A powerful Lombard rouleur schooled in QuickStep's classics squad, Ballerini arrived at Astana in 2024 and rolled back the years this May by winning stage 6 of the 2026 Giro d'Italia in Naples, outsprinting Jasper Stuyven. He brings raw horsepower for crosswinds, lead-outs and long breakaways. Few riders in this team can cover as many types of terrain.
Palmarès
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner (2021)
- Giro d'Italia stage 6 winner in Naples (2026)
- European Games road race gold (2019)
- Tour de Pologne stage winner (2020)
- Coppa Bernocchi winner (2022)
Cut-out factDespite the famous cycling surname, he is no relation to Franco Ballerini, the two-time Paris–Roubaix winner — though Davide has made cobbles and classics his specialty anyway.
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Sergio Higuita, Aaron Gate, Max Kanter, Harold Tejada, Mike Teunissen, Simone Velasco, Nicolas Vinokurov — see the full XDS Astana team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Joost Pauwels, license: CC0.
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