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Volta a Catalunya stage 3: Tadej Pogačar sails to back-to-back mountain victories

Slovenian puts more time into his rivals with attack on Port Ainé as Mikel Landa impresses again in second

Flo Clifford

Freelance writer.

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Tadej Pogačar won stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) fired another warning shot at all his Grand Tour rivals on stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya as he powered to a second consecutive stage victory atop Port Ainé.

The race leader, who started the day over a minute and a half ahead of nearest challenger Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), was in the driving seat again today after his barnstorming victory on stage 2 and anyone who thought he would relax after that had to think again.

Landa was active throughout the stage and sped off the front with around 7.5km of climbing still to go before the snow-capped summit finish, but Pogačar was straight on his wheel and counterattacked, riding immediately out of sight.

With the gap increasing with every pedal stroke it was another inevitable victory for the Slovenian, who raised his arms in celebration as he crossed the line 48 seconds before second-placed Landa and extended his race lead to 2 minutes 27 seconds.

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) crossed the line third, a minute down on Pogačar, followed by teammate Wout Poels, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), who remains third on GC but 2:55 down on the race lead.

"It definitely wasn’t easy!" Pogačar said at the finish. "It’s a really hard climb, I definitely felt the cold air at the top and not enough oxygen. Once again a super good stage from us, from the team, and I’m happy to take the win because my teammates worked super hard for this.

"It was Mikel Landa who attacked first, so I just went over him because I saw that he already made the gap. I was thinking it was too early [to attack] but I found a good rhythm and until the last two kilometres, I could still push good. The last two kilometres it was a bit tough but I still managed to finish well."

Another difficult day of climbing in Catalunya

The 176km route from Sant Joan de les Abadesses to Port Ainé was another brutal one, featuring three categorised climbs, another summit finish, and just under 4,000m of elevation gain overall.

After yesterday’s downpour which saw a sodden Pogačar shivering through his outdoor post-race interview, the sun came out for stage 3 and much stiller, warmer weather saw several riders racing unzipped on the punishing late climbs. Despite the spiky outline of the stage profile, the peloton tackled it like a sprint stage, setting an average pace of 40.2kph.

Possibly anticipating another Pogačar whitewash, several riders made a move in the early kilometres, kicked off by Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) attacking from the flag drop. He was caught fairly swiftly but attacks continued up the day’s first categorised climb, the 9.1%, 4km Port de Toses, with an 11-man breakaway forming the day’s decisive move.

That breakaway consisted of 11 riders with some big hitters among them: Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek), Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny), Iván Ramiro Sosa (Movistar), Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility).

Carthy, Hayter and Vansevenant took the bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Montferrer i Castellbò and Tejada the maximum 10 KoM points at the summit.

The breakaway’s advantage hovered at around a minute, with UAE Team Emirates keeping them within touching distance and setting a driving pace on the front of the bunch.

Speaking after the race, Pogačar said "the valley was really easy, Domen [Novak] was our Lamborghini driver!"

It took some time to reel the break back in but on the slopes of the Port de Cantó, the UAE machine went into a higher gear, bringing everyone back together for the 25.5km slog to the summit.

Visma-Lease a Bike set the pace for much of the Port de Cantó, a cagey, tentative ascent with the majority of the riders saving their energy for the major final climb. Tejada again took maximum KoM points at the summit with the strung-out peloton regrouping in the valley below, where Vlasov claimed the points at the second intermediate sprint in Rialp, briefly moving level on time with Landa on GC.

Landa, sporting the KoM jersey, appeared to have missed a chance to shave off some of his deficit there but it soon became clear that the 18km, 6.7% Port Ainé was going to be his chosen battleground.

The final climb

With about 17km to go, Victor de la Parte (Euskaltel-Euskadi) made a move on the lower slopes of Port Ainé. The Spaniard started the day more than 18 minutes down on the race leader so the peloton were content to let a gap string out, but kept him within sight on the long, grinding climb.

