July 6, 2026
With two days around Barcelona in the books, it's time for the peloton to head North and into France. Before they get to leave Spain however, the riders will have 196 km and nearly 4,000 meters of elevation gain to get over on the route between Granollers and Les Angles. The start is not too severe but there is the 8 km, 4.5% Coll de Sant Feliu de Codines which comes after just 8 km of racing. The next 100 km should be fairly uneventful as the riders will head gradually uphill following the Ter river then the Freser upstream to the intermediate sprint in Campdevànol. The road gets tougher all the way to the bottom of the categorized climb of the Collado de Toses, a 9.4 km climb at 6.6% with the last 4 km at 9%. There is a 17 km descent into Alp before another dragging valley road to the French border and the Col du Calvaire. While longer at 11.5 km, it is only 4% and will be taken on in the big ring. One more bump comes before the final rise to Les Angles. The last 7 km are uphill but the categorized part is 1.7 km at 6.7%. It's a long, tough day on the bike and it may be one for the break. The finale is not so hard that a GC team would necessarily want to control all day with no real chance of making GC gains so the first part of the stage could be very interesting to see who makes the break.
Race Summary
The temperatures were sizzling in Granollers, pushing the mercury to 33C (92F). The riders didn't seem too concerned however, many of which were smiling and excited to get the day rolling. Because of wild fires and drought in the region, spectators were advised to not travel to the finish to avoid adding additional risk but, fortunately, the race was allowed proceed as planned. After a slow start, attacking began about 2 km into the stage but the bunch was still together at the base of the Coll de Sant Feliu de Codines. Some of the bigger names in the race came to the front including Matteo Jorgenson, Richard Carapaz, Quinn Simmons, and Egan Bernal but with 3 km still to climb, no one had managed to break free and the bunch was wide across the road. It was hard to see exactly what happened, but Bruno Armirail of Visma-Lease a Bike crashed near the front of the peloton and brought down a number of riders with him. Everyone got back up and looked alright but Armirail's knee was really sore and he had trouble getting moving again.
The crash briefly caused a split with around 35 riders but the group was mostly together as Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep led over the top with 179 km to go. There was no real descent from the top but rather roads that rolled up and down. Movistar, Jayco AlUla, and Tudor Pro Cycling continued to try and get riders up the road but the elastic would not snap.
As the riders passed through Taradell, the drought was visible everywhere. Hardly any green could be seen but for the leaves on the trees with all of the grass and hay fields having turned sun burned brown. The attacking continued to be relentless as the bunch zipped through crowded villages packed with people and countless Catalan flags. With 135 km to go, Louis Vervaeke of Soudal Quickstep, Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility, Nelson Oliveira of Movistar, and Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies snuck away and built a gap of 15 seconds. More attacks came from behind and a chase group of eight coalesced 6 km later. Visma-Lease a Bike tried to shut down the bunch but not before another group split off the front of the race. The peloton slowed to take a natural stop and the break was officially gone.
When all the riders up the road finally joined forces, we had a group of 18 including Vervaeke, Cort, as well as Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling, Nicolas Prodhomme of Decathlon CMA CGM, Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana, Alex Aranburu of Cofidis, Vercher and Joris Delbove of TotalEnergies, Abel Balderstone of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Luke Plapp and Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla, Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, George Bennett of NSN Cycling, Oliveira and Raúl García Pierna of Movistar, Clément Braz Afonso of Groupama-FDJ United, Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost, Vlad Van Mechelen of Bahrain Victorious.
Visma-Lease a Bike started to set a controlling pace when the gap reached 2 minutes. The race entered a much more rugged region on the approach to Ripoll and the intermediate sprint in Campdevànol with jagged rock outcroppings and peaks rising on either side. 5 km out from the intermediate sprint, the gap had pushed over 3 minutes so UAE-XRG decided to aid Visma-Lease a Bike in the chase. The best placed rider in the break was Baudin who started the day just 1 minute 7 seconds down and was nearly 2 minutes in the virtual GC lead when Pedersen led the break through the intermediate sprint to take maximum points for the Green jersey.
Florian Vermeersch was pulling the peloton with more and more pace as the day wore on. Through Ribes de Freser with 89 km remaining, the gap was down to 1 minute 45 seconds. Just before the start of the Collado de Toses with 78 km to go, García Pierna chipped off the front of the break away to spur on the group because the peloton was closing in at just 1 minute. 3.5 km from the top, García Pierna was joined by Van Mechelen and Vercher and the trio were able to push the gap back out to 2 minutes. 1,500 meters later, Baudin, Prodhomme, and Bennett joined the front to make six riders in contention for the KOM points and the polka-dot jersey. Baudin led through the sea of spectators up to the line and took the points uncontested. 90 second behind, the bunch had considerably reduced due to the intense heat on the climb and the speed put on by UAE-XRG.
The break passed into France with 44 km to go and maintained their 90 second lead going into the base of Col du Calvaire. The Col du Calvaire was a wide highway climb with plenty of benefit in sitting on but Baudin wasn't content with the pace and went on the attack in the first kilometer. Prodhomme bridged up to his compatriot and the pair worked to build a more comfortable lead. UAE-XRG burned through Tim Wellens and Felix Großschartner and by the top with 24 km to go, the gap was down to 45 seconds and the peloton had been reduced to around 50 riders.
After Baudin took the KOM points at the top, Decathlon CMA CGM called Prodhomme out of the break to support Paul Seixas back in the peloton. UAE-XRG continued to pull across the high plateau through La Llagone and 15 km to go. Baudin's advantage was just 15 seconds but he made UAE-XRG work to bring back every meter. The catch was made with 11.5 km to go on the last downhill before the finish with beautiful views across a dammed lake and distant Pyrenean peaks.
The road up to Les Angles started to rise with 7 km to go and with the shallow gradients, mountain sprint trains formed. UAE-XRG, Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, and Decathlon CMA CGM were all spread across the road to position for a narrowing through the village of Les Angles. Visma-Lease a Bike were the first ones through the town and they put the hammer down coming out. UAE-XRG were shuffled backwards and it took about a kilometer before they were able to reorganize towards the front.
Teammates were at a premium and with 1,800 meters to go, Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek was pulling with the next seven riders behind all being team leaders. When they made the right turn onto the final rise, Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe took over but not for long because Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike sprinted forward to keep Jonas Vingegaard near the front. Under 1 km to go, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG picked up the speed with Tadej Pogačar on his wheel. Around 20 riders were still together but they were all in single file with Pogačar, Vingegaard, Seixas, Evenepoel, Carapaz, and Ayuso stacked up behind del Toro. A gap had formed behind Carapaz with Evenepoel struggling under the pressure from del Toro. Del Toro buried himself until 200 meters to go when he pulled off and let Pogačar free. Vingegaard dropped Pogačar's wheel at 125 meters and the World Champion crossed the line for the victory in a dominant show of strength that was never in doubt. Vingegaard managed well however and finished just 2 seconds later for second place with Carapaz and Seixas in third and fourth respectively as Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility led Evenepoel and the rest of the GC favorites in at 4 seconds.
With the gap on the line and time bonuses factored in, Pogačar moved level on time with Vingegaard but based on stage placings so far, Pogačar was awarded the Yellow jersey as race leader. Evenepoel sits third at 23 seconds with del Toro lurking in fourth at 24 seconds.