March 27, 2026
After four days of racing, the GC riders will finally get a chance to show themselves on what is a classic Catalunya stage. Across the 155 kilometer course is one category two climb, three category one climbs, and the HC climb to La Molina for the stage finish, totaling over 4,500 meters of elevation gain. The riders will head out from La Seu D'Urgell and quickly arrive at the 15 kilometer drag of the Port Colldarnat. After the descent, the road follows the Josa River upstream and uphill for over 20 kilometers to the top of the Coll de Josa. The Coll de Fumanya, 5.5 kilometers at 8.9% and the 7.3 kilometer, 6.7% Collada Sobirana will take bites out of the energy reserves before the final test of the day up to La Molina. Once through the intermediate sprint in Bagà, the road goes up for the next 18 kilometers at an average of 7.2%. It's a relatively even climb but the top is at 2,100 meters above sea level so we should see a major sorting out in the GC.
Race Summary
The sky was a perfect blue in La Seu D'Urgell but the wind was still whipping and the organizers made the decision to bring the finish about 2 kilometers down the road, making the climb to La Molina roughly 16.5 kilometers long. Five riders got away after a long fight to make the break. The group consisted of Davide Piganzoli of Visma-Lease a Bike, Marc Soler of UAE-XRG, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek, William Junior Lecerf of Soudal Quickstep, and Einer Rubio of Movistar.
As live coverage began with 48 kilometers remaining on the descent of the Coll de Fumanya, Lecerf had been dropped from the break and the peloton was whittled down to just 35 riders and were 1 minute 45 seconds behind the leading group. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were pushing on but the group swelled on the 10 kilometer valley road heading to the Collada Sobirana to at least 50 riders. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe continued to drive the peloton along to the base of the Collada Sobirana with 41 kilometers to go, just 1 minute 15 seconds behind the four remaining leaders.
The road narrowed with 3 kilometers to climb on the Collada Sobirana and the gradients pushed 15%. Rubio dropped out of the break at this point but the gap remained nearly unchanged to the top with 34 kilometers to go. Ciccone led the break over the top, taking the mountains points, and started the narrow, twisting descent, 1 minute 10 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were going quick down the descent but it didn't seem like they were going at dangerous speeds but there were two main crashes that the cameras picked up. UAE-XRG had two riders down on a tight right bend and, in the next left corner, a separate crash involved Jørgen Nordhagen and a Visma-Lease a Bike teammate as well as Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost. We didn't see it, but reports came through that second overall, Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5, also crashed. Pidcock finished the stage but never made it back to the front group.
As a result of the crashes, the lead group was no more than 15 riders by the bottom with Ineos, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Movistar, and Visma-Lease a Bike all having their leaders safe and in the front. Decathlon CMA CGM brought a group back of at least 35 riders with their leaders Felix Gall and Matthew Riccitello as well as Brandon McNulty and João Almeida of UAE-XRG. Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe rode for a number of kilometers on the front of the peloton, all the way through Bagà to the bottom of La Molina. As soon as the climb started, Ciccone attacked the break but the bunch were just 35 seconds behind.
When Hindley pulled off with 16 kilometers to go, there was a bit of a stand-off as to who would take up the pace and it turned into a joint effort between Ineos and Decathlon CMA CGM. Ciccone stole 30 seconds in the indecision and by the time Ineos put Embret Svestad-Bårdseng on the front, Ciccone was toiling away 1 minute up the road. The first attack from the GC group came from Mikel Landa of Soudal Quickstep at around 10 kilometers from the finish. The group stretched but the gap never really materialized. The attack was successful however in that many of the domestiques were dropped, leaving the leaders to manage the pace and the tactics on their own. When the accordion pushed together and the pace slowed, Felix Gall attacked and was followed by Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, and Michel Hessmann of Movistar. Jonas Vingegaard still had Sepp Kuss who started to work in the chase. The pace put on by Kuss distanced João Almeida and many others with 8 kilometers to climb.
About 1 kilometer later, Kuss swung off and Vingegaard attacked. At this point, Ciccone was leading by 40 seconds with Gall, Martinez, and Lipowitz in the middle at 20 seconds. Remco Evenepoel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep, Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, and Riccitello were able to follow and they were quickly across to the Gall group. Vingegaard hit the group again which shed Riccitello, Skjelmose, and Evenepoel. The Dane kept the power down, catching Ciccone and, one-by-one, the rest the group was dropped with Gall being the last to pull the plug. Vingegaard was alone at the front with 6 kilometers to the top as the landscape changed from forest to rocky slopes with a steep cliff off to the right and endless views into the distance. The first chase group formed and consisted of Lipowitz, Martinez, Paret-Peintre, and Gall. They were less than cohesive with a number of attacks coming from Gall and Lipowitz.
The chasers kept Vingegaard at around 1 minute but they couldn't get any closer. Vingegaard spun his way up the final kilometers, blew a kiss as he crossed the line in victory, and cemented himself as the number one man in the race. In the battle for second, Gall attacked under 1 kilometer to go and, for the first time, got a gap. Lipowitz tried to haul the Austrian back but Gall broke the elastic and came across the finish line 51 seconds down with Martinez sprinting in for third, 10 seconds later.
Vingegaard now leads the GC by 57 seconds to Gall and 1 minute 9 seconds to Martinez. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe have Lipowitz in fourth and Evenepoel now in sixth. The Belgian didn't completely capitulate and now sits at 1 minute 38 seconds.