Vingegaard tightens grip on Volta a Catalunya with queen stage victory

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) continued his fine form in the 2026 season, winning a mountainous day in the saddle with the summit finish in Santuari de Queralt. 

The race was animated from the penultimate climb on the stage thanks to the work of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, who set a ferocious tempo from there on until the finish with the duo of Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz. 

Before the stage, there was a notable DNS, and that was Tom Pidcock, who went off the road on a descent on stage 5 and thus suffered a heavy knee injury after scans revealed the issue.

With a significant day of climbing in the saddle, several riders attempted their luck at sneaking up the road, 15 to be exact, with riders in the group including Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost), recently announced retiree at the end of 2026, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). 

Back behind in the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike took care of the pace behind as the break was allowed a slim margin of just two minutes at a maximum. 

The breakaway fell apart on the HC climb, Coll de Pradell (14.6 kilometres at 6.8%), with Marc Soler (UAE), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Embret Svestad-Bårdseng, and Richard Carapaz going clear, but the Visma lead peloton had cut their lead down to just over a minute as Vingegaard looked for further joy.

Riders had to be aware of the descent of the Pradell as a few spots of Snow covered sections of road, but everyone managed to navigate it as the four-man breakaway had 1:40 over the peloton, and still, Visma were relentless. 

The next obstacle of the day soon came, and it was the category 1, Collada de Sant Isidre (5 kilometres at 7.5%), with Ciccone and Carapaz launching a move at the head of the race as the peloton was just a minute behind. 

A changing of the guard occurred behind on the Saint Isidre with Red Bull taking control as Oscar Onley (Ineos) saw an opportunity to attack with 2 kilometres of the climb remaining, as at the same time, Ciccone took off ahead.

Remco Evenepoel came to the front of the peloton inside the last kilometre of the category 1 climb with teammate Florian Lipowitz, who sat perfectly on the wheel as the pace was set by the Belgian isolated race leader Jonas Vingegaard. 

The descent of the climb was ferocious as Evenepoel used his ability to hammer the group of favourites to shreds, but Vingegaard was positioned well as it teed up a potential battle on the Santuari de Queralt. 

19 kilometres from the line, the remnants of the break were swallowed up by the group of favourites, and heading into the final climb, the group of favourites contained Evenepoel, Lipowitz, Vingegaard, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Lenny Martinez, Alfonso Eulalio and Richard Carapaz.

Not long after, the latter two were dropped early on in the climb as Evenepoel pulled hard on the climb for Lipowitz, but race leader Vingegaard was lurking, ready to pounce on the steep gradients. 

With 2.4 kilometres to go, Vingegaard decided to accelerated and after Lipowitz could briefly follow, he soon dropped off the Dane's wheel. Vingegaard pushed on as Lipowitz maintained the gap at 12 seconds, but Vingegaard looked in fine shape as he went on to win again in Catalunya. 

Stage 7 of the Volta a Catalunya concludes the 2026 edition with the yearly finish in Barcelona, which features seven ascents of Montjuïc, which features in the Grand Depart of the 2026 Tour de France in July, and Vingegaard will be aiming to avoid any risks as he looks to wrap up the first Catalunya GC of his elite career.