Crunch time in the Pyrenees for Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock – Analysing the contenders for the 2026 Volta a Catalunya

Years come, years go, and the same is true for stars even as great as Tadej Pogačar or Jonas Vingegaard. But whoever is ruling the stage racing roost, the Volta a Catalunya's perennial role as the last major crossroads for those tackling the Giro d'Italia and those riders fully focussed on the Tour de France somehow endures.

Ever since its last date change in 2010, this March, the seven-day 104-year-old race always offers the first big incursion of the season into the high-altitude Pyrenees, or any other major European mountain range, for that matter. This March, no less than three successive summit finishes on stages of increasing difficulty feature deep in the mountains separating the Iberian peninsula from France, combining to provide a painfully realistic reference point on their major climbing form for the Grand Tour specialists.

Of the three, the 4,000 metres of vertical climbing on stage 6, centred on a key Catalan cycling hub of Berga, was once described by now-retired mountains specialist Mike Woods to Cyclingnews in 2024 – before a stage with an identical route – as "one of the hardest I've ever seen."

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Certainly, nobody can be sure of victory before crossing the summit of the ultra-tough Coll del Pradell mid-stage next Saturday, on March 28, and maybe not even then.

With such a plethora of mountain climbing, coming fresh from his stand-out success at Paris-Nice, Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) will be using Catalunya as his last big test before the Giro d'Italia. Meanwhile, following his difficult time on the ascents of the UAE Tour back in February, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) badly needs to reconfirm that he has made new progress on his climbing, as he builds for a repeat assault on the Tour de France.

After his first altitude training camp of the year, the ascents to Vallter and Pal in the Pyrenees will be a much more valid reference than what happened in the Middle East. for Evenepoel. Similarly, Vingegaard has confirmed that he's curious to see how he performs against the much longer ascents of Catalunya compared to those of Paris-Nice.

Yet if Vingegaard and Evenepoel's clash brings together two of the highest-profile names in the peloton for the first time this season, they are far from being the only well-known racers in the race next week, many of whom have unfinished business with the Volta.

Take João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), for example, with an excellent track record in week-long stage races, but who's never managed to crack Catalunya.

In fact, it's pretty much inevitable that in a race like Catalunya, which invariably draws a star cast, Almeida and co. are far from being the only stand-out names with an eventful personal history in the Volta. Not only that, the Volta points the way to the Giro and the Tour, then, with Mauro Gianetti, UAE CEO, saying recently to Cyclism' actu that "We'll already see there some things in the Volta that will be similar to what happens in May."

It's impossible to forget the Tour, either, and particularly this year. Stage 7 of the Volta, its usual curtain closer, ends on the same climbs through Montjuïc Park in central Barcelona that will see the Tour get underway on Saturday, July 4. So, a week next Sunday, as the green-and-white jersey of the Volta faces its final challenges, that time-honoured saying about 'the road to the Tour starts here' will ring truer than ever.

Here is Cyclingnews ' take on the wheels to follow out of Sant Feliu de Guixols next Monday lunchtime.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Strange but true: Jonas Vingegaard, one of the greatest stage racers of his generation, has never taken part in Catalunya before. The likelihood of the Dane not ever trying to take one of the few tough week-long races on the calendar that's missing from his palmares was always small, though, even if with no time trial this year, it'll all come down to Vingegaard's level of prowess in the mountains.

Vingegaard's recent victory in Paris-Nice is a clear indication of how he's firing on all cylinders, finishing the race with a stunning breakaway through the mountains overlooking Nice alongside stage victor Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious). A second major success in three weeks would even further consolidate his status as stand-out favourite for the Giro, and even a narrow defeat to a rider focusing on the Ardennes Classics, say, and therefore in slightly more finely honed form, would not feel like too much of a setback.

Together with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Ineos, it's worth noting that Visma have one of the most impressive lineups to back their team leader in Catalunya. US climbing giant Sepp Kuss is the stand-out name, but Bruno Armirail would likely be expected to play a key support role on the hillier stages, while former Giro d'Italia podium finisher Wilco Kelderman could also be crucial on the climbs.

This is just as well, because given Vingegaard's standout status as pre-race favourite – Evenepoel's uneven climbing track record arguably precludes him from that position – ensure that his team will almost certainly be expected to keep the GC battle under control for the first three days. Then, come the long ascent to Vallter deep in the Pyrenees on stage 4, there will only be one rider that matters any more for Visma, and perhaps for the Volta too.

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Three years ago, the usual small army of Flemish and Walloon journalists that track Remco Evenepoel's every move descended on Catalunya to follow his nailbitingly close battle against now Red Bull teammate Primož Roglič, which ended with six seconds between them at the finish in favour of the Slovenian. And now they are back again, for the same reason: Remco is back in Catalunya, and wherever Remco goes, it's frontpage news in Belgium: even during the Classics high season like now.

Pre-UAE Tour, interest in how Remco fares would already have been high, given the depth of the opposition, and how the toughness of the Volta's Pyrenean challenges make them merciless judges of current climbing form. But after his dramatic failure to impact in the UAE's grinding ascents of Jebel Hafeet and Jebel Mobrah following his faultless start in the preceding races, Catalunya is where Evenepoel does (or does not) get back on the right climbing track. Either way, everybody wants to watch.

Speculation has been rife that at some point, Evenepoel might get closer to Vingegaard in the Tour or even overtake him for the right and honour to stand the nearest to Pogačar, as absolute favourite, on the final podium. Catalunya is the first opportunity to prove he can do so, and given Vingegaard's Grand Tour preparation is in theory (but maybe not in practice) four weeks in advance of Evenepoel's, the duel will be an interesting one.

At the same time, it's worth watching how Evenepoel works for the first time ever with his high-flying teammates Florian Lipowitz – who followed Evenepoel in third place in the Tour last July – and recent Paris-Nice podium finisher Dani Martínez. Both the German and the Colombian have at least as much potential to shine in the Volta as their Belgian counterpart. The first Pyrenean summit finish of the Volta, to Vallter on Friday, will say a lot about their relative condition, the team's internal pecking order for the race, and perhaps beyond.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Until now in 2026, João Almeida has been the usual model of consistency in his results, with second in the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana predictably (but admirably) followed by third in the Volta ao Algarve. But the last-minute absence due to 'flu' at Paris-Nice both marked another chapter of his ongoing war of words with Jonas Vingegaard about missing out on races (and adds a fresh layer of potential intrigue to their clash in Catalunya), and it was a first setback in 2026, too.

The most successful week-long stage racer of 2025, even ahead of Pogačar, Almeida's palmares mean he is a rider who simply can't be ruled out of the overall battle in Catalunya. He's also the last rider to defeat Vingegaard in a summit finish, and in no ordinary summit finish either - the Angliru in the Vuelta a España last year. So finding out what kind of Almeida we've got on our hands in the Volta is likely to be one of the first big questions to be resolved on stage 4 to Vallter. Will it be the rider whose climbing reached new heights in 2025, or will it be the racer looking to hit top form in the Giro (and then in the Vuelta, so late on in the season) for whom the Volta's biggest climbs really come too a mite soon this year?

The rollercoaster history of Almeida in the Volta complicates matters a bit more, too. His unremarkable ninth place last March came after working tooth and nail to defend then-teammate Juan Ayuso's ambitions in his unsuccessful battle to keep Roglič at bay, so it can be discounted. However, his third place in the 2022 race was taken after a superb summit finish win in the Pyrenees, then falling foul in mysterious circumstances to a long-distance attack by Sergio Higuita (XDS-Astana) and Richie Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).

Almeida's Volta history tells us literally anything could happen. But in his first face-off against Vingegaard since the Vuelta last year, Almeida surely won't want to lose an opportunity for sporting revenge against the man who beat him to what would have been his first Grand Tour, either.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5)

Talking of the Vuelta, Tom Pidcock's presence in the Volta means that for the first time on Monday, all three podium finishers from the Spanish Grand Tour will be on the same start line of a race. And like former Vuelta winner Evenepoel, Pidcock will be using the Volta as another big test of his stage racing condition prior to a return to the Tour de France next July.

Third in Madrid last September in the Vuelta represented a big step forward for the Briton, and his recent victory in Milan-Turin gave him some timely one-day success before beginning his Ardennes Classics campaign. The lack of a time trial won't do his chances of GC success any harm at all in the Volta, yet his track record in poor weather conditions – see Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this February – doesn't augur so well for a race where snow and freezing cold can very easily impact.

Furthermore, having raced to a career-best second place at San Remo just two days before, the very fiddly transfer across to the Volta's start at Sant Feliu de Guixols often takes its toll on riders should the race ignite early on.

Like Vingegaard, Pidcock is new to Catalunya as well, but if the big climbs favour the Dane, the final stage through Montjuïc already looks more than ideal for a rider with such an explosive talent on short ascents like the park's demanding final slopes. Quite what he'll be able to do in the Pyrenean climbs that precede it, though, is rather harder to predict: so far out from the Tour, there are a lot of factors in play. But given this is Pidcock we're talking about, the odds are that whatever he does, it'll always be interesting.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)

Up until now this season, Richard Carapaz has been flying so far under the radar that he's barely given an interview, still less been seen on television. But with the passing of time, you get the impression that's exactly how the Ecuadorian likes it – because it means that when he does go on the attack, nobody's seen it coming.

The unpredictable but ultra-aggressive EF Education-Easy Post leader is yet another Giro d'Italia contender who's using the Volta as his launchpad for May, and so far this year, in three races, an anonymous 18th place overall in Tirreno-Adriatico is his best result to date.

Yet the thing about Carapaz is he knows exactly how to suddenly rise to the occasion and take the field by surprise – witness his spectacular long-distance move with Higuita in the Volta back in 2022, which upset the entire applecart in the race – and nobody is putting that possibility past him in Catalunya this year.

