As it happened: British sprint success in shortened stage 4 at the Volta a Catalunya 2026
Ethan Vernon made good of his chance to take the win ahead of Doria Godon and Tom Pidcock with Godon holding onto the GC lead
The neutral start will be in about half an hour.
Hola and welcome to Cyclingnews' live report for stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya 2026!
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...
"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."
Before going further into today, let's relive the action from stage 3 and the chaos of that final 30km!
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...
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.
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...
The jerseys:
Evenepoel is in a defiant mood after crashing late on yesterday. He has some painful scrapes but he is still in the GC fight...
Two non-starters today:
The riders have started the neutralised zone.
The peloton is now down to 153 riders eight riders in the last couple of days.
Just 4km of neutral today.
Counter move tries to get across but the peloton closes it down with five riders going clear with 20 seconds gap.
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?
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!
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.
There is still a rather brutal 2841 metres of elevation gain to be tackled today, despite no ascent of the Vallter 200.
Just 1km from the top of the Coll de Parpers.
Over the top of the climb and the break only have 10 seconds gap!
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.
Uriarte has been wound back in again. The break is having a hard time of going clear.
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.
The peloton is still together with 1km to the sprint in Granollers.
Counter attack by four riders!
They join Veistroffer and Wenzel with a gap of 15 seconds on the peloton.
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.
That break is dragged back yet again! A new move of four riders have gone clear.
The four clear were part of the group of six that had a gap moments ago:
The gap is expanding as the peloton finally seems happy. They leading four have one minute and 20 seconds on the bunch.
Puncture for Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and a mechanical for Tao Geoghegan-Hart (Lidl-Trek).
The break are about 5km from the bottom of the second climb of the day, the 9.8km long Alt de Sant Feliu de Codines. It has an average gradient of 4% with a max kick of 8%.
The gap keeps growing with the break now holding two minutes and 40 seconds.
After the first hour the riders are now 800 metres from the top of the Alt de Sant Feliu de Codines. They have done an average speed of just under 40kph, which is incredible considering they've ridden almost 1000 metres of elevation gain.
Over the top of the climb go the break with a gap of two and a half minutes on the peloton.
Uno-X Mobility and Ineos Grenadiers are leading the peloton for Magnus Cort and Dorian Godon to potentially take another stage win.
Veistroffer has sat up after taking the final KOM points available today. The Frenchman has extended his lead and is now focusing on getting to the finish and potentially more breakaways in the coming days.
Kudus and Fernandez have decided to push on and are extending their gap over the peloton again.
Today gives is the first real opportunity to see Merhawi Kudus' African champion jersey. The Eritrean won it on a very difficult course in Kwale County, Kenya, back in November last year.
The leading duo have taken their gap to almost two minutes again.
The two leaders have pushed their gap out to 2:15 on a chasing peloton with 80km remaining of the stage.
NSN has joined Ineos Grenadiers and Uno-X Mobility as Ethan Vernon continues to search for a stage win.
After two hours of racing the average speed is a really rather quick 38kph after over 1700 metres of climbing done as well.
The leading duo have two minutes and 10 seconds on the peloton at about the halfway point of the day.
Just 10km to the second of three intermediate sprints which takes place in Olost.
Fernandez and Kudus are riding well but they have a dwindling gap. Just one minute and 38 seconds gap now.
The four attackers:
They are just 40 seconds behind the leaders with the peloton chasing hard.
It is another beautiful day in Catalonia but just way too windy to go right up into the Pyrenees.
The peloton has completely sat up and resetting as they start an uncategorised climb. After that we have a 9km descent and the a long drag that includes the final intermediate sprint in Sant Joan de les Abadesses and then the finish on a technical finale in Camprodon.
The pace is starting to ramp up again in the peloton before they get to the descent. The drop in pace earlier has seen the average speed drop to 36kph after almost three hours of racing.
The gap for Kudus and Fernández starts to drop again with it at 48 seconds currently.
Ineos Grenadiers take control of the descent for Oscar Onley and the race leader, Godon, with the aim for a third win for the French champion. They're 33 seconds behind the leading duo.
Gap continues to fall with 40 seconds splitting the break and the peloton. Uno-X Mobility come back to help Ineos Grenadiers on the front as the road drags uphill are about 2% to 4% all the way to the line with a small 7% part close to the finish.
Kudus and Fernández look really done with today and they have 44 seconds gap still over the peloton.
Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) seems to be very unhappy about something. He is speaking to the race director. Perhaps about the rather tight and technical finale to today which sees riders take on the right hand side of a roundabout with 150 metres to go or to do with the amount of dark tunnels they are dealing with.
Plenty of tunnel action for the riders today. Some are unlit, which isn't ideal. 23 seconds for the leaders now.
Inside 10km to the final intermediate sprint which takes place in Sant Joan de les Abadesses. The break only have 17 seconds with 24km to go. The GC guys will be keen to get three, two and one seconds in bonuses.
The road is nice and wide at the moment. Three lanes wide. However, this means there's lots of room for teams to come through and create the dreaded washing machine effect. Lets hope they all stay safe.
NSN didn't return to the front with Ineos Grenadiers and Uno-X Mobility after the fast descent. Maybe Vernon isn't feeling it today. Or, perhaps, it is so they can stay together and have numbers for the finale.
Breakaway caught with just 3km to the intermediate sprint!
ON the front of the peloton from left to right are Ineos Grenadiers, Uno-X Mobility, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Movistar, Pinarello-Q36.5, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Groupama-FDJ United and Bahrain Victorious.
The speed has rocketed to 50kph with the intermediate sprint coming very soon. 1km until they get there.
That attack is back in the peloton with 13km to go.
Teams go back to working for their sprinters with Uno-X Mobility, EF Education-EasyPost, Bahrain Victorious, Pinarello-Q36.5 and Decathlon-CMA CGM.
NSN now come to the front en masse with Lotto-Intermarche, Bahrain Victorious, Groupama-FDJ United and Uno-X Mobility. 6km to go.
4km to go. Ineos Grenadiers trying to push through the left side of the peloton but Uno-X Mobility are blocking their progress.
The gap opens up and Ineos Grenadiers surge through the gap. Modern Adventure and Jayco-AlUla also both move through gaps.
3km to go now. Riders can now crash, have a mechanical or a puncture and will not lose any time.
Ineos Grenadiers, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal-Quickstep and Modern Adventure lead the peloton.
2km to go and it is Modern Adventure who take the lead but they do begin to get swamped and EF Education-EasyPost, NSN and Ineos Grenadiers take over control again for Noah Hobbs, Ethan Vernon and Dorian Godon.
Lotto-Intermarche and Groupama-FDJ United come up with 500 metres to go. Kern Pharma also involved. NSN and Uno-X Mobility still looking good as Godon goes solo.
Ethan Vernon (NSN) wins stage four of the Volta a Catalunya 2026 ahead of Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5).
Vernon knew he had to lead into that final bend with Godon trying to muscle his way to the front. In the end, the Brit had the power to hold off the French champion with Pidcock's excellend positoning handing him four more bonus seconds. He took nine bonus seconds today and is now seven seconds off the lead and in second overall.
That said, Godon did take those six bonuses on the line. Either way, Pidcock is up to second in GC.
Relive the action and see all the reaction in our post race report in the link below...
>>> Volta a Catalunya: Ethan Vernon wins truncated stage 4 on long uphill drag to Camprodón
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