That break is dragged back yet again! A new move of four riders have gone clear.
Those three bonus seconds now mean that Evenepoel is eight seconds behind Godon in the GC and the two bonus seconds for Pidcock leaves him 14 seconds behind Godon in third overall.
He can’t help himself! He’s off again. Veistroffer is on the search for more mountain and intermediate sprint points.
Intermediate sprint (Granollers)
1. Remco Evenepoel (RBH) 3pts 3″ 2. Tom Pidcock (PQT) 2pts 2″ 3. David Gonzalez (PQT) 1pt 1″
Evenepoel is clearly up for it today after his crash late on yesterday denied him a chance at a stage win. Also, key to point out Pidcock taking vital bonus seconds too.
130km to go
The peloton have just gone through the first intermediate sprint of the day with no breakaway formed just yet.
The peloton is still together with 1km to the sprint in Granollers.
The riders are now just 4km from the first intermediate sprint of the day in Granollers. Potentially a chance for GC riders to take three, two and one bonus seconds.
Uriarte has been wound back in again. The break is having a hard time of going clear.
Attack!
Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma)
The Spaniard goes solo and gets 12 seconds gap in very short order. He is looking for a third day in a row up in the break.
The Coll de Parpers has absolutely no impact on the lead of Veistroffer who comfortably sits in that jersey and will not lose it today. He just needs to finish within the time cut.
KOM (Coll de Parpers)
1. Jose Luis Faura (BBH) 3pts 2. Mats Wenzel (EKP) 2pts 3. Maxime Decomble (GFC) 1pt
140km to go
Race all together! The peloton catch the break. Likely a mixture of teams not wanting to miss a possible winning move and the danger of Decomble being a bit too much.
Over the top of the climb and the break only have 10 seconds gap!
Just 1km from the top of the Coll de Parpers.
There is still a rather brutal 2841 metres of elevation gain to be tackled today, despite no ascent of the Vallter 200.
Decomble is a bit of a danger man in the break. The young Frenchman sits at just 20 seconds behind Godon and is a very talented climber. He isn’t someone the peloton will let go lightly. This is probably why the gap is still only around 30 seconds.
It is actually the first time since stage one that there isn’t two Lotto-Intermarche riders in the break. In fact, there isn’t even one!
With the break already starting the first climb of the day, the Coll de Parpers (3km with an average gradient of 5% and a max of 8%), there is a rider that is notable by his absence, Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarche) has won every KOM sprint so far and been in every breakaway. Maybe today was a step too far?
Counter move tries to get across but the peloton closes it down with five riders going clear with 20 seconds gap.
Attack!
Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ United) Mats Wenzel (Kern Pharma) Unai Aznar (Euskaltel-Euskadi) Jose Luis Faura (Burgos-Burpellet-BH) Samuel Florez (Modern Adventure)
151km to go
Racing begins on this shortened stage 4 at the Volta a Catalunya 2026!
Just 4km of neutral today.
The peloton is now down to 153 riders eight riders in the last couple of days.
The riders have started the neutralised zone.
Two non-starters today:
Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) Matthew Fox (Lotto-Intermarche)
No surprise that Oliveira is out after crashing hard yesterday alongside teammate, Jay Vine, who abandoned at the crash site.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Evenepoel is in a defiant mood after crashing late on yesterday. He has some painful scrapes but he is still in the GC fight…
Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had his return to racing cut short after the Tour Down Under champion was caught in a nasty crash and landed in a rocky ditch…
Vingegaard followed Evenepoel’s attack and, for the most part, sat on the wheel of his rival. He did give a few turns but stopped working once the time gap dropped from 25 seconds to 13 seconds in the final few kilometres.
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) lit up yesterday’s finale in the crosswinds along with Jonas Vinegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). However, with just 300 metres to go, the Olympic champion hit a pothole before the final roundabout and went down hard. Vingegaard sat up and was caught by the peloton with Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) winning, but the chaos in the GC fight was amazing…
First things first, the news that came out last night that today’s summit finish to Vallter 2000 is no longer happening due to an extreme wind warning, here is the statement from the race with the link to our story below…
“Due to the activation of a Level 3 VENTCAT 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.
“The stage, starting from Mataró, will finish in the town of Camprodon, shortening the final climb to the resort. With this change, the stage start time is delayed by half an hour to 13:05, with the team presentation in Mataró taking place between 11:55 and 12:55.”
