Crashes and attacks define short and punchy final stage, with Emil Herzog second and Jasper Schoofs third whilst Evenepoel wins first stage race of 2026
Remco Evenepoel sealed his sixth victory in just eight days of racing for his new Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, easing through the short fifth stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana to seal the overall win.
Evenepoel never came under threat on the two major climbs in the first half of the the 94.7-kilometre stage from Bétera to Valencia but when UAE Team Emirates XRG tried to split the peloton in the final 10 kilometres, the Belgian was attentive to the danger.
The surge in pace almost nullified the advantage of the day's breakaway remnants, but Raul García Pierna (Movistar) sprinted to the stage win ahead of escape companions Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jasper Schoofs (Soudal-QuickStep).
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Evenepoel, in the group just four seconds behind, celebrated his first stage race win for his new team ahead of João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
"Super good week," was Evenepoel's assessment of his milestone win for Red Bull taking two stage wins on the way.
"The first day Arne [Marit] was second, then day by day we started to win a bit more, we started to really ride as a team all day, and today we end with the final jersey, first and third in GC and a lot of stages also in the front, so I think it's very good. Everybody did a very good week and I think it was an amazing week here in Valencia."
It was a first win of any kind this year for Movistar, and García Pierna's first road race win after moving from Arkéa-B&B Hotels last year.
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"I'm really happy, because yesterday things didn't go how we wanted, so we had a bit of anger," the Spanish rider said. "We knew that today was a day where the breakaway could make it and, well, it worked.
"Everyone knows about the tarmac here," he said of the crashes in the finale. "After crashing in the time trial I didn't want to play with that, I wanted more to survive than to try to attack and crash, so I'm happy."
García Pierna won the final stage (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
With just 95 kilometres of racing on the final stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, the fight for the day's breakaway was short but intense, and 21 riders flew the coop in the first 10 minutes.
Most teams were represented, with Matevž Govekar (Bahrain Victorious), Adrià Pericas (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Julien Bernard and Mathias Norsgaard (Lidl-Trek), AJ August and Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jasper Schoofs (Soudal-Quickstep), Raúl García Pierna and Daniele Forlin (Movistar), Sven Erik Bystrøm (Uno-X Mobility), Tom van Asbroeck (NSN), Danny van der Tuuk (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Joseba López (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Mattia Bais and Mirco Maestri (Polti-VisitMalta), Iñigo Elosegui and Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma), Jonathan Caicedo (Petrolike), Conn McDunphy and Adam Lewis (APS/Cadence Cyclery) making the move.
The day's large breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
Van der Tuuk, the leader of the mountains classification, made the move to defend the jersey and sealed the victory on the first climb, the Oronet and then was free to ease up on the much harder climb at Garbí.
The steep pitches of that second ascent – a maximum of 16.4% – shattered the breakaway, and after the summit it was Herzog leading Pericas, Bernard, August, Schoofs, Movistar's García Pierna and Uriarte with Govekar, Heiduk, Bystrøm, Bais, Maestri and Caicedo in the first chase group.
On the descent, Heiduk and Bystrøm made it across to the leaders as Herzog tried to go clear but was reeled in to make nine riders in the lead with 30km to go and 1:30 on the peloton. With García Pierna, three minutes down on Evenepoel, in the move, Herzog started sitting on.
With 9km to go, August crashed out of the lead group in a turn as the breakaway's lead was down to 45 seconds, but UAE Team Emirates-XRG was about to zero out the clock with 3km to go when another crash – this time from Bernard and Heiduk – held up the breakaway briefly.
The remaining six forged on ahead, benefitting from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe moving to the front of the breakaway. With both of their riders out of the lead group, Ineos Grenadiers came to the forefront to chase, but hadn't closed the gap at the 1km to go banner.
The chase never came even with a headwind in the sprint, and García Pierna sealed the second victory of his professional career.
The final sprint to the line (Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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