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General Classification after stage 1
Stage 1 Top 10
Dorian Godon does indeed win stage 1 of Volta a Catalunya 2026 by the smallest margin! He wasn’t sure when he celebrated but Evenepoel told him he got it and a broad smile went across his face.
Photo finish between Dorian Godon and Remco Evenepoel! The Frenchman throws his arm into the air but did he hold on after overtaking the Olympic champion?
500 metres to go with Jake Stewart (NSN) taking over for Gilmore
French national champion, Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers), moves into fourth wheel. Vingegaard still leads with 2km to go as Martinez and Evenepoel challenge him for the lead. Pidcock and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) both up there too.
Mechanical for Sergio Chumil (Burgos-Burpellet-BH)
Vingegaard now leading the peloton alongside Evenepoel and Almeida. The three biggest names leading. Vinegaard leading everyone down this very technical descent with 3km to go.
Eulalio is sprinting out of every corner with Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG reassembling with 4km to go.
Marc Soler now leading the peloton for Almeida with Vingegaard, Pidcock, Evenepoel and others all solo behind.
Pinarello-Q36.5, Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, Modern Adventure and Uno-X Mobility battling to get their principal riders in and amongst the front positions of the peloton.
Ivo Oliveira is really drilling the pace in the bunch. It will be interesting to see if Almeida goes all in for an early stage win.
Josh Burnett is finally caught with 11.3km to go with UAE Team Emirates-XRG leading the way.
Veistroffer sits up with Burnett being last man. He will likely take the combativity award and wear the green numbers tomorrow, but you wouldn’t say no to Veistroffer getting the green number, either.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG his the front of the peloton for the first time all day with just over 16km to go. Filippo Baroncini has just done his turn, it’s his first race back since he crashed out on stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne in early August last year.
Ethan Vernon (NSN) sits up from the peloton. He’s not going for it today with the focus of his team likely being on Gilmore and Stewart.
The peloton are still pushing very hard with 18 seconds up to Burnett and Veistroffer.
Lidl-Trek leads the peloton with Hugo Aznar caught.
Veistroffer is absolutely caning it with Burnett clinging onto his wheel. They’re looking to win that green number for most combative rider.
Unai Aznar has been caught by the peloton led by Bahrain Victorious.
The Aznar brothers are now both dropped from the break. As is Stites.
Vingegaard is second wheel in the peloton.
Unai Aznar is starting to be dropped as the road goes up again. His brother, Hugo, is struggling to hold on as well.
Veistroffer is still the main driving force in this breakaway but it will be for nothing. At least the Frenchman got all the KOM and intermediate sprints in his pocket today. A jersey and some good prize money.
We’re almost down to the coastline with a very lumpy and twisty road after a long, fast descent. The break only have 27 seconds now.
Visma-Lease a Bike, Lotto-Intermarche and Pinarello-Q36.5 all now moving up but Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe continue to push on the front with the peloton taking the gap to the break to just 58 seconds.
Lidl-Trek are the next team to move up to try and challenge the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe lads.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe take over control in the peloton with other teams battling to try and be close to the point of the bunch. Evenepoel in third wheel already!
Multiple teams move to the front with Pinarello-Q36.5, Bahrain Victorious, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lotto-Intermarche, Ineos Grenadiers, Visma-Lease a Bike and others all battling to hold the front.
The break is starting to be brought back under control at one minute at 44 seconds.
The break have added a minute to their advantage in the last 10km. They now lead the peloton by two minutes.
Veistroffer has really whipped up the other riders in this break and they are going absolutely flat out to try and stay away and pull off a real shock.
It looks like the break has held something back here and are making use of the current tailwind as they drag the gap up to one minute and 43 seconds again.
The gap appears to be steady at one minute and 20 seconds.
With the race time heading towards three hours the average speed sits at 41.9kph. It has been a rapid day with Ineos Grenadiers and NSN returning to the front with Bahrain Victorious.
The break getting a bit frustrated with each other but they have taken the gap back up to one and a half minutes with Bahrain Victorious taking full control in the peloton, led by Slovenian champion Jakub Omrzel.
The brothers in the break today, Unai and Hugo Aznar. They did both ride for Kern Pharma but the eldest, Unai (23 years old), moved to Euskaltel-Euskadi for this season with Hugo (22 years old) staying at the rival Spanish squad.
1101 metres of elevation gain has already been tackled today with 797 metres still to go.
The break are still pushing hard but it is to no avail with the gap at one minute and four seconds.
Ineos Grenadiers, NSN and Bahrain Victorious have brought the gap down to one minute and nine seconds!
It appears there may not be another intermediate sprint.
They’re finished the main part of the descent but still have some steady downhill for a while yet.
Half way through the stage with the average speed at 40.3kph. This is a rapid stage considering the parcours ridden already today.
The gap drops below two minutes with the peloton now one minutes and 40 seconds behind the break with just over 90km to go.
Veistroffer just needs the finish the stage and he will wear the KOM jersey on the podium and in tomorrow’s stage.
KOM (Alt de Sant Hilari Sacalm)
1. Veistroffer (LOI) 10pts
2. Stites (MAP) 8pts
3. Aznar (EUS) 6pts
4. Aznar (EKP) 4pts
5. Burnett (BBH) 2pts
6. Svestad-Bårdseng (IGD) 1pt
1km from the summit of the Alt de Sant Hilari Sacalm.
