The master of the mountains
After dangerous winds forced organisers to scrub the summit finish of Thursday’s stage 4, giving sprinters an unexpected bunch sprint, won by Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling, the next day’s stage – with 4,556 metres of altitude gained and a brutal summit finish – proved to be the queen stage and where the 29-year-old Dane took charge of the race.
With 6.9 km left to ride to the summit of the Beyond Category (HC) Coll de Pall (16.7 km @ 7.2%), Vingegaard attacked what remained of the peloton. He was followed by Evenepoel, Mathew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step). A second acceleration by the Visma leader 6 km from the finish line dropped Evenepoel and brought him to a small breakaway group that included Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious).
After briefly catching his breath, Vingegaard attacked a third time and left everyone flailing in his wake. His margin at the finish was 51 seconds over Gall and 1:01 ahead of Martinez and Lipowitz, in that order, as he took the GC lead from the INEOS Grenadiers’ sprinter and double stage winner Dorian Godon.
“It was quite a hard stage,” Vingegaard said afterwards. “I didn’t feel the very best in the beginning, but on the last climb, I felt very good. My team did incredible. We had Davide [Piganzoli] in the breakaway, so we didn’t have to follow all day, and then Sepp [Kuss] took over, and he made the difference for me in the end.”
He said he had not expected to take so much time from his rivals, but his legs were very good, saying,“I’m really happy with the gap I made today.” Asked what his motivation had been to ride in the Catalunya, Vingegaard said, “It’s a big race. I like to do big races, I like to win big races, and that’s why I’m here also. And, of course, it’s good preparation for what’s coming up later in the season.” What’s coming up later in the season for him is an attempt at winning the Giro-Tour double.
His final margin in the GC, after Sunday’s concluding stage, was 1:22 over Martinez. With Lipowitz in third, at 1:30. Evenepoel finished fifth, 2:13 behind.
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Almeida crashes, and Pidcock falls off the mountain
Though Vingegaard was definitely superior, he also benefited from mishaps suffered by Almeida and Pidcock, who might have given him a battle on the Coll de Pall, if they hadn’t crashed. Neither the cameras nor the TNT Sports commentators provided any information about Almeida’s fate, except for a brief camera shot of him and teammate Brandon McNulty standing by the side of the road with their bikes on the descent from the Collada Sobirana (7.3 km @ 6.6%).
The next shot of the Portuguese showed him being dropped on the final climb. He finished a well-beaten 16th, 1:59 behind Vingegaard. It was not confirmed until the next day that he and McNulty had crashed on the descent. On the equally mountainous stage 6, Almeida was dropped on the Collada de Sant Isidre (5 km @ 8.4%), a little more than 30 km from the finish, eventually losing 16:22 to Vingegaard. He finished 38th in the GC, 21:43 adrift. He is having a horrendous spring campaign.
Pidcock’s misfortune was actually crowned with luck, because it could have ended far worse. As he put it in a team statement: “I was drinking on the descent [from the Sobirana] and misjudged a corner. I overshot it and went down the ravine. It was like one of these horror crashes you see, but I am okay. I’ll go for a check, but I think I’m okay. I am lucky I could talk on the radio. I was far from the road, and nobody knew I was there. I’m happy I could finish the stage.”
Nobody saw him leave the road and fall into the ravine. Stranger still, none of the English commentators missed him at the end of the stage or wondered where he was, as riders crossed the line. Astonishingly, he got back on a bike and finished the stage nearly 30 minutes behind Vingegaard.
But, as it turned out, he was not okay and had to abandon the race. Another team statement, posted early Saturday, quoted the team’s chief doctor as saying: “Due to his crash, he suffered injuries, most likely bone and ligament damage, in particular to his right knee and also right wrist. Unfortunately, we had to make the decision to take him out of the race.”
A mixed race for Evenepoel
As for Evenepoel, his latest disappointing performance again raises questions about his future as a Grand Tour rider. His former boss at Soudal Quick-Step, Patrick Lefevere, has suggested that he concentrate on the Classics and other one-day races. “Personally, I think Remco should have been in Milan–San Remo, and he should also have ridden the Tour of Flanders or E3 [Saxo],” he told HLN. “Maybe it will turn out later that Remco Evenepoel is a one-day rider.”
Maybe. But before Sunday’s final stage, Evenepoel told TNT Sports that his
crash on stage 4, when he rode over a pothole and flipped over his handlebars, affected his form for the race. “But it’s getting better and better,” he added. And he already looked better on Saturday’s stage 6 summit finish, leading Lipowitz up the climb to the Santuari de Queralt (5.9 km @ 7.6%, max. 15%) and helping him onto the GC podium because Gall had been dropped.
On that short climb, Vingegaard attacked with 2.4 km left to ride, after Evenepoel had completed his work, and dropped Lipowitz and Martinez 200 meters later, winning the stage by 10 seconds over the two riders, with Martinez again outsprinting Lipowitz to the line.
Evenepoel was also active in the second half of Sunday’s final stage, which involved seven loops in Barcelona, with seven climbs of the short but punchy Alt de Montjuic (2.5 km @ 4.6%, max. 19%). There was more smoke than fire in the last three loops, with different GC contenders igniting attacks that went nowhere and Red Bull trying to bait Vingegaard into a fight. But he wouldn’t bite. The bunch sprint was surprisingly won by Brady Gilmore (NSN Cycling), who registered the first WorldTour victory of his career, as the narrowly beaten Godon punched the air in frustration.
“It’s been a really nice week,” Vingegaard said at the end. “We had a lot of fun, and I was super happy with it. It’s been an amazing start to the year for me.”
Final GC 2026 Volta a Ciclista Catalunya
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 25:56:36
2. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain-Victorious +1:22
3. Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +1:30
4. Valentin Paret-Peintre, Soudal Quick-Step +1:43
5. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +2:13
6. Felix Gall, Decathlon CMA CGM +3:17
7. Matthias Skelmose, Lidl-Trek +4:11
8. Cian Uijtdebroeks, Movistar +5:20
9. Matthew Riccitello, Decathlon CMA CGM +5:25
10. Richard Carapaz, EF Education–EasyPost +5:36
