March 29, 2026
The final day of Catalunya always provides entertainment with a final circuit up the Alt de Montjuïc and around the Barcelona Botanical Garden and Olympic Stadium from the 1992 games. The first 40 km of the stage are flat and offer a breakaway a chance to form and establish a lead before entering the circuit and passing the finish line for the first time. On each of the seven laps, the riders will climb the 2.5 km Alt de Montjuïc. Most of the climb is not difficult, but the last 800 meters averages nearly 11% and becomes harder each time around. There is a short plateau over the top, making it a challenge for anyone dropped to easily get back on. After the plateau, the riders will swoop down a wide road back to the finish line to complete the 8 km lap. The parcours offers plenty of opportunities for attacking and aggressive racing. As long as Jonas Vingegaard stays on his bike, he should take overall honors at the end of the day but with only 8 seconds separating Lenny Martinez and Florian Lipowitz for second and third, there could be position swaps on the podium.
Race Summary
The weather in Barcelona showed out for the peloton with beautifully clear skies and warm temperatures as the tree lined streets along the finish straight were budding with Spring blossoms. Attacks went early and a group of five got away including Brandon McNulty of UAE-XRG, Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility, Einer Rubio of Movistar, Liam Slock of Lotto Intermarché, and Darren Rafferty of EF-Education EasyPost. With 67 km to go, the lead group had 2 minutes on the peloton being led by Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and NSN Cycling. The break came through the wide highways leading into the Catalan Capital and entered the circuit at 55 km to go with a lead of 90 seconds.
Through 5 laps to go, the gap was coming down as Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were tightening the screw and increasing the pace. By the time the break reached the steep section of Montjuïc at 37 km to go, they were in sight of the peloton. As the catch was made, hometown boy, David de la Cruz of Pinarello Q36.5, countered and was off the front, but not for long. Behind, Remco Evenepoel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe was attacking and quickly swarmed de la Cruz. Race leader Jonas Vingegaard was straight on the wheel with Oscar Onley of Ineos, Lenny Martinez and Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious, and Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep. Crucially for Evenepoel, his teammate, Florian Lipowitz, was not present so when he got the call on the radio, he swung to the side to wait up. Lipowitz was able to come across with Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, Cian Uijtdebroeks of Movistar, Antoine L'Hote of Decathlon CMA CGM, and Senna Remijn of Alpecin-Premier Tech.
The group of eleven was a little too large and the cooperation was severely lacking. Decathlon CMA CGM organized a chase for Felix Gall behind and were about 15 seconds down through 4 laps to go. The front group stalled on the first half of the climb and Decathlon CMA CGM closed it down before the steep section. Reinforcements arrived for Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike were able to wrangle the bunch and they settled in to control the race through 3 laps remaining.
Tobias Svarre of Uno-X Mobility was the next animator up Montjuïc and the peloton was stretched with little gaps forming all the way down the group as they crested. The bunch eased for a moment and Svarre went again, this time going solo at 18 km from the finish. The young Dane crossed the line for 2 laps to go with a gap of 10 seconds. A counter attack came on the lower section of Montjuïc from Marc Soler of UAE-XRG who was followed by Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek, and Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla. Soler and Ciccone only had eyes on the mountains points at the top and were watching each other very closely. Soler charged into the steep half and caught Svarre in the process. Ciccone sat on his wheel until 100 meters from the top when he attacked, just as the peloton had caught on. Soler didn't respond and Ciccone was able to take maximum points which gave him an unassailable lead in that classification.
Onley and Evenepoel tried to get a group rolling over the top but the bunch was all together, albeit smaller, by the bottom. An unusually large group of more than 40 riders took the bell for the final lap. Ineos took up the pace on the lower section and continued through to the steep section. Luca Vergallito of Alpecin-Premier Tech was the one to attack but he was caught 125 meters from the top as the group stretched under the pressure of Enric Mas of Movistar. The elastic never snapped however and the front group numbered around 20 riders with another large group just 8 seconds behind. Lipowitz went to the front and kept the pace quick but the group had swelled again to around 40 riders with just 1,500 meters to go. All of a sudden, the chance at a reduced sprint was the most likely outcome and the fastest riders remaining in the group were being moved forward. Lipowitz and Jai Hindley swapped turns to lead out Evenepoel but a rush came from the inside with 300 meters to go from Dorian Godon of Ineos. Godon fully opened up with 150 meters to go but behind, the muscular figure of Brady Gilmore of NSN Cycling popped out of the slip stream and was neck and neck with Godon at 50 meters. Gilmore had just a touch more speed coming to the line and, with a lunge, pushed his wheel just in front of Godon's to take the second win this week for NSN Cycling. Evenepoel did a nice sprint to get up for third place on what was a wild conclusion to Catalunya.
In the final GC, there were no changes in the top. Jonas Vingegaard takes his second stage race GC out of two by 1 minute 22 seconds to Lenny Martinez and 1 minute 30 seconds to Florian Lipowitz.