After all, who could forget when he won from a spectacular late flyer last May in the Giro at Castelnovo ne' Monti, then went on to challenge Isaac del Toro for overall victory in a hugely entertaining battle on the Colle delle Finestre?

Carapaz hasn't actually won a WorldTour week-long race since the Tour de Suisse in 2021. Yet he's got the rare gift of being able to win even when he's not the strongest rider present, and he can read races like almost no other rider. Put all of this together, not to mention Carapaz's long-established propensity for only going for the biggest races on the calendar, and you've got yourself another important 2026 Volta a Catalunya contender.

Ineos Grenadiers: Carlos Rodríguez, Oscar Onley

On paper, one of the three strongest teams of this year's Volta, local fans still recollect the 2021 edition of the race when Adam Yates, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte made Ineos Grenadiers the first squad to claim all three top spots on Catalunya's podium in over 60 years. Times and riders and teams have moved on, but Ineos three top contenders all have reasons to hope to impact in Catalunya. Plus, when it comes to Ineos' 2026 campaign to prove they really can turn back the clock to their glory days of the 2010s, no amount of success is ever really enough.

So far, it has to be said, things have been mostly hit but with a few notable misses: after a promising start to the season following a serious injury last year, Rodríguez's very low-key participation in Paris-Nice was hampered by a crash in the first stage, after which he went into team helper mode.

Egan Bernal shone brightly in the Colombian Nationals, and his seventh place in Faun Ardèche also augured well. But again, he's been missing since then. He had been set to race Catalunya but still isn't fit enough to return to action.

Finally, there's Oscar Onley, part of the Ineos first major triumph of the season in the Paris-Nice TTT, only to fall ill and abandon.

Unlike Bernal and Rodríguez, who are both old hands at Catalunya, Onley has only participated in it once and to unremarkable effect, taking 39th place overall back in 2023. Essentially, the key question will be whether Onley has recovered from his Paris-Nice sickness to move directly into a team leader role, or if Rodríguez – assuming he's fully over his crash – and Bernal could then step into the same spot.

Realistically, a stage win and a podium spot seem like the best possible target for Ineos overall. But when it comes to teams with several very strong riders who aren't quite at top contender level, oftentimes it's how well they communicate and adapt to a single goal that really counts.

Given their strength in depth, it'd be a surprise to see Ineos leave the race without shaking the tree at least in one of the three stages. Meanwhile don't forget Bernal still has a score to settle with the last day's racing in Montjuïc – it was there on a very greasy downhill that he crashed and broke his collarbone in 2018 – and his one win so far this year, back in Colombia in the Nationals' was on a very similar course with multiple repeats of a single, very tough climb. Just saying.

Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM)

A bit of an outlier? Perhaps, but after winning the Tour de la Provence, then getting sixth in the Volta ao Algarve, the 24-year-old from Tucson is part of a fast-rising new generation of young all-rounders and his climbing abilities. This year alone, beating the (slightly) older and much more WorldTour-hardened racer Carlos Rodríguez on a snow-covered summit finish formed the biggest foundation of his victory in Provence.

And if Riccitello is good at performing in sub-zero temperatures in ice-enshrouded ski stations, there are always more than enough of those locations to choose from in the traditionally weather-blasted Volta.

He's also turned in one huge performance at the three-week level, too, in the 2025 Vuelta a España, where he claimed fifth. But having got his Grand Tours success in progress already, now it's time for him to step up a grade, if he can, in terms of consistency in bigger and harder World Tour week-long races.

The Volta has always served as an ideal platform for that kind of breakthrough for young riders. To name but a few in recent years, Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana (before he signed for Movistar and when he won the King of the Mountains with a small Colombian team) and Hugh Carthy, once Best Young Rider in the Volta, all shone brightly, very early in their careers, over several days in the roads of Catalunya before going on to greater things. This March could now be Riccitello's moment to join their company.

Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek)

Lidl-Trek must be thanking their lucky stars they opted to sign Derek Gee-West at the last minute last year. It's not only because the Canadian National Champion finished seventh overall in the recent UAE Tour, which bodes well in terms of his early-season form and suggests he's integrating well in his new squad.

On top of that, given the miserable luck currently being suffered by several of the Lidl-Trek team leaders – Juan Ayuso, Jonathan Milan and Matthias Skjelmose are all in the sick bay right now, while Mads Pedersen made it back to race Milan-San Remo – Gee-West looks like one of their best options for stand-out success next week.

A debut participant in the Volta and aiming for the Giro d'Italia, the 28-year-old has an excellent track record of top-five finishes in week-long stage races since his breakthrough podium in the Critérium du Dauphiné back in 2024. A fourth place in Tirreno-Adriatico last year and a win overall in the tough, relatively new ultra-hilly Spanish stage race, O Gran Camiño, both bode well.

But above all, Gee-West will be looking to see how closely he's approaching the form he had when he got a surprising fourth overall in the Giro d'Italia last year. Just as for everybody, for Gee-West, there's more than a whiff of the Grand Tours about how he fares in the Volta a Catalunya this year.