe Dombrowski won an attack-riddled stage early in 2021, only to go down in a brutal crash the next day when he looked poised to take pink.

No American won a Giro stage in either 2024 or 2025 and the bigger picture across grand tours remains complicated at best.

The 2026 Giro looks like no respite on the GC front.

Officially, four American men have won grand tours, excluding the stripped titles of Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis.

LeMond won the Tour de France three times, Hampsten captured the 1988 Giro, Chris Horner won the 2013 Vuelta a España, and Kuss the 2023 Vuelta. Six victories in total.

Besides Hampsten, only two other Americans have worn pink. Christian Vande Velde pulled on the maglia rosa after the opening team time trial in 2008, and Phinney repeated the feat in 2012.

Can Kuss or Sheffield end the American stage drought?

Four Americans are racing the 2026 Giro, but none of challenging for the GC.

Kuss remains firmly in a support role for Jonas Vingegaard at Visma-Lease a Bike, but he could be cut loose to hunt for stages if the GC battle stabilizes in the final week.

A Giro stage win would make him only the second American male to officially win stages at all three grand tours, alongside retired sprinter Farrar.

The rest of the American contingent is largely racing in support roles or targeting opportunistic raids. Magnus Sheffield is balancing domestique duties and breakaway freedom at Netcompany-Ineos. Will Barta and Larry Warbasse are chasing selective stages with Tudor Pro Cycling.

The more realistic American grand tour hopes may lie one or two years further down the road.

Matteo Jorgenson is evolving into a legitimate three-week contender after back-to-back victories at Paris-Nice and second overall at Tirreno-Adriatico this spring.

McNulty — the last American to win a Giro stage in 2023 — remains one of the most complete climbing domestiques in the peloton at UAE Emirates-XRG, with a career-best eighth at last year’s Giro showing a hint of more if he truly committed to GC.

Matthew Riccitello’s fifth place at the 2025 Vuelta a España was the best American grand tour finish since Kuss won in 2023. He skipped this Giro and is expected to target the climber-heavy Vuelta later this season with podium ambitions.

The race that started it all is still waiting

So why have Americans struggled so much in the quest for the maglia rosa?

Much of it comes down to a cultural bias that for American pros and their sponsors, the Tour de France remains the ultimate goal.

The yellow jersey carries a visibility and commercial weight that pink simply cannot match in the U.S. market.

Despite Hampsten’s trailblazing 1988 victory, the Giro has rarely been the race American pros build their seasons around.

The Tour drives the imagination, the sponsorship dollars, and the ambition. The Giro, for all its history and beauty, too often becomes an afterthought.

Ironically, despite all the focus on the Tour de France, the Giro may be a more realistic target.

It is a harder race to predict, more open to attackers, and has historically rewarded aggressive racing.

Perhaps Riccitello — whose family roots are Italian — will take on the Giro next year. His climbing physique would make him perfect for the Giro and the tifosi would love him.

Americans are winning everywhere in Europe this season, except at the race that started it all.

Every American to win a Giro d’Italia stage

Some 12 American men have won stages at the Italian grand tour, three have worn the pink jersey, three have stood on the podium, and only one has won the maglia rosa. This story focuses on the men’s Giro. The women’s race, the Giro d’Italia Women, begins May 30.

1985 — Ron Kiefel (7-Eleven): Stage 14, the first American to win a Giro stage or any grand tour stage.
Andy Hampsten (7-Eleven): Stage 20 in his grand tour debut.
1986 — Greg LeMond (La Vie Claire): Stage 5 and third overall for first American podium.
1988 — Hampsten won two more stages at the 1988 Giro (stages 12 and 18 ITT), survived the epic snowbound Gavia stage to clinch the overall GC, still the only American to win the Giro d’Italia.
2002 — Tyler Hamilton (CSC-Tiscali): Stage 14 ITT, finished 2nd overall for third American Giro podium.
2004 — Fred Rodriguez (Acqua & Sapone): Stage 9, memorably outsprinting Alessandro Petacchi’s dominant train.
2005 — David Zabriskie (Team CSC): Stage 8 ITT.
2010 — Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions): Won two sprint stages and is the only U.S. rider to officially win stages in all three grand tours.
2012 — Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing): The opening time trial and also wearing the pink jersey.
2017 — Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing): Stage 18, a Dolomites breakaway finish.
2019 — Chad Haga (Team Sunweb): Stage 21 ITT, the final stage of the race.
2021 — Joe Dombrowski (UAE Emirates): Stage 4, a solo breakaway win.
2023 — Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates): Stage 15, winning out of a breakaway group.

Every American to hit the Giro d’Italia podium

Only three American men have stood on the Giro podium.

The first was LeMond with third in 1985 and Hamilton did was second in 2002.

Hampsten remains the only American — with his epic battle over the snowbound Gavia Pass etched in cycling lore — to win the men’s pink jersey.

Two other Americans have worn the maglia rosa, with Christian Vande Velde in 2008, after Garmin-Chipotle won the opening team time trial in Sicily, and Phinney in 2012, after he won the opening individual time trial in Denmark.