{"id":204973,"date":"2026-03-30T11:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204973"},"modified":"2026-03-30T11:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:07:31","slug":"vingegaard-dominates-volta-a-catalunya-after-rivals-crash-and-evenepoel-falters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/03\/30\/vingegaard-dominates-volta-a-catalunya-after-rivals-crash-and-evenepoel-falters\/","title":{"rendered":"Vingegaard Dominates Volta a Catalunya After Rivals Crash and Evenepoel Falters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike) dominated two mountain stages and easily won the Volta a Catalunya as Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe) faltered again on the climbs and Jo\u00e3o Almeida (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling) crashed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The master of the mountains<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After dangerous winds forced organisers to scrub the summit finish of Thursday\u2019s stage 4, giving sprinters an unexpected bunch sprint, won by Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling, the next day\u2019s stage \u2013 with 4,556 metres of altitude gained and a brutal summit finish \u2013 proved to be the queen stage and where the 29-year-old Dane took charge of the race.<\/p>\n

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\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious).<\/p>\n

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\u2019 sprinter and double stage winner Dorian Godon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a hard stage,\u201d Vingegaard said afterwards. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had not expected to take so much time from his rivals, but his legs were very good, saying,\u201cI’m really happy with the gap I made today.\u201d Asked what his motivation had been to ride in the Catalunya, Vingegaard said, \u201cIt’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.\u201d What\u2019s coming up later in the season for him is an attempt at winning the Giro-Tour double.<\/p>\n

His final margin in the GC, after Sunday\u2019s concluding stage, was 1:22 over Martinez. With Lipowitz in third, at 1:30. Evenepoel finished fifth, 2:13 behind.<\/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