Soudal Quick-Step were prominent in the bunch all day and once de la Parte was absorbed they set up another Spaniard, Landa. William Junior Lecerf and Jan Hirt set the pace and split the peloton in two, opening up a 40-second gap to a second group of chasers including Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) with about 10km to go.

Landa made his move with 7.5km to go, but Pogačar swung into action immediately to get on his wheel. And not content with that, he sped off to the finish without looking back, as if annoyed that someone else had the audacity to try to win a mountain stage.

Kuss powered up the field to join Landa and the chasers were soon joined by Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla), already half a minute down on Pogačar with 4km to go.

Landa – looking by far the best of the rest – kicked on again to ride solo to second place on the day and consolidate his second place on GC, while the others were reabsorbed by the approaching chase group and crossed the line over a minute down.

Landa and Vlasov remain on the podium, the latter with a 26-second advantage over best young rider Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) and Harper one second behind, having moved up to fifth. Enric Mas (Movistar), Kuss, Poels, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) round out the top 10, all inside four minutes behind the all-conquering Pogačar.

Volta Catalunya - Stage 3

• Dates 20 Mar
• Race Length 176 kms
• Start Sant Joan de les Abadesses
• Finish Port Aine
• Race Category Elite Men

UAE Team Emirates

• Nationality United Arab Emirates
• Founded 2017
• Team Principal Mauro Gianetti
• UCI Code UAD
• Bike Sponsor Colnago

Soudal Quick-Step

• Nationality Belgium
• Founded 2003
• Team Principal Patrick Lefevere
• UCI Code SOQ
• Bike Sponsor Specialized

Tadej Pogacar

• Team UAE Team Emirates
• Nationality Slovenia
• UCI Wins 75
• Height 1.76m

Mikel Landa

• Team Soudal Quick-Step
• Nationality Spain
• UCI Wins 16
• Height 1.73m

Antonio Tiberi

• Team Bahrain Victorious
• Nationality Italy
• Height 1.82m

One of the most iconic Italian bike brands, Colnago has supplied bikes to some of the best riders in the world, including Eddy Merckx and Tadej Pogačar.

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Provided by FirstCycling

Flo is a freelance writer covering all sports but with a particular interest in road and track racing.

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Volta a Catalunya 2023: Riders

World Tour Teams

AG2R Citroën Ben O’Connor, Nans Peters, Clément Berthet, Dorian Godon, Geoffrey Bouchard, Clément Venturini, Felix Gall

Alpecin – Deceuninck Kaden Groves, Xandro Meurisse, Oscar Riesebeek, Stefano Oldani, Nicola Conci, Kristian Sbaragli, Jimmy Janssens

Arkéa Samsic Maxime Bouet, Louis Barré, Élie Gesbert, Hugo Hofstetter, Anthony Delaplace, Łukasz Owsian, Ewen Costiou

Astana Qazaqstan Team David de la Cruz, Gianni Moscon, Fabio Felline, Joe Dombrowski, Harold Tejada, Simone Velasco, Vadim Pronskiy

Bahrain Victorious Mikel Landa, Gino Mäder, Jack Haig, Wout Poels, Hermann Pernsteiner, Rainer Kepplinger, Yukiya Arashiro

BORA – hansgrohe Jai Hindley, Ide Schelling, Matteo Fabbro, Frederik Wandahl, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Anton Palzer, Patrick Konrad

Cofidis Jesús Herrada, José Herrada, Bryan Coquard, Guillaume Martin, Alexandre Delettre, Hugo Toumire, Thomas Champion

EF Education – EasyPost Richard Carapaz, Esteban Chaves, Rigoberto Uran, Andrey Amador, Jefferson Cepeda, Jonathan Caicedo, Simon Carr

Groupama – FDJ Michael Storer, Matthieu Ladagnous, Bruno Armirail, Lorenzo Germani, Lenny Martinez, Reuben Thompson, Clément Davy

INEOS Grenadiers Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal, Ethan Hayter, Jonathan Castroviejo, Salvatore Puccio, Ben Tulett

Intermarché – Circus – Wanty Louis Meintjes, Rein Taaramäe, Rune Herregodts, Tom Paquot, Arne Marit, Laurens Huys, Simone Petilli

