February 8, 2026
The final day of the Volta Comunitat Valenciana for 2026 is short at just 95KM but it could play out a few different ways. The first half of the stage is by no means easy. After 50KM of racing, the riders will have summited the 4.7KM, 4.4% Port del Oronet as well as the 5.1KM, 7.1% Port del Garbí. If the sprinters are distanced but within touching distance, they may be able to return because the final 43KM are all downhill or flat along the sandy beaches of the Costa de Valencia. The stage has been a bunch sprint in the past and even a solo break where the GC has changed hands like in 2023 when Rui Costa took the win. UAE-XRG will surely try something but Remco Evenepoel has been the man of the week and will be hard to shake.
Race Summary
With a sprint finish not being a certainty, the fight for the break was fierce. After a long series of attacks, a group of 21 riders snapped the elastic and got away. Live coverage began on the Port del Garbí with 50KM to go as the break were being pushed forward by Equipo Kern Pharma while Ineos, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and UAE-XRG were riding side by side on the front of the peloton further down the climb. The break exploded as the road got much more narrow and very steep. Raúl García Pierna of Movistar emerged as the strongest on the climb in the break. He was followed by Adrià Pericas of UAE-XRG but a handful of others were able to claw themselves back including Julien Bernard of Lidl-Trek, Andrew August of Ineos, Emil Herzog of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Jasper Schoofs of Soudal Quickstep, and Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Pharma.
The group of seven crested with 43KM to go and they started the descent down to the coast with a gap of around 1 minute 40 seconds. By the bottom of the descent, Kim Heiduk of Ineos joined the front group as well as Sven Erik Bystrøm from Uno-X Mobility. Burgos-Burpellet BH had entirely missed the original break and they took over the chase from Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe to try and bring the move back.
The kilometers disappeared quickly with a reasonably strong tail wind and for the most part, the nine leaders worked well together. We didn't get sight of the peloton but with 14KM to go, a report came in that the bunch were closing in at 1 minute 5 seconds. Cars were pulled out of the gap with 9KM to go and pressure was now mounting on the break. A few moments later, August led into a corner, hit some dust and lost his front wheel. The crash left the break one man down and they needed all they could get because UAE-XRG had taken over and were drilling it in the bunch. They forced a split the peloton through the many corners coming into town.
Only about 25 riders were left in the front part of the peloton and it was hard to see who was and was not present. The gap was down to around 15 seconds with 4KM to go and the break needed to push. Through a right corner at 3KM to go, Bernard lost his front wheel and went down, taking Heiduk along with him. The rest of the break kept pushing but it seemed like UAE-XRG called off their chase as dropped riders rejoined the peloton, giving the break a bit more of a chance. Inside the final kilometer, the six remaining leaders stopped working and Pericas was stuck on the front. Uriarte was the first to accelerate at around 600M because the peloton were barring down. Uriarte functioned as a lead for the rest until Herzog started the sprint at 250M. Herzog was challenged on the line by García Pierna who was able to nudge forward in the last 20M to take the win for Movistar. Herzog was second with Schoofs coming in for third. Ben Turner of Ineos led the peloton in just 2 seconds later for seventh on the day.
With all of the drama in Valencia, there were no changes in the top 10 on GC. Remco Evenepoel went out the winner by 31 seconds to João Almeida of UAE-XRG and 34 seconds to Giulio Pellizzari to make a first and third for Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe.