As it happened: Surprise winner takes sprint with GC decided on stage 7 of Volta a Catalunya 2026
Brady Gilmore (NSN) outsprinted Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) and Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) taking the overall.
The neutral start is in 20 minutes.
Hola and welcome to the finale stage of this year's Volta a Catalunya live here on Cyclingnews' live report. I hope you've enjoyed the week's racing and are looking forward to what is always an exciting finale around the climb of Montjuïc in Barcelona.
First things first, lets take a moment to look back at yesterday's stage... It was another rapid mountain stage with a huge fight for the breakaway early doors. Eventually, a really strong group got away with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) being the main men for the KOM jersey after the stage.
According to Evenepoel, he didn't want to take risks. But the Olympic champion absolutely flew down the final descent yesterday of the Coll de Pradell that there were only six other riders with him...
Sign on and rider presentation is well underway in Barcelona.
One non-starter today is MIchael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost). He joins Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Sergio Chumil (Burgos-Burpellet-BH), Haoyo Su (XDS-Astana), Anton Kuzmin (XDS-Astana), Tao Geoghegen-Hart (Lidl-Trek) and Michel Hessmann (Movistar) who all DNFd yesterday.
Jerseys
The neutral start is given. It is a very short neutral today.
The neutral is meant to be only 1.1km long, but the official start has not been given.
Lead group splits.
Those three are ahead of two chasers at about 5" and the peloton at about 10".
Two groups come together!
The peloton are 15" behind the five man break with just 5km to the first intermediate sprint of the day which takes place in Viladecans.
Three riders are trying to bridge to the leaders.
The three chasers are about 8" off the back of the leaders with the peloton still at just 15".
The riders have just stormed through the first intermediate sprint in Viladecans.
The three chasers have been caught by the peloton. The riders are about to cross the line in Castelldefels for the second intermediate sprint of the day.
There is 50" splitting the break and the peloton now.
The gap has grown for the five leaders as they now have 1'25" on the peloton.
70km to go
The riders are now inside 20km to go to the Montjuïc circuit and the seven ascents of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc.
Half an hour into the race, the break have 1'54" on the peloton led by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Visma-Lease a Bike with the average speed sitting at 51.2kph. It is a rapid start!
The wind is causing the peloton to be buffeted around the road into Barcelona and the pace is picking up. The gap had gone over 2'00" but now the gap is slowly dropping again.
About 25 riders just off the back of the peloton due to the wind.
NSN and Bahrain Victorious having a bit of a go at each other in the bunch. Riders are all over the place and Nikias Arndt wasn't happy with one of the NSN riders as they try to get into position.
Just 6km to the top of the first ascent of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc. The climb is taken on seven times and is 2.5km with an average 4.6% with a brutal maximum kick at 19%.
NSN and Visma-Lease a Bike both lead the peloton as the break cross the finish line for the first time for the first of eight times. Gap at 1'35".
Visma-Lease a Bike take control of the peloton onto the first ascent of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc. The gap is dropping rather quickly.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe now take over for Lipowitz.
1km from the top of the climb.
Maybe Evenepoel fancies an early move and gives a chance for him to take a win or for him to be a bridge for Lipowitz.
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is already losing touch with the peloton.
Some riders had to unclip on the first ascent and stop. That'll be difficult to get going again.
The riders are now descending to the final intermediate sprint.
Just a minute split the break and the peloton now. One hour ridden with the average speed still very high at 47kph!
Almeida now a minute out of the back of the peloton.
Onto the climb for the second time.
1km from the top of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc (2).
Almeida has managed to get back on but he is not having a good race this year.
McNulty and Slock gapping the rest but Cort closes it down over the top. They 1'02" on the peloton.
And just like that, the descent it done and they're back on the climb!
The peloton are flying and the gap has almost completely disappeared with 13" splitting them.
Ineos Grenadiers come to the front alongside Soudal-Quickstep and Bahrain Victorious muscle their way to the front now. Godon has voiced how he really wants to go for this stage but it it going to be too hard for the French champion?
Lipowitz brings four other riders across with Mattias Skjelmose (LTK) among others.
Decathlon-CMA CGM is pushing behind for Felix Gall with help from Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) who is trying to bridge.
A few skirmishes by Lipowitz and Vingegaard but the peloton all get back together again. 1km from the top yet again.
Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) move to the front as they have a chance to go for more KOM points. The Spaniard is just seven points behind the Italian.
Hindley comes to the front for Evenepoel and Lipowitz.
Lipowitz now pushes to the front but Martinez is locked onto his wheel.
Visma-Lease a Bike go back to the front as Soler is dragged back. About 40 riders left in the peloton with three ascents to go.
Ineos Grenadiers now lead with Godon in fourth wheel. 700 metres to the top of the next ascent.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Visma-Lease a Bike come back to the front as the gradient goes up again.
The bunch has split and Evenepoel has missed it.
Absolutely no control in the peloton with Lipowitz and Onley going over the top of each other but it stalls again and Tobias Svarre (UXM) launches solo.
Svarre riding well but Bahrain Victorious come to the front as the peloton has regrouped.
There is a Caja Rural-Segurps RGA rider in the gap but he is only a few metres ahead of the peloton whereas Svarre is still pushing on.
The Caja Rural-Seguros RGA rider is Sergi Darder! That is quite the rider by him.
Ciccone, Soler and O'Connor are just 7" behind Svarre as the Dane is about to turn onto the steepest part of the climb for the penultimate time.
Svarre joined by Soler, Ciccone and O'Connor with 400 metres to the top of the climb.
Alpecin-Premier Tech leading the peloton, interestingly. Francesco Busatto may be in the bunch.
Ciccone used his brutal acceleration to take the max points in the KOM.
Lead group
But, Movistar are pulling very hard to bring it back together. Martinez and Paret-Peintre missed it too but aren't chasing.
Soler starting to lose a bit of touch with the leaders but as they sit up and look at each other, he gets back in. Evenepoel then comes back to the front.
Lipowitz tries to go over a top of the latest move by Soler and Ciccone but everyone followed it with Martinez's teammate, Eulalio, dragging him back.
Ineos Grenadiers take control with Laurens De Plus leading Oscar Onley. Dorian Godon jusy a few wheels back. 6km to go.
Just 1km to the top of the final ascent of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc.
Lipowitz very out of position but he manages to move up before the steepest part.
Lipowitz attacks but Vingegaard and Martinez locked on his wheel. Vingegaard comes to the front in a group of about 15 riders.
3km to go and Vingegaard is guiding them through as Godon just gets back in on this final kick to the line.
Mas tried another move but Onley marked it as he works for Godon. 2km to go.
Lipowitz leads the way, perhaps for Evenepoel in a sprint.
500 metres to go in the 2026 Volta a Catalunya with Evenepoel leading it out.
Brady Gilmore (NSN) wins stage 7 of the Volta a Catalunya 2026!
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) wins the overall title at the Volta a Catalunya 2026!
No changes at all in the top 10 of the general classification.
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It is the biggest win of Gilmore's career!
Here is the final podium
Godon secured the points jersey by just 8 points over Vingegaard. Two stage wins and two second places and a fourth place, superbly consistent.
Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) comfortably won the best young rider classification ahead of Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar) by almost four minutes.
Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) took the KOM lead yesterday from Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarche) and held off the challenge of Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the final stage.
Jan Castellon (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) won the best catalan rider competition after finishing 32nd in GC almost 20 mins down.
Looking at the whole week, Jonas Vingegaard said, "it's been a really nice week, we had a lot of fun, and I was super happy with it. It's been an amazing start to the year for me."
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