Jonas Vingegaard doubled down on his excellent early season form at last week’s Volta a Catalunya, romped to the overall win ahead of Bahrain Victorious’s Lenny Martinez by 1min 22sec, with last year’s Tour de France white jersey Florian Lipowitz finding some of that form a further eight seconds back.
Aside from the entertaining racing and weather interruptions, there was plenty to take away from the seven stages, including Lipowitz finishing ahead of new teammate Remco Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock’s crash, and Dorian Godon’s sprint success for Ineos Grenadiers.
Jonas Vingegaard looking strong ahead of Giro d’Italia debut
Jonas Vinegegaard is leading the way as he charges towards the Giro d’Italia. Vingegaard, who breezed to overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya with two stage wins in the mountains, barely facing any serious competition across the seven days. He’s now two-for-two in stage races this season after dominating Paris-Nice too.
It bodes well for the Visma leader as he eyes the maglia rosa. If he succeeds, he’ll join the elite club of riders to have won all three Grand Tours. Given his superior level so far this season, it’s a shame that he won’t face off against Tadej Pogačar prior to the Tour de France to really gauge whether Vingegaard can make the Tour competitive this summer. Although is it better to build the tension for the season’s biggest test?
Loading …Remco Evenepoel usurped in Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe hierarchy
It was not the best of weeks for Remco Evenepoel. He did make it to the start line despite almost getting stuck on Tenerife, immediately sprinted to second on the opening stage but crashed on a crack in the road in the Stage 3 finale after ripping the peloton – minus Vingegaard – apart, allowing the sprinters to take over and battle for the day’s honours. Stage 5 did the biggest damage to his GC aspirations as teammate Florian Lipowitz followed a move from Decathlon-CMA CGM’s Felix Gall before Vingegaard then attacked with 7km remaining, eventually distancing the field a kilometre later. Evenepoel looked to ride at his own pace however the gap stretched until he sat over a minute and a half in arrears.
Even though he started the year hot in Mallorca and Valenciana, the first proper tests in the UAE Tour and Volta a Catalunya have been less than ideal. Evenepoel’s main goal this season is the Tour de France and he’ll be riding alongside Lipowitz there too, so it was a positive for Red Bull that at least one of them is finding his climbing legs. The dynamic between the pair will certainly be an interesting one to follow.
More injuries for UAE Team Emirates XRG
More riders are joining the injured list for UAE Team Emirates XRG. Jay Vine hit the ground hard on Stage 3 and abandoned, Catalunya being his first race back after fracturing his wrist in that kangaroo crash at the Tour Down Under. Teammate Ivo Oliveira was involved in the same crash and able to carry on before pulling out prior to Stage 4.
Team leader João Almeida was another to tumble, coming down on Stage 5 while being unable to really leave any mark on the race. He admitted to not knowing why he didn’t feel too great and that he would conduct some tests with the medical team, perhaps a worrying sign for UAE prior to his leadership role at the Giro.
Tim Wellens and Jan Christen are still out of action. Wellens sustained a broken collarbone at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne while Christen suffered the same injury at Milan-San Remo. Jhonatan Narváez has not raced since his crash at the Tour Down Under either having fractured several vertebrae.
Movers and shakers: Lenny Martinez, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Felix Gall
Lenny Martinez has been putting together a strong season. The 22-year-old claimed a couple of podiums in French one-day races to kick off 2026 before racing to a stage win and fifth place overall at Paris-Nice. He only got stronger throughout Catalunya, hoisting himself up the GC to finish second overall.
Soudal-QuickStep’s Valentin Paret-Peintre burst into life with a second place on a stage in the mountains at Paris-Nice and was very active in the breakaway a few days later. Like Martinez, he too improved his GC standings at Catalunya as the gradient increased, with fifth on the Coll de Pal and fourth in Queralt to end fourth overall, 13 seconds off the podium. It’s a good time to be French.
Things were looking good for Felix Gall of Decathlon-CMA CGM on the Coll de Pall, with his second place taking him into second overall behind Vingegaard, however he slipped down to sixth on the roads to Queralt with some descending struggles.
Dorian Godon shines for Ineos Grenadiers
Dorian Godon moved from Decathlon to Ineos Grenadiers over the winter and has been a revelation for the team.
The French National Champion Godon saw off a close challenge from Evenepoel to win the opening stage and take the leader’s jersey before winning again two days later and just missing out on the win on the final day in Barcelona.
He is leading Ineos’s sprinting hierarchy at the moment as the rejuvenated team rack up the victories, with 14 already this season, just three behind UAE Team Emirates. Godon has three individual wins to his name this year as well as one team time-trial, and will take huge confidence from this race with a big summer ahead at the Tour de France.
Tom Pidcock has a scary crash while descending
Tom Pidcock suffered a ‘horror’ crash into a ravine on Stage 5, while not caught by the TV cameras he said he was drinking on the descent, misjudged a corner and came off the road, admitting ‘I was lucky I could talk on the radio. I was far from the road and nobody knew I was there.’
Although he managed to finish the stage, after evaluation he was confirmed to have sustained a number of knee and wrist injuries. He had been riding well with podiums on Stage 1 and Stage 4 off the back of his breakthrough Milan-San Remo performance, and was scheduled to make a run at the Ardennes Classics in April, but that looks ambitious now.
Giulio Ciccone back to what he does best
Lidl-Trek’s signings of Juan Ayuso and Derek Gee-West mean some of the GC pressure has been removed from the shoulders of Giulio Ciccone. This allows the Italian to revert to what he does best: explosive breakaways, winning mountains classifications and throwing his sunglasses.
Now he hasn’t done any of the sunglasses throwing just yet, but he went on the offensive on back-to-back days for Stage 5 and Stage 6. He was out of the running in terms of GC, but would end the race on top of the mountains classification.