Tuesday’s second stage of the 105th Volta a Catalunya had a conclusion similar to the opening day, a reduced sprint. Magnus Cort of Uno-X prevailed, tallying his 14th WorldTour victory. Although tied on time with Cort, Monday’s winner Dorian Godon, fourth on the day, kept the green and white stripes of the race leader. Derek Gee-West was top Canadian in 103rd.

The Course

On Monday’s opening stage a reduced bunch sprint resulted in Ineos’ Frenchman Godon taking the win and first leader’s jersey. Would Tuesday’s lumpy affair conclude with something similar? An uncategorized climb dominated the final third of 167 km from Figueres to Banyoles.

Another lumpy course set for Tuesday. Image by La FlammeRouge

Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto-Intermarche snagged the mountains jersey on Monday by getting in a small, Spanish ProTeam-dominated breakaway. He followed up on Tuesday with the same strategy, grabbing more points on the only categorized climb of the day, Cat. 3 Alt del Purgatori. Then the five fugitives settled in for a long day.

Veistroffer in the red stripes and Godon in the green stripes.

Canada’s Riley Pickrell, who hadn’t been feeling very good, abandoned the race.

The escape lost members as the altimetry began to take its toll. The gap was still 2:00 with 35 km to race. Gee-West was at the back of the pack and Veistroffer struggled to keep contact with his breakmates. The break still had a minute’s advantage with 16 km remaining. Various teams laboured on the front of the field.

The race galloped towards is conclusion. Attacks sprang from the peloton starting at 8 km to go, the whole procession trending downhill. Liam Slock was the last escapee standing, and the peloton cutting the catch red-kite close. UAE-Emirates’ Ivo Oliveira launched his sprint, Cort peeled around him and held off Noa Isadore of Decathlon CMA CGM.

Wednesday’s route is another one on which Veistroffer can rack up the KOM points. A Cat. 1 and Cat. 2 are placed in the first 50 km.

2026 Volta a Catalunya, Stage 2
1) Magnus Cort (Denmark/Uno-X)
2) Noa Isadore (France/Decathlon CMA CGM) s.t.
3) Francesco Busatto (Italy/Alpecin-Premier Tech) s.t.
103) Derek Gee-West (Canada/Lidl-Trek) s.t.
111) Pier-André Côté (Canada/NSN) +0:23
137) Michael Leonard (Canada/EF Education-Easypost) +1:25

2026 Volta a Catalunya GC
1) Dorian Godon (France/Ineos) 7:46:27
2) Magnus Cort (Denmark/Uno-X) s.t.
3) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Red Bull) +0:04
4) Tom Pidcock (Great Britain/Pinarello-Q36.5) +0:06
83) Derek Gee-West (Canada/Lidl-Trek) +1:48