{"id":204968,"date":"2026-03-27T13:16:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204968"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:16:25","slug":"volta-a-catalunya-finally-heads-to-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/03\/27\/volta-a-catalunya-finally-heads-to-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Volta a Catalunya Finally Heads to the Mountains After Key Climb Cut Due to Weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday\u2019s stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya was going to be the first of three serious mountain stages that would decide the race winner among Jonas Vingegaard (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe), Jo\u00e3o Almeida (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Oscar Onley (INEOS Grenadiers), Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education\u2013EasyPost).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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But the weather intervened yet again, with dangerously high winds forecast that forced organisers to cancel the summit finish at Vallter 2000 (11.8 km @ 7.5%), reducing the amount of altitude gained by about 1,300 metres, to 2,844, and the stage by 22 km, to 151. You may have noticed that these weather-caused cancellations, stage neutralisations, and other disruptions are becoming more frequent year by year. This is almost certainly a consequence of climate change, which is only going to get worse because not enough is being done to reverse it. That will eventually put the sport in a bind regarding where, when and even if important races will be held.<\/p>\n

An unexpected sprint finish and a crash<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the meantime, nothing of great importance happened on the revised stage 4 course, which ended with an uphill sprint from a reduced peloton that was won by Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling), ahead of current race leader and double stage winner Dorian Godon (INEOS Grenadiers) and the combative Pidcock, who is full of confidence after his superb second-place finish in last weekend\u2019s Milano\u2013San Remo. With this podium finish and the intermediate sprints, he won a total of nine bonus seconds on the stage, which thrust him into second place in the GC, 13 seconds behind Godon and 1 second ahead of Evenepoel.<\/p>\n

The most important event in the race to this point occurred on Wednesday, on the lumpy but otherwise benign-looking 159.4 km course from Mont-roig del Camp to Villa-seca. As the peloton was sort of preparing for the inevitable bunch sprint finish, Evenepoel soared out of the pack and rode away with about 30 km left to ride. A few beats later, Vingegaard accelerated and caught up with his rival, and the two worked together to keep about 25 seconds between themselves and the peloton.<\/p>\n

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Zobrazit p\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek na Instagramu<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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P\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek sd\u00edlen\u00fd Volta a Catalunya (@voltacatalunya)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n