April 17, 2026
There was a fairly long transfer overnight from Padrón to today's start in Xinzo De Limia to the South, near the border with Portugal. The 146 km race to Cabeza De Meda is a tale of two halves. The first of the stage is relatively straightfoward as the road rolls North, taking in three bonus sprints, the last one coming in Ourense with 86 km to go. The bonus seconds will be the last thing on the minds of the GC riders because there is serious climbing to be done which starts with 56 km to go. The first two climbs are an uncategorized ascent of 6 km at 6% and the climb to the finish, in the opposite direction, to Cabeza De Meda which is 7 km at 6%. These two climbs are nearly continuous and are joined by rising roads, making for around 20 km of climbing at around 5%. The next 16 km are downhill or rolling with one little peak in the middle to break the rhythm before the penultimate climb of the 5 km, 6.6% Alto do Rodicio. Just 6 km of downhill leads the riders to the base of the final climb to Cabeza De Meda which they will have already descened. It is only 5 km long but averages 9.4% with pitches as high as 15%. Time gaps should be huge between the first and last rider and the GC should be further clarified by the end of the day.
Race Summary
The first two hours averaged 48 km/hr as the break tried to establish. A group of six finally did get away and was comprised of Martín Rey of Burgos-Burpellet BH, Xabier Isasa of Euskatel-Euskadi, Andoni López de Abetxuko of Anicolor-Campicarn, Noah Campos of Tavira-Crédito Agrícola, Lucas Lopes of Efapel, and Diogo Pinto of Credibom-LA Alumínios-Marcos Car. With 64 km to go, the group was 28 seconds ahead of three chasers including Samuel Fernández of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Jose Bicho of Tavira-Crédito Agrícola, and Rúben Rodrigues of Feira dos Sofás-Boavista and nearly 4 minutes to the NSN Cycling led peloton. The three chasers made it to the lead group before the 20 km ascent began at 56 km to go.
When the peloton started clmbing out of the Sil River Canyon, UAE-XRG took over the pace making to set their preferred speed. In the break, Fernández went solo only after about 4 km of uphill to get some space to the peloton who had already cut over 1 minute off their deficit. Fernández was flying and by the time he started the 7 km categorized part of the climb with 42 km to go, he had over 1 minute to the rest of the break and 3 minutes 45 seconds to the peloton.
Visma-Lease a Bike significantly upped the pace 3 km from the top and strung the bunch out into single file. Fernández went over the top alone and passed through the finish line in the opposite direction with a gap of 2 minutes 30 seconds to the peloton which still 60 riders strong but strung out. The descent was steep and technical which allowed Fernández to hold his gap but the stretch of road heading towards the Alto do Rodicio was rolling and to the advantage of the peloton.
The Alto do Rodicio started gently with a shallow gradient, slightly rising on the horizon. When Fernández entered the forested section, the gradients increased but his gap was down to 1 minute 40 seconds. Visma-Lease a Bike were riding in the peloton until 15 km to go when NSN Cycling hit the front on the steeper gradients with real intent. The peloton was in shreds when the NSN Cycling lead out finished, which saw George Bennett launch off the front. Only Anton Schiffer of Visma-Lease a Bike went with him and had the sole job of marking out Bennett. UAE-XRG set up the chase and were holding at around 20 seconds as Bennett and Schiffer caught and passed Fernández at about 3 km to the top.
Bennett and Schiffer powered up the Alto do Rodicio and crested the exposed summit to start the descent back into the trees with a 35 second gap. With Bennett's light frame and the wide sweeping corners of the pedaling descent, the peloton clawed back nearly 20 seconds by the time Bennett led onto the final climb back up to Cabeza De Meda with 5.5 km to go. Instead of pulling in the peloton, UAE-XRG decided to send Kevin Vermaerke on the attack. He quickly bridged up to Bennett and Schiffer with 4.5 km to go as the gradients pushed over 12%. With UAE-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike, and NSN Cycling in the front, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA were left to chase. Jan Castellon played the same strategy and went in pursuit of the three leaders.
Everything changed with 4 km to go when the road tipped to 15%. Adam Yates of UAE-XRG came across to the front group and was setting a very hard pace. Race leader Alessandro Pinarello of NSN Cycling tried to catch the back wheel of Yates but the climb was so steep that each rider could only do what they could to get up the climb. Yates was leader on the road and had built a decent gap over the chasing riders with Schiffer pulling for Jørgen Nordhagen followed by Pinarello and Abel Balderstone and José Félix Parra of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA. Schiffer pulled off, leaving Nordhagen to try and close a 12 second gap with about 3 km remaining.
Nordhagen had more to give and was able to ride away from Pinarello, Balderstone, and Félix Parra. The gaps stayed solid until 2 km to go when Yates finally pulled away. By the time Yates went under the banner at 1 km to go, he was out to 30 seconds ahead of Nordhagen with Pinarello trailing behind. Yates kept the power down to the line to preserve as much of a gap as possible. The win was his first in 2026 which extended his win streak in consecutive years to an impressive ten in a row. Nordhagen still had nearly 300 meters to go when Yates crossed the line. The clock ticked to 46 seconds for Nordhagen and 1 minute 4 seconds for Pinarello by the time their race was finished.
Yates now holds a commanding GC lead of 34 seconds to Nordhagen and 54 seconds to Pinarello. Iván Romeo of Movistar didn't completely blow up on the climb and was able to move to fifth in GC at 2 minutes 9 seconds, behind Balderstone in fourth.