Originally, a mountain finish at the Vallter ski station at an altitude of 2,143 metres was planned for the 4th stage of the Tour of Catalonia. However, the organisers had to abandon this plan. Wind gusts of up to 90 km/h were expected for the final climb. Accordingly, the race organisers removed the climb from the race programme. The new finish was therefore 22 kilometres before the originally planned uphill finish, reducing the overall distance of the stage from 173 to 151 kilometres.

Ethan Vernon cleverest in the final sprint

Instead of a battle between the classification riders, the sprinters were in the spotlight on the uphill finish. Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling Team) had the best legs, winning the stage ahead of Dorian Godon (INEOS Grenadiers) and Thomas Pidcock (Pinarello - Q36). Due to the altered finish, there was a roundabout within the last kilometre, in front of which Vernon positioned himself ideally, came out first and could no longer be overtaken by Godon in the remaining 150 metres to the finish.

All in all, it was still a long day for the peloton. Without a mountain finish, the peloton took it easy. At times, the peloton rolled through the stage at just under 30 km/h. In the end, the average speed for this stage was 37.6 km/h.

After his crash in the final of the third stage, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) tackled the fourth stage. He was probably not unhappy about the quiet race day. The Belgian nevertheless secured three bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint of the day.

Thanks to the time credit for second place on the stage, Godon extended his lead in the overall standings to 13 seconds. The new runner-up is Pidcock, who also collected some bonus seconds during the stage. Evenepoel follows in third place, 14 seconds behind, ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), 24 seconds behind.

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Tour of Catalonia 2026 - Results of the 4th stage

This is how the 4th stage of the Tour of Catalonia 2026 went

It took a while for the leading group of the day to form. The first attacks were caught up again after a few kilometres, so that the classification riders were fighting for the bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint of the day after 20 kilometres. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) finally secured the three seconds ahead of Thomas Pidcock (Pinarello - Q36).

A few kilometres later, a four-man group formed with Merhawi Kudus (Burgos-BH), Samuel Fernández (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Koen Bouwman (Team Jayco AlUla). Together, the group reached the second mountain classification of the day at the Alto de Sant Feliu de Codines (category 2), where Veistroffer extended his lead in the mountain classification after 41 kilometres. Veistroffer and Bouwman then dropped back into the peloton.

Ineos controls the race - uneventful stage for a long time

Accordingly, Kudus and Fernández continued the escape as a duo and at times were given a lead of up to three minutes. However, the pace of the stage then increased significantly. The gap between the escapees and the peloton eventually levelled off at one to two minutes. The scenario for the changed stage finish was clear: a bunch sprint. Kudus and Fernández were therefore kept in sight without catching up with the duo. In the peloton, Ineos Grenadiers in particular kept everything under control.

At some point, however, the slow pace didn't help any more - 18 kilometres before the finish, the peloton caught up with Kudus and Fernández. From then on, the teams with ambitions for the stage win formed up and the race became more and more exciting - especially as there was a bonus sprint 14 kilometres before the finish, which Pidcock secured. In the end, the sprinters decided the day's victory among themselves.