Favorites stage 6 Volta a Catalunya 2026 | Vingegaard’s words promise a lot

This stage is going to really take a toll on the legs... After the grueling fifth stage, we’re just going to keep climbing. Not right at the start, though: from the start in Berga, it stays easy for a long time. After 25 kilometers, the road begins to climb gradually, and it stays that way until the summit of the Coll de la Batallola, about 95 kilometers from the finish.

It’s a fairly easy climb, but these will likely be the last easy kilometers. After a gradual descent, the riders tackle the Coll de la Pradell, a two-stage assault. The first 9 kilometers aren’t very steep, but the final five kilometers average over 11% grade. Time to scramble!

After a descent, there’s an intermediate sprint, followed by another downhill stretch. Immediately after that comes the Collada de Sant Isidre, a 5-kilometer stretch at 8%: so not exactly a walk in the park either. The loop concludes with the return to the starting point in Berga, where there’s an intermediate sprint. From there, the route climbs to Queralt (6 km at 7%) all the way to the finish. After 4,000 meters of elevation gain, we’ll have a clear picture of the standings!

Times
Start: 12:50 PM local time
Finish: approx. 4:35 PM local time

The weather in Spain has been strange all week, with the wind being particularly troublesome. But on Saturday, it doesn’t seem like it will be a problem: 14 degrees with a force 3 wind. No rain: it looks like a beautiful day for cycling! Although conditions can still get a bit rough on the mountain passes...

After Friday, it’s clear: Jonas Vingegaard is in top form. The Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike took control in the queen stage, and he’s not about to let it go. “I’m not ruling out going for another stage win. I need to recover, and then we’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” he said Friday after his stage win. That’s promising!

João Almeida was, on paper, one of Vingegaard’s biggest challengers, but the Portuguese rider from UAE Team Emirates-XRG crashed on Friday and lost two minutes to the Dane. The same was true for Tom Pidock, though the British rider from Pinarello-Q36.5 lost even more time. It remains to be seen whether—and if so, to what extent—they will have recovered by Saturday.

Performing well on Friday: Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step). That quartet lost around a minute and thus came closest to a rampant Vingegaard.

As for Remco Evenepoel, it remains to be seen how his legs are holding up. The Belgian rider from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe crashed earlier this week and didn’t seem to be in top form on Friday. Riders like Oscar Onley (INEOS Grenadiers), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), and Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) lost even (much) more time than Evenepoel.

Of course, keep an eye on riders like Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Enric Mas (Movistar) as well. They are all within two minutes of general classification leader Vingegaard.

A bit further down in that standings, riders like George Bennett (NSN), Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), Juan Pedro Lopez (Movistar), and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) might just surprise us. And have riders like Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Einer Rubio (Movistar) recovered from their efforts in the breakaway the day before?

Top favorite: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Outsiders: Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Florian Lipowitz, Remco Evenepoel (both Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious)
Long shots: João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Oscar Onley (INEOS Grenadiers), Ben O'Connor(Jayco AlUla), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step)