April 14, 2026
O Gran Camiño is a relatively new race with only four previous editions but the honor roll is quite impressive with the likes of Alejandro Valvarde, Jonas Vingegaard, and Derek Gee being former winners. The slot on the calendar has changed from February to April which sits a bit nicer and hopefully also offers more favorable weather than the wind and rain often experienced at the end of Winter in Galicia. The opening stage for 2026 is the traditional ITT with the start and finish at the Torre de Hércules in A Coruña. The route is 15 km long with a few bumps and a 2 km stretch of cobbles along the coast to navigate. The first rise is 1.5 km at 5.7% and leads to the intermediate time check after 5.5 km of racing. There is another 500 meter rise at 5% before turning into the finish straight uphill to the Torre de Hércules.
Highlighted Riders:
Adam Yates, Jørgen Nordhagen, Iván Romeo, George Bennett, Jan Castellon, Abel Balderstone, Mats Wenzel, Eric Antonio Fagúndez
Race Summary
The waves were battering the shore line with high cloud overhead but the roads were dry and set for a safe opening stage. Spanish ITT Champion Abel Balderstone of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA set the early benchmark but there were more highly favored riders yet to hit the course. The first to beat Balderstone's time of 18 minutes 41 seconds was Jørgen Nordhagen of Visma-Lease a Bike who finished after 18 minutes 11 seconds.
GC favorite Adam Yates of UAE-XRG set the fastest intermediate time when he went through the check point but by the finish, he faded into the headwind and crossed the line 12 seconds slower than Nordhagen. Shortly after Yates finished, 36 year old Nelson Oliveira of Movistar rolled the years back and put in an impressive ride to set the new benchmark 12 seconds faster. The big surprise of the day came with Rafael Reis of Anicolor-Campicarn who went just a fraction of a second faster than Oliveira which was good enough to hold the provisional lead.
The last two on course were Iván Romeo of Movistar and Julius Johansen of UAE-XRG, arguably the two biggest favorites for the stage win. There were quite a few punctures on the cobbles throughout the day but the favorites were able to avoid issues up to this point. Luck ran out when Romeo flatted after having set the fast provisional time at the intermediate check. He immediately dropped his head and knew any chance of a result was out of the possibility, ultimately finishing 90 seconds down. Johansen had no such bad luck and put his time trial prowess to good use. He stormed through the course and finished with an average speed of 50.765 km/hr which was almost 16 seconds quicker than Reis and 17 faster than Oliveira. The win was the first of Johansen's career but he will likely be switching back to domestique duties tomorrow with difficult stages to come.