Dorian Godon proves his class again by beating Evenepoel and Pidcock uphill

Godon can rightly be called a late bloomer. Although he already turned professional with Cofidis in 2017, the biggest victories of his career have really started to come only in the past few years. During his time at Cofidis and later AG2R, from 2019 onwards, he was mainly known as a very strong rider in French races, but his victory in Brabantse Pijl in 2023 was already a sign that he could do much more. That same year, he also added Giro del Veneto to his palmarès.

After winning two stages at the Tour de Romandie in 2024, 2025 was without doubt the best season of his professional career. He took six victories, including the French national title. Wearing the tricolore jersey, he then signed a three-year deal with INEOS. At the British team, Godon has hit the ground running over the past few weeks.

Before the start of 2026, Godon already had sixteen professional wins to his name, but two of the biggest results of his career came after joining INEOS Grenadiers. Following a relatively anonymous start in several French races in February, his sixth place in the Faun Drôme Classic on 1 March was already a sign that his top form was approaching. That became clear at Paris-Nice, where Godon won two stages.

Those victories came in the team time trial with INEOS and in a heavily shortened uphill stage, so perhaps those wins in the Race to the Sun were not yet fully appreciated. But after his stage win in the Volta a Catalunya, Godon removed any remaining doubt: he is now a serious force in the current peloton. And that is not just a reference to his height of 1.89 metres.

In the first stage of the Volta a Catalunya, Godon managed to finish ahead of Remco Evenepoel of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Tom Pidcock of Pinarello-Q36.5. Those are no small names to hold off. After coming close to victory three times in the traditional opening stage to Sant Feliu de Guíxols over the past three seasons, Godon finally got his reward.

“I’ve raced here a lot, Catalonia is really my second home,” Godon said afterwards. “These are my training roads and I studied here for eight years, just 30 kilometres from the finish. We knew the finale well and I had thought a lot about this stage. I had already finished fourth twice, but this time it was my day.”

The final kilometre of the stage was brutally hard, with the road climbing nastily for the final 800 metres. Godon judged his effort perfectly. “I think I passed Remco a little too early, I could maybe have waited a bit longer. The final 50 metres felt like an eternity, it was so hard. But I managed to hold on to the lead.”