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Ethan Vernon of NSN Cycling Team won the shortened fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya on Thursday. The summit finish at Vallter 2000 had already been removed from the route the day before because of the strong winds forecast on the mountain.
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The organisers of the Spanish stage race said they had no other option. “Due to the activation of a Level 3 VENCAT warning, with wind gusts of up to 90 km/h forecast at the summit of Vallter, the Volta a Catalunya has been forced to shorten the route of its 4th stage, scheduled for Thursday 26 March.”
In practice, that meant the stage was reduced by around 23 kilometres and finished more than 1,000 metres lower than originally planned. That automatically gave the faster riders an extra opportunity compared to the stronger climbers in the Catalan race.
Continue reading below the photo!
Dorian Godon already won two stages.
Evenepoel starts ‘as normal’
That was not the only talking point after Wednesday, as Remco Evenepoel had spent much of the previous finale on the attack alongside an unwilling Jonas Vingegaard before crashing late on. Fortunately for everyone, and especially for the Belgian, Evenepoel was able to start the shortened fourth stage. In fact, he even picked up bonus seconds in the opening part of the day.
Matthew Fox (Lotto-Intermarché) and Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who had already lost Jay Vine) did not start when the stage rolled out at around 1 p.m. local time. From the moment the flag dropped, the attacks came thick and fast.
Continue reading below the photo!
Eventually, four riders were allowed clear: breakaway specialist Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché), Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla), Merhawi Kudus (Burgos-BH) and Samuel Fernandez of Euskaltel-Euskadi. But the first two soon realised their move was unlikely to succeed and sat up again, which made the chase a lot easier for the peloton.
INEOS Grenadiers and Uno-X let the remaining duo dangle out front, but it was clear almost throughout that the stage was heading toward a sprint. With 18 kilometres to go, the breakaway’s race was definitively over, just before an intermediate sprint. Tom Pidcock picked up a few points and seconds there.
Vingegaard avoids crashes
Just after that sprint, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) briefly tried to move clear, but the other GC teams quickly shut that down.
At almost the same moment, Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) crashed without too much damage. Jonas Vingegaard, who was positioned right at the back, just managed to avoid the incident on the run-in to the expected sprint finish.
The sprint teams moved to the front on the broad Catalan roads inside the final three kilometres. NSN looked particularly well organised, although Dorian Godon was also close by. The Frenchman could not come around Vernon after the final corner, and so the Briton took the stage win.
Results stage 4 Volta a Catalunya 2026
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Tom van der Salm (27) comes from the charming town of Zeilberg (Deurne) in the Netherlands and has been working as editor-in-chief & journalist at IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, In de Leiderstrui, since 2019. He travels with the peloton from the Tour de France to the AlUla Tour and from the World Championships in Rwanda or Canada to the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In his spare time he enjoys playing football, mountain biking, running, walking with his Labrador/Stabyhoun, investing, holidays, (specialty) beers, reading, cooking and watching sports & documentaries!
Contact: [email protected]
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Latest Comments
- Eight riders told to go for stages, and nobody gets one—hard to know what the plan was there. It’ll be interesting to see whether they pick a clear leader next time.bikebuffj10-11-2026
- Was Bernal’s 20th place really their best GC result? I thought he might have finished higher. Either way, it sounds like a rough Tour for the whole team.gearguru3310-11-2026
- Five days in breaks with no stage win is a painful stat. The team had chances, but they need to turn those opportunities into results.julien10-11-2026
- The Onley Vuelta example makes sense: a team with someone to rally around often looks much more cohesive. Hopefully INEOS can build on that rather than expecting a quick return to the Sky years.cadencekingm10-11-2026
- Thomas is right about the ambiguity. Eight riders all chasing stages can end up pulling in different directions, even if nobody’s deliberately working against anyone. They need a clearer plan once the GC leaders are out.robert6510-11-2026
- What a mess. The report makes it sound as though nobody properly explained the decision, and that’s hard to defend.jennifer1910-11-2026
- I’m still learning the rules: does moving left in a sprint automatically bring a penalty, or does it depend on whether the other rider is blocked? It sounds like Brand wasn’t impeded here.patriciaw10-11-2026
- A final decision still needs a proper explanation. If the federation’s complaint goes nowhere, I hope the officials at least review how they handled the riders afterwards.michael5410-11-2026
- Fair play to Lucinda for saying Marie had won fair and square. That kind of sportsmanship matters, especially after such a controversial decision.raceready710-11-2026
- Schreiber beat Brand on the road, so the jury needed to explain clearly why that slight deviation warranted relegation. Being cut off before she could give her account sounds appalling.lindae10-11-2026