Jumbo – Visma Primoz Roglic, Steve Kruijswijk, Robert Gesink, Tobias Foss, Koen Bouwman, Sepp Kuss, Michel Heßmann

Movistar Iván Sosa, José Joaquín Rojas, Carlos Verona, Einer Rubio, Will Barta, Antonio Pedrero, Sergio Samitier

Soudal – QuickStep Remco Evenepoel, Louis Vervaeke, Ilan Van Wilder, Jan Hirt, Pieter Serry, Fausto Masnada, Mattia Cattaneo

Team Jayco AlUla Alessandro De Marchi, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Filippo Zana, Kevin Colleoni, Alexandre Balmer, Callum Scotson, Tsgabu Grmay

Team DSM Romain Bardet, Chris Hamilton, Martijn Tusveld, Romain Combaud, Oscar Onley, Marco Brenner, Lorenzo Milesi

Trek – Segafredo Giulio Ciccone, Juan Pedro López, Quinn Simmons, Dario Cataldo, Jon Aberasturi, Kenny Elissonde, Marc Brustenga

UAE Emirates Adam Yates, João Almeida, Marc Soler, Rafel Majka, George Bennett, Finn Fisher-Black, Ivo Oliveira

ProTeams Burgos BH Jetse Bol, Daniel Navarro, Victor Langellotti, José Manuel Díaz, Eric Antonio Fagundez, Andrés Camilo Ardila, Pelayo Sánchez

Caja Rural – Seguros RGA Jefferson Cepeda, David González, Joel Nicolau, Eduard Prades, Julen Amazqueta, Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael, Abel Balderstone

Equipo Kern Pharma Pablo Castrillo, Héctor Carretero, Pau Miquel, Roger Adrià, Raúl García Pierna, Francisco Galván, José Félix Parra

Euskaltel – Euskadi Mikel Bizkarra, Unai Cuadrado, Luis Ángel Maté, Ibai Azurmendi, Txomin Juaristi, Xabier Mikel Azparren, Mikel Iturria

Israel – Premier Tech Michael Woods, Dylan Teuns, Daryl Impey, Corbin Strong, Guillaume Boivin, Stephen Williams, Matthew Riccitello

Lotto – Dstny Maxim Van Gils, Andreas Kron, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Milan Menten, Sylvain Moniquet, Rüdiger Selig, Eduardo Sepúlveda

Uno-X Tobias Halland Johannessen, Jacob Hindsgaul, Jonas Gregaard, Torstein Træen, Niklas Eg, Anders Halland Johannessen, Magnus Kulset

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Who’s #1? Ranking the Top 2024 Tour de France Contenders

This is the latest edition of Bicycling’ s Power Rankings for the 2024 Men’s Tour de France, where we rank the top contenders leading up to July’s race. This continuously updated list will give you an in-depth look at the riders that have the best shot to stand atop the podium at the end of the Tour—and how they’re performing in the races leading up to July.

These rankings will be constantly refreshed, so you can see who’s up and who’s down on the road to the 2024 Tour de France.

The 2024 Tour de France was expected to bring together the sport’s four best grand tour riders: Denmark ’s Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), winner of the last two Tours de France ; Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), winner of the 2020 and 2021 Tours de France; Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), winner of the 2022 Vuelta a España; and Slovenia’s Primož Roglič (BORA-hansgrohe), a 3-time winner of the Vuelta and the champion at last year’s Giro d’Italia.

Each rider was taking a different route to the Tour de France, with each choosing to mix race days with extended periods of time spread at training camps. And while some of their paths crossed at certain races throughout the first few months of the season, they weren’t expected to all race together until the Tour.

But that might have gone out the window in early April after a scary, high-speed crash on Stage 4 of Spain ’s Tour of the Basque Country took down several riders, including three of the five riders on our first two Power Rankings. And two of them–Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) and Belgium ’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick Step)–suffered serious injuries.

