Vingegaard and Evenepoel’s long-range attack illuminated Wednesday’s third stage of the 105th Volta a Catalunya, the deadly duo escaping in the final 29 km but unable to hold on in a white-knuckle finish, the Belgian crashing in the last 500 metres. Race leader Dorian Godon took his second stage victory.

The Course

The big climbs, Cat. 1 Alt de la Mussara-Coll de les Llebres and Cat. 2 Coll de Capafonts, arrived early in the 159 km between Mont-roig del Camp and Vila-seca. The final categorized ascent, Cat. 3 Coll Roig, crested with 40 km to go and the run in to the finish was flat.

More lumps and another likely sprint finish in store for Wednesday. Image by La FlammeRouge

Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto-Intermarche had gone out in the first two breakaways to amass points in the mountains classification. The Frenchman took off with another small breakaway mostly comprised of ProTeam riders. Mindful that the next three stages end on HC-rated or Cat. 1 summit finishes, Veistroffer wanted to take as many KOM points as possible, maxing (or is it “maxxing” now?) on Coll de les Llebres and Coll de Capafonts and hitting the intermediate sprint at Cornudella de Montsant first for good measure.

We’ve seen a lot of Veistroffer in this race.

Veistroffer was first over Coll Roig, as Red Bull turned up the steam in the peloton 30 seconds behind. His gang was gathered in with 32 km to go, where crosswinds began to play hob with the field. When the peloton split, Derek Gee-West missed it. Evenepoel attacked and Vingegaard fastened on.

Evenepoel and Vingegaard on the attack.

The two biggest groups behind the rampant stars linked up and tried to run them down. The gap hovered around 25 seconds for many kilometres. But the uneven numbers started to tell. It was desperate stuff.

At the red kite the gap was still nine seconds. Surely they would survive. But Evenepoel crashed on the near side of a roundabout, Vingegaard got caught and Godon took the win.

If Thursday’s 11-km, HC-rated summit finish isn’t enough, there’s a gradual 50-km rise leading to Vallter’s foot.

2026 Volta a Catalunya, Stage 3
1) Dorian Godon (France/Ineos) 3:43:33
2) Ethan Vernon (Great Britain/NSN) s.t.
3) Noah Hobbs (Great Britain/EF Education-Easypost) s.t.

2026 Volta a Catalunya GC
1) Dorian Godon (France/Ineos) 11:29:50
2) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Red Bull) +0:11
3) Tom Pidcock (Great Britain/Pinarello-Q36.5) +0:16