Trofeo Serra Tramuntana: Remco Evenepoel unstoppable with back-to-back wins after 50km solo breakaway at Challenge Mallorca

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's Remco Evenepoel soloed to victory in the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana, attacking alone with over 40km to go and holding off the bunch to take back-to-back wins in the Challenge Mallorca after Red Bull's team time trial victory on Thursday.

The Belgian time trial specialist soloed into the finish in Santuari de Lluc more than a minute and a half ahead of the chasing peloton, having attacked on the Coll de Sóller and overtaking the day's early break to go it alone.

Teams like UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Movistar tried to muster the chase behind, but the reduced peloton lacked organisation, and Evenepoel took advantage to power to a second victory in his first two days of racing in 2026.

Despite some last-minute attacks on the final Coll de sa Batalla climb, it was a battle for second rather than the win. António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took second from a small chasing group, whilst Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) rounded out the podium in third.

"I'm very happy with this second victory, it's great to start like this with the new team," Evenepoel said after the race.

"It was a beautiful day and I'm glad I was able to execute the plan we discussed this morning. It's good for morale. This gives a lot of motivation to the whole team and to myself too. Things look good for the future. Hopefully we can continue this momentum."

The Challenge Mallorca series continues on Saturday and Sunday with the Trofeo Andratx-Pollença and Trofeo Palma. Evenepoel is set to race once more on Saturday, whilst Red Bull's Florian Lipowitz, who skipped Friday's race, will line up for both races across the weekend.

How it unfolded

Rolling out of Selva for a course that took in four category-2 climbs, there was quite a battle to be in the lead during the first part of the day, with several groups and splits emerging during the first 50km. Things settled as the race tackled the Coll de Femenia, and a group of seven riders established themselves in the lead: Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Magnus Cort, Martin Tjotta (Uno-X Mobility), Adria Pericas (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma), Alex Tolio (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) and Ole Theiler (REMBE rad-net).

This group led over the first climb, but were only around 20 seconds ahead of the regrouped peloton. On the next climb, the Coll de Puig Major, Theiler dropped out of the lead, and the six remaining riders were able to build and consolidate their lead, pulling that gap out to over a minute, though the peloton kept them on a tight leash. They started the Coll de Sóller with only 40 seconds' advantage.

On the Coll de Sóller, Evenepoel launched an attack from the peloton to bridge across to the leaders, joining them and setting a pace that only Castrillo and Pericas could follow, making it three in the lead. Despite having more than 50km to go, Evenepoel was pushing the pace, clearly thinking of a long solo raid, though the chasers from the peloton were only 20 seconds down the road.

Over the top and onto the descent with 50km to go, Evenepoel quickly shook off Castrillo and Pericas, going solo as the road wound back down the valley, with Enric Mas (Movistar) and Antonio Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) trying to chase from the bunch, around 30 seconds behind, but they didn't get anywhere. Settling into TT mode, Evenepoel started building his lead, and the gap was soon a minute. There was still more than 40km left in the race, but the lack of organisation in the chasing peloton played into his hands.

With 30km to go, Evenepoel had a lead of 1:35 over the peloton, which was beginning to splinter with single-rider attacks rather than a concerted team chase. With 26km to go, a group of 10 riders formed in front of the peloton, including Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Enric Mas, but Evenepoel's lead was not coming down at all.

Heading into the final 20km, the chasers were absorbed back into the peloton – apart from a solo Samuele Battistella (EF Education-EasyPost), who was caught a few kilometres later – and Evenepoel's lead was approaching two minutes.

On the final climb, the 8.4km Coll de sa Batalla, the attacks increased from the bunch, although they were now definitively racing for second place, rather than chasing down Evenepoel, who was out of touching distance. Trofeo Calvià winner Morgado was pushing on the chase, drawing out a trio with Mathys Rondel (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Christian Scaroni on his wheel.

It was these three who would end up battling for the podium, with Morgado narrowly sprinting for second ahead of Scaroni, though Evenepoel had already taken the spoils almost two minutes earlier.

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