O Gran Camiño: Adam Yates storms to first win of 2026 on stage 4, moves into race lead with dominant climbing performance

Veteran climbing star Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has conquered the toughest day of this year's O Gran Camiño on stage 4 and is now the new overall leader with just one day remaining.

Yates moved away four kilometres from the top of the short but very punishing Cat.1 ascent of the Alto de Cabeza de Meda to clinch his first victory of 2026.

Second, some 46 seconds down, was Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike), with previous race leader Alessandro Pinarello (NSN) just over a minute back.

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Yates' victory has polevaulted the British racer into his first overall lead of a stage race since winning the Tour of Oman last year, and in pole position to claim the overall victory in Monte Trega on Saturday.

"It was a super-nice day, actually it was a hard day with a lot of climbing and technical roads," Yates told race TV a little later, "but the guys did an amazing job and I managed to finish it off in the end.

"The climb at the end was super-steep, when it's so steep you don't feel the wind, so it was quite hot, so we went full gas from the bottom, but thankfully I managed to finish it off."

How it unfolded

An attack by Samuel Fernández (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and a rider with the same surname, Sinuhé Fernández, but riding for a different Spanish ProConti squad, Burgos Burpellet BH, provided most of the early entertainment prior to the very difficult second half of a stage featuring nearly 3,000 metres of vertical climbing.

After some 60 kilometres, Sinuhé Fernández was caught, and another much bigger move of seven riders, also made up entirely of riders from non-WorldTour teams, opted to chance their luck and join the remaining half of the Fernández duo. Yet after gaining a hefty four-minute margin the break crumbled, as could perhaps be expected, on the lower slopes of the interminable ascent to the Alto Cabeza de Meda, the first big challenge of the day.

The Cat.1 ascent was nominally only seven kilometres long but in practice nearly triple that distance and while it took a real toll on the breakaways, Samuel Fernández managed to go solo on the upper slopes. His tenacity paid off well as he maintained the bunch at a distance all the way up, even if coming over the top as he moved onto some much more rolling terrain and onto the Cat. 2 Alto do Rodicio, his gap was shrinking very rapidly.

The opening shots of the real GC battle were fired by George Bennett (NSN) halfway up the Rodicio and countered by Anton Schiffer (Visma-Lease a Bike), the New Zealand national champion and his German rival sweeping up and passing stage leader Fernández.

However, UAE opted to tap out a steady pace in the pack, rather than panic, on the narrow, steadily grinding ascent and given the 30-second advantage that the leading duo enjoyed at the top, the bunch still was very much in control of events prior to the crunch climb of the day, the Alto de Cabeza de Meda.

After a fast descent, Bennett and Schiffer maintained around 20 seconds ahead at the foot of the narrow, steep approach to the official start of the Alto de Cabeza de Meda. With gradients oscillating from barely flat up to well beyond 11% and roads varying widely from broad highways down to the narrow backlanes in its upper slopes, it was a tricky climb indeed.

So while Bennett cleverly conserved as much of his energy as he could to stay just out front, he couldn't stop UAE's North American allrounder Kevin Vermarcke from getting across. But if that already spelled trouble for Bennett, he had to fold completely when the biggest prerace favourite, Adam Yates, first closed the gap then delivered the biggest hammer blow of all.

Attacking four kilometres from the line with a trademark standing, blisteringly steady, acceleration, Yates rapidly used the steepest part and roughest roads to establish an advantage and then focus on move ahead on the steadier slopes that followed. Pinarello, the race leader and Schiffer tried their best to close the gap in a small group of chasers, but Yates was looking very much in control on the front – and after a brief section of flat, as the road rose once more, he duly opened up the throttle again.

Just 16 seconds back on GC after stage 3, whenever Yates turned round in the closing kilometres, he could see his principal dangerman, Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike), in a dogged lone pursuit. Tied overall on the same time as the leader Pinarello – and indeed briefly in yellow after Thursday's stage before commissaires realised their error – for a moment it looked as if Nordhagen could close the gap.

But instead, Yates simply added some extra power to his pace to ensure the young Norwegian would not make contact, and with a kilometre left to race, the margin between the veteran Briton and his closest pursuer on GC and on the stage,too, was nearly 30 seconds, and still rising. By the finish line, Yates was still fully in control of his effort and with the leader's jersey also in the bag, the day was his to celebrate in full.

Now enjoying an advantage of 34 seconds on Nordhagen and 54 on Pinarello, when asked if he was now the main favourite to win, Yates struck a typically cautious note afterwards. The grand finale of O Gran Camiño is a 154.7 km stage with a second straight summit finish at Monte Trega, that is true. But despite a cobbled section near the top of the Cat.2 ascent (3.6 km at 7.5%) given what he's shown on stage 4, on an easier clomb Friday's GC leader should have few problems defending his overall advantage.

"We'll see," Yates said, "I showed today I was in good shape, and there was a lot of pressure, not from the team, but other guys expecting me to perform and it was quite tricky to finish it off."

"But I think tomorrow is also another day that we can put together, and hopefully we'll try and win again.

"I've been training really well, so I knew the shape was there, so all I needed to do was put it together and finish off the job."

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