The peloton brings the gap down again to about two minutes.
The gap finally has gone up slightly again for the first time in quite some time. The break now have two minutes and 20 seconds on the peloton.
Pidcock thinks it would’ve been a “bit of a fluke” had he won Milan-San Remo on the weekend, but the Yorkshireman now turns his focus to GC riding against more of the world’s best…
Just two minutes and five seconds split the peloton and the break as they start the climb.
The riders are about to start the Alt de Sant Hilari Sacalm.
The peloton is being led by Ineos Grenadiers and NSN. Likely for Dorian Godon and Ethan Vernon but both have other choices such as main GC man Oscar Onley as well as young talent Brady Gilmore.
Gap is still going down to two minutes and 10 seconds.
The Alt de Sant Hilari Sacalm is a largely steady climb with the average gradient at 3% but there are steep points with the max kick at 8%.
The riders are on the foothills of the climb and the gap has dropped further to two minutes and 15 seconds. Not looking too good for the break.
The break are roughly 15km from the start of the second and final categorised climb of the day, the cat 1 Alt de Sant Hilari.
130km to go
Just under an hour of racing and the average speed is at 40.5kph.
The gap has now come down to three minutes.
There are three, two and one points and bonus seconds available at each of the three intermediate sprints today.
7km from the intermediate sprint in Salt.
The gap continues to drop with another five seconds shaved off the time.
The peloton are now taking control of things and have already brought the gap back down to three minutes and 25 seconds.
The peloton hasn’t really settled into a controlling pattern just yet with various teams working out who is the favourite for today and the week as a whole…
The gap has inched out to four minutes.
Burnett has already had one very good week long stage race in Spain this year where he took the mountains jersey at the Vuelta a Andalucia. He also finished second in the New Zealand national road race.
About 18km to the first of three intermediate sprints. The first one comes in the town of Salt.
Veistroffer finally backs into the chasing group and we now have five riders together at three minutes and 50 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Veistroffer has had quite the start to the year with a stage win and a spell in the leader’s jersey at the Tour of Oman as well as a heroic week at the Tour Down Under where he showed off his breakaway skills.
The gap between Veistroffer and the peloton is now almost four minutes. The Frenchman has over 20 seconds on the chasers, still.
Veistroffer crossed the top of the Alt de Romanyà first and takes the three points.
The peloton are now over two minutes down on the leader.
Veistroffer has now dropped everyone and is pushing on solo with a group of four chasing at about 20″ as they are about to crest the first climb of the day already, the Alt de Romanyà. with Unai back in a group with his brother, Hugo…
The break splits with U. Aznar and Vestroffer being chased by Stites as well as Josh Burnett (Burgos-Burpellet-BH) and Hugo Aznar (Kern Pharma) who are just 15″ behind the leaders.
Tyler Stites (Modern Adventure) has joined the lead group.
The start was actually delayed to several riders having various issues. But now the riders are racing with several attacks trying to follow Veistroffer and Aznar.
172.8km to go
161 riders start the Volta a Catalunya 2026 stage 1 in Sant Feliu de Guíxols.The riders immediately plunge down a -5% descent before heading onto the climb.
The neutral zone is 5.5km long today.
The neutral start has happened and the riders have about 10 minutes to get settled in before racing begins and they start climbing almost immediately with the category three Alt de Romanyà, 4.4km long with an average gradient of 3.8% and a max kicker of 8%. That starts a mere 3km into the race!
The stage, as seen from last year, can suit the fast men. However, riders such as Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) have also succeeded on this stage, it is very open. It could be someone like Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) or a GC man with a good kick like Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Only time will tell!
The opening stage has the same finishing kilometres as the opening day last year that was won by emerging superstar, Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike). This year, the organisers have plonked a whacking great category one climb in the middle of the day, the Al de Sant Hilari Sacalm, which is 14.6km long with an average gradient of 3% but max kicks of 8%.
Sign on, team presentations and interviews are well underway in Sant Feliu de Guíxols…
The neutral start comes at 12:50 local time with the flag set to be waved to start racing 10 minutes after that.
Pidcock was oh so close to taking Milan-San Remo on Saturday and missed out by just half a wheel thanks to being caught on the wrong side of Tadej Pogačar’s wheel as the sprint started, but can he make amends in the mountains of Catalonia?
After escaping the snowed in island of Tenerife, Evenepoel wants to taste victory again…
>>> ‘It’s time to win one again’ – Remco Evenepoel escapes the Mount Teide snow to chase first WorldTour stage race win in three years at Volta a Catalunya
Vingegaard comes into the raise on a high after absolutely decimating the field in a brutal Paris-Nice on his way to his Giro d’Italia debut…
>>> ‘A tough race full of challenges’ – Jonas Vingegaard in high spirits as Volta a Catalunya marks another key stop on the road to the Giro d’Italia
The race is peppered with superstars this year with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers), Giulio Ciccone, Derek Gee-West, Mattias Skjelmose (all Lidl-Trek), Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), Felix Gall, Matt Riccitello (both Decathlon-CMA CGM), Richard Crapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Lenny Martinez, Santiago Buitrago (both Bahrain Victorious), and many more besides all racing.
>>> Crunch time in the Pyrenees for Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock – Analysing the contenders for the 2026 Volta a Catalunya
Hola! Welcome to the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya 2026, live on Cyclingnews!
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