News about each of the three riders has trickled out in the weeks following the crash, and while they’ve all made progress, there are still more questions than answers as to where their form will be by the time the 2024 Tour de France starts in Florence, Italy on Saturday, June 29th.

But there are no questions regarding the rider at the top of our latest Power Rankings.

Tadej Pogačar

Read the complete analysis.

Previous Ranking : 1

Race Days : 12 (and counting)

Race Wins : 8

Best Result : 1st-place, Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Current Race : Giro d’Italia, May 4-26

Pogačar just keeps on winning, and even though he’s racing the Giro d’Italia before this year’s Tour de France (a double-dose of grand tours that usually forces riders to prioritize one race over the other), he’s currently the best-looking rider (form-wise, at least) heading into the Tour this July.

Since our last Power Ranking, Pogačar has spent much of his time training at altitude in Spain’s Sierra Nevada. He raced just once before the start of the Giro d’Italia, winning late-April’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the second time in his career after attacking on the steep slopes of the Côte de La Redoute 30K from the finish and riding away from the peloton. No one was close to matching the Slovenian; they were all racing for second.

And it’s been much the same so far at the Giro d’Italia, where Pogačar has jumped out to an early lead after dropping his GC rivals on Stages 1 and 2 to take the maglia rosa as the Giro’s overall leader.

Pog currently leads the race by 45 seconds and will likely add more to his advantage by the end of next weekend with a gravel stage on Thursday, a time trial with an uphill finish on Friday, and another summit finish on Saturday. In fact, don’t be surprised if Pogačar essentially puts the Giro out of reach by the first Rest Day, which would allow him to sit back, ride defensively, and essentially win his first Giro while “training” for the Tour de France.

Once upon a time we thought there would be no way that Pogačar could win the Giro and the Tour de France this season. But the way things are shaping up, we won’t be surprised if he becomes the first rider to win the Giro-Tour double since Italy’s Marco Pantani in 1998.

Primož Roglič

Previous Ranking : 2

Race Days : 11Race Wins: 1

Best Result : 1st-place, Stage 1 - Tour of the Basque Country

Next Race : Critérium du Dauphiné, June 2-10

Roglič also went down in the crash that took out Vingegaard and Evenepoel, and like the other two, he abandoned the race immediately. But after a series of medical examinations, BORA-hansgrohe reported that the 34-year-old suffered no major injuries.

The Slovenian was initially expected to take part in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège last month, but the team changed plans, giving him extra time to heal. That was the right call, as the weather in the Belgian Ardennes was atrocious, and the juice wouldn’t have been worth the squeeze. In fact, Roglič probably made more gains by not racing than he would have if he had.

Assuming he’s now fully healed from his injuries, he’s now resumed training for the Tour de France, the only grand tour still missing from his resume. His next race will be the Critérium du Dauphiné in early June, a French week-long stage race that he and several other contenders are expected to use as their dress rehearsal for the Tour de France.

No one wants to see their Tour de France preparation interrupted for any reason, but compared to Vingegaard and Evenepoel, Roglič dodged a huge bullet.

Remco Evenepoel

Previous Ranking : 3

Race Days : 17

Race Wins : 4

Best Result : 2nd place, General Classification - Paris-Nice

Another victim of the crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, Evenepoel broke his right clavicle and scapula in Spain and had surgery a few days later in Belgium to address the broken collarbone.

The injury meant the Belgian would miss a chance to become only the fourth rider to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège three years in a row–and fans would miss their first chance to see the Belgian champion go head-to-head with Pogačar this season.

But we got some good news before Liège-Bastogne-Liège when it was announced that Evenepoel would be attending his team’s altitude camp in Sierra Nevada this month and is back on schedule in terms of his training for this summer’s Tour de France.

That sets him up for an interesting battle with Roglič at the Critérium du Dauphiné, which was always part of the Belgian’s program. If his training goes as well as his team seems to think it will, the Belgian could still head to Florence as one of the Tour’s top-3 contenders.

