Vingegaard, the undisputed master of the Volta in Queralt
March 28 th 2026 - 18:17 [GMT + 1]
Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) cemented his dominance of the 105th edition of the Volta a Catalunya on Saturday 28 March, also winning the 6th stage. The day after his masterclass at La Molina/Coll de Pal, the Dane once again demonstrated his superiority at the summit of Queralt in Berguedà, where he celebrated his second stage victory whilst already wearing the leader’s jersey, and extended his lead at the top of the general classification to 1’22” over Frenchman Lenny Martinez and German Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) ahead of the final stage in Barcelona.
The penultimate stage of the 2026 Volta a Catalunya featured the second high-mountain challenge between Berga and Queralt. A relentless 158.2 kilometers, including the classified climbs of the Coll de la Batallola (3rd category), the fearsome Coll de Pradell (special category) and the Collada de Sant Isidre (1st category) before tackling the final climb to the Berguedà sanctuary, which in 2024 had been conquered solo by Tadej Pogačar, Vingegaard’s great rival of his generation.
The start of the stage was very intense, with constant breakaway attempts and splits in the peloton, resulting in a group of 15 riders with strong climbing potential reaching the front of the race at the foot of the Pradell. On the dreaded slopes of the Berguedà mountain pass, with gradients of up to 18%, the riders who managed to hold on were, once again, the Catalan Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and the Italian Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), accompanied by Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and the young Norwegian Embret Svestad-Bårdseng (Ineos Grenadiers).
An adventure that has earned Ciccone, the last of the breakaway riders to be caught by the peloton 17 kilometers from the finish, the new leader’s jersey in the mountain’s classification. The tough terrain leading up to Queralt caused the group of favorites to split, with Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) – who had started the stage in second place overall – not among them. Following his defeat yesterday, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) worked in support of his teammate Florian Lipowitz, leaving him virtually alone with Vingegaard at the start of the final climb, where only the Frenchmen Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorus) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) were able to keep up with them.
There, amidst the crowds that once again filled the climb to the sanctuary, 2.2 kilometers from the finish line, Vingegaard launched another attack that no one could answer, and was able to celebrate his solo victory with a 10-second lead over Martínez and Lipowitz, 16 seconds over Paret-Peintre, and 27 seconds over Evenepoel.
Jonas Vingegaard thus heads into the race’s final day with the confidence of a clear leader; the 7th stage promises to be more explosive than ever, covering 95.1 kilometers with the start and finish in Barcelona, where the focus will be on the seven ascents of the Alt del Castell de Montjuïc (2nd category) – one more than in previous editions. There, Vingegaard will have to hold on to secure his first victory in the Volta a Catalunya for his impressive list of achievements, taking over from Pogačar and Primož Roglič, the most recent champions.
