Jonas Vingegaard is simply on another planet.
The Danish superstar absolutely crushed Remco Evenepoel and his entire Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe squad on the brutal penultimate stage of the Volta a Catalunya 2026. Vingegaard absorbed their best punches and then rode away from everyone in stage 6 to seal the overall victory.
"We wanted to go for the stage again today," said Jonas Vingegaard.
"I still had legs for an attack and that's what I did. In that moment I was able to drop the other riders from my wheel," he continued.
"It was a good day."
Red Bull Tries An Ambush In Catalunya
The 158.2 kilometer stage from Berga to Queralt featured relentless climbing. It looked like the perfect place for a tactical ambush.
Evenepoel decided to sacrifice his own overall ambitions to play super domestique. The Belgian powerhouse went to the front on the final brutal climb to the Santuari de Queralt. He set a blistering, suffocating pace for his teammate Florian Lipowitz.
Evenepoel completely shredded the elite group of favorites. He dropped heavy hitters like Richard Carapaz, Felix Gall, and Mattias Skjelmose. It was a massive display of pure power.
Vingegaard Flips The Script
But Vingegaard did not even flinch.
He sat comfortably in the slipstream and waited for Evenepoel to run out of gas. With exactly two kilometers left on the steep 7 percent gradients, Vingegaard decided the race was over. Evenepoel pulled off, and the Dane launched a devastating acceleration.
Lipowitz and Lenny Martinez desperately tried to hold onto his wheel. They survived the blistering pace for one agonizing kilometer. Then Vingegaard stood on the pedals again and dropped them completely.
He crossed the finish line completely solo. He secured another brilliant stage win and safely locked up the overall classification.
Martinez held on for second place at ten seconds back. Lipowitz crossed the line in third to salvage a podium spot for Red Bull. Evenepoel rolled across the line in fifth after completely emptying the tank for his team.
The brutal pace caused massive time gaps behind the leaders. Gall and Skjelmose completely cracked and lost over two minutes. The general classification was totally reshuffled behind the untouchable race leader.
One major name was missing from the fireworks. Tom Pidcock did not start the stage. The British rider abandoned the race following a nasty crash yesterday.
Here are the results after a brutal day in the mountains.
Stage 6 Top 10
- Jonas Vingegaard
- Lenny Martinez +10"
- Florian Lipowitz +10"
- Valentin Paret-Peintre +16"
- Remco Evenepoel +27"
- Richard Carapaz +1'29"
- Felix Gall +2'08"
- Mattias Skjelmose +2'08"
- Afonso Eulalio +2'55"
- Matthew Riccitello +3'16"
General Classification Top 10
- Jonas Vingegaard
- Lenny Martinez
- Florian Lipowitz
- Valentin Paret-Peintre
- Remco Evenepoel
- Felix Gall
- Mattias Skjelmose
- Cian Uijtdebroeks
- Matthew Riccitello
- Richard Carapaz