Egan Bernal

Previous Ranking : 4

Race Days : 28

Race Wins : 0

Best Result : 3rd place, General Classficiation - Volta Ciclista a Catalunya

Next Race : Tour de France, June 29-July 21

Well, it took a little while, but INEOS finally made the call we’d been expecting them to make: Bernal will race this summer’s Tour de France. It was an easy decision given how well the Colombian has raced this season.

Every time he races, the 27-year-old continues to impress, most recently at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where–despite never having raced it before–he crossed the line in the elite group of riders that finished behind Pogačar.

And he only ended the day 21st, that belies his overall performance. He was one of only a handful of riders able to stay within shouting distance of the Slovenian on La Redoute and put in a late attack of his own to try and escape the chasing group. After the race, Bernal said he felt stronger than he was before the 2022 crash that almost ended his career.

Then he went right to the Tour of Romandie, where he finished tenth overall while helping his teammate, Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez , win the race overall. He looked like his old self on the climb to Leysin on Stage 6, putting down several attacks to whittle down the leading group and setting Rodriguez up to win the race overall. And had it not been for the Stage 3 time trial (in which he lost about a minute to the other contenders) he might have won the race himself. (Luckily, there’s just one time trial at this year’s Tour de France–and it’s made for climbers.)

Given how much he’s already raced this season, Bernal might not race at all until the Tour, where he’ll join Carlos Rodriguez (fifth at last year’s Tour), Geraint Thomas (currently racing the Giro), and Thomas Pidcock (the team’s next grand contender?) on the starting line in Florence.

Carlos Rodriguez

Previous Ranking : Under consideration

Race Days : 24

Race Wins : 2

Best Result : 1st-place, General Classification - Tour de Romandie

Vingegaard’s drop from the top-5 makes room for Spain’s Rodriguez, who finished fifth in last year’s Tour de France and has been steadily riding his way back to that same level of fitness throughout the first part of the season.

The 23-year-old took his first win of the year on the final stage of the Tour of the Basque Country–on his way to finishing second overall. He then took his first overall victory in a WorldTour stage race at last week’s Tour de Romandie, where he showed himself to have the all-round capabilities (time trialing and climbing) that a rider often needs to win a grand tour.

His next stop will be the Dauphiné, where he’ll face the toughest competition he’s faced so far this season. A strong performance could make him a solid Option 1A at INEOS, and force us to move him over Bernal (who nudges ahead for now since he’s a two-time grand tour champion) in our Power Ranking.

Under Consideration

Unfortuantely, the Tour’s two-time defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) is running out of time to win a third consecutive Tour de France. One of the worst victims of the crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, the Dane lay motionless along the side of the road for a few minutes before finally being placed in an ambulance and taken to a local hospital.

Initial tests revealed a broken collarbone and a few cracked ribs, but later the team shared that Vingegaard also suffered a pulmonary contusion and a collapsed lung. After staying in the hospital for twelve days, he was finally released.

At first, Vingegaard and his team weren’t talking about the Tour de France, rightfully choosing to focus on the health of their star rider. But we got some news Tuesday as Visma-Lease a Bike posted a video to social media , showing Vingegaard on the bike for the first time since he suffered the injury.

Visma-Lease a Bike director Merijn Zeeman told Dutch website Wielerflits.nl that Vingegaard will not be joining the team at its training camp in Sierra Nevada (which started over the weekend) and he will not be racing what was supposed to be his final race before the Tour de France, the Critérium du Dauphiné.

“Winning the Tour will be difficult for Jonas,” Zeeman said, “but it is certainly not impossible." We appreciate Zeeman’s optimism, but with less than eight weeks until the start of the Tour de France, it sounds pretty ominous to us.

Zeeman went on to say, “We have to wait and see, but we certainly still have hope that he can defend his Tour title." That’s an interesting choice of words. Vingegaard could certainly start the Tour in a bid to “defend his Tour title,” but that doesn’t mean he’ll be doing it on his own behalf.

But it could mean that the Dane will start the Tour as a key support rider for American Sepp Kuss , the winner of last year’s Vuelta a España. Kuss hasn’t raced since the Tour of the Basque Country and won’t race again until the Critérium du Dauphiné. He’s been building his season around the Tour de France–as a domestique deluxe to Vingegaard–but now he might get a chance to lead the team himself.

Kuss has raced much this season (he’ll head to the Tour with just 21 race days in his legs). But the 29-year-old has always preferred training over racing and the team has had more than enough time to make whatever (minor) adjustments to his training plan needed to be made to prepare him to be the squad’s Tour de France captain.

And we know now that Kuss will also have Belgium’s Wout van Aert by his side. The Belgian broke his collarbone in the Dwars door Vlaanderen semi-Classic in late-March and missed his own targeted block of races–including what would have been his first Giro d’Italia–due to his injuries. But van Aert is back on his bike and now building toward the Tour de France, which he’ll use to put the finishing touches on his form for the Olympic Games.

So if Vingegaard is healthy enough to start the Tour–and continues to get stronger as the race progresses–Visma could head to the French grand tour with Kuss as their leader and van Aert and Vingegaard as his two most important support riders, a tantalizing prospect for American fans.

We’re also keeping our eyes on Spain’s Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) . Ayuso won the overall title at the Tour of the Basque Country and the time trial in Romandie (where he finished fifth overall). If anything happens to Pog, he’ll be UAE’s team captain at the Tour. He’s not slated to race before the Tour de France, but we won’t be surprised if that changes in the weeks to come.

Ecuador ’s Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) almost stayed with Pogačar on La Redoute in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and won the mountain stage at the Tour de Romandie. The 30-year-old has podium finishes in all three grand tours (including a victory in the 2019 Giro), and looks to be right on track to challenge for another top-3 finish at the Tour. His next race will be the Tour de Suisse, which wraps-up two weeks before the start of the Tour.

Other riders worth mentioning include Spain’s Enric Mas (Movistar) , Great Britain’s Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) , and France’s David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) . All four of them raced at Romandie, and while none made major headlines, they all showed that their form is trending in the right direction with 8 weeks left to the Tour. Geoghan Hart and Gaudu will be in action at the Dauphiné, while Mas and Yates–for now at least–won’t be racing until they get to Florence for Stage 1 of the Tour on June 29th.

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Race information

• Date: 26 March 2023
• Start time: 10:35
• Avg. speed winner: 45.418 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 135.8 km
• Points scale: 2.WT.Stage
• UCI scale: UCI.WR.C2.Stage
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• ProfileScore: 160
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• Won how: Sprint à deux
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2026 Tour de France all-but-confirmed to start in Barcelona

T he Tour de France is set to welcome its fourth Grand Départ in five years in 2026 with Barcelona all-but-confirmed to host the start of the race in two years.

Following Grand Départs in the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Basque city of Bilbao in 2023, the 2024 race will kick off in Tuscany this summer, and the race will head to Catalunya in 2026, according to a report by local newspaper El Periódico .

A deal has been reached to start the race in Barcelona after over a year of negotiations between the city's council and Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, El Periódico reports, with the official announcement set to be made next month.

The deal means that Barcelona will host the start of a Grand Tour for the third time, following Gran Partidas at the Vuelta a España in 1962 and 2023. No Spanish city has yet hosted a Grande Partenza of the Giro d'Italia , while both San Sebastián and Bilbao have hosted Tour de France starts in the past.

Last year, Barcelona hosted an opening team time trial at the Vuelta, followed by a GC-neutralised hilly stage 2 won by Andreas Kron. The city also hosts the hilly closing stage of the Volta a Catalunya, while back in 2009 it hosted a Tour de France stage finish and start.

News of the agreement means that Grand Départs of the next three Tours de France are now set, with Lille hosting the start of the race in 2025 . The race will begin with two sprint stages and a punchy uphill finish, with stages 2 and 3 both bringing the potential for crosswinds by the North Sea.

With the 2026 Barcelona Grand Départ yet to be officially confirmed, nothing is yet known about how the race's opening days will pan out in terms of route planning.

However, with the race likely having to pass the mountain passes of the Pyrenees to return to France, an early mountain stage could be on the cards, a la stage 4 of this year's race, which crosses the Alpine border from Italy, passing the high-mountain climbs at Sestriere, the Col de Montgenevre, and the Col du Galibier before a descent into Valloire.

Unlike the Tour, the starts of future editions of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España have yet to be announced. The Spanish race will this year kick off with three stages in neighbouring Portugal, while a start in Monaco has been rumoured for the 2025 edition.

Giro d'Italia stage 5 Live - Will Jonathan Milan win again?

Volta a catalunya: tadej pogacar completes domination with stage 7 win.

Slovenian triumphs in reduced bunch sprint ahead of Godon and Martin

How it unfolded

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sealed a dominant overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya with a fourth stage win of the week from the reduced bunch sprint on stage 7 in Barcelona.

The Slovenian came through late in the dash for the line to outpace Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) in the closing sprint, eventually crossing the line almost a bike length ahead of his rivals.

"I'm so happy to take the win. It wasn't the original plan. Today we tried to go with Marc Soler," said Pogačar after the stage. "He went on the first lap on the climb. He did a super good job. I was trying to follow wheels and stay in front.

" João Almeida set a good pace on the climb and we were a small group in the front. He made a good attack on the last small climb and almost came to the finish. I wish he could arrive but I'm happy to take this win, too."

Pogačar lay in wait in the reduced peloton of 23 heading into the final run towards the finish line, taking it up at the front in the closing metres after his UAE teammate João Almeida had seen a move in the final kilometres closed down.

The Portuguese rider was caught just after racing under the flamme rouge, leaving the likes of Israel-Premier Tech and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale a short window to try and set up the sprint.

Godon and Martin both hit the front along with Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) to round off a typically attacking race over the closing circuits in Montjuïc Park, but once again it was Pogačar who came through to take the spoils.

With four stage wins this week, he duly sealed the overall title on his race debut. Also the mountain and points classification winner, Pogačar wins the Volta a Catalunya by 3:41 from Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), while Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) rounds out the podium at 5:03 down.

On an intermittently drizzly morning in Barcelona's Placa d'España, five riders took off from on the flat early segment of the stage. Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Harrison Wood (Cofidis) and Idar Andersen (Uno-X were the first to try their luck and then Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-Easypost) and Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) completed the break of the day.

The move gained a 90-second gap as they powered onto the long, grinding Cat.3 climb of Coll de la Creu d'Ordal. Janssens crossed the summit in first place as the peloton wended its way through the Serra d'Ordal and headed down to the coast, prior to the fast dash back past the airport and into the Catalan capital.

Although the margin squeezed open slightly to just over two minutes, UAE and Israel-Premier Tech maintained a tight control on the gaps, particularly after Pogacar had said that he would try for another win. Initial fears that rain might see the stage shortened or even partly suspended for GC purposes, though, lifted as the threat of wet weather on the traditional finishing circuit through Montjuic Park that has seen more than its fair share of crashes did not materialize.

The five reached the first of the six final 7.9 kilometre laps, each including a cat2 ascent of Castell de Montjuic with ramps of up to 19%, with an advantage of 1-:27. However, just as the bunch was picking up speed to hit the Castell at full tilt, a second crash in as many days left former Volta winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar) out of the final action.

The attacks in the pack began as soon the bunch hit the circuit, but UAE used local rider Marc Soler to control things as best they could. Andersen (Uno-X Mobility) and Steinhauser (EF Education-Easypost) tried the hardest to keep the break's chances alight, swinging through the finish for the first time with a 42-second advantage.

When Soler (UAE Team Emirates) switched roles and tried to bridge across with Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R), with Pogačar in control mode behind in the pack, it produced something of a stalemate. That said, with the gaps at less than a minute, the outcome of what is traditionally one of the most turbulent stages of the race was far from certain.

Steinhauser opted to make a solo effort with less than four laps to go, and as Soler pounded on determinedly with his two-up counter-attack, sweeping up a fading Andersen in the process. But the intermediate trio were then quickly captured by an Ineos Grenadiers and Israel-led peloton, and a visibly struggling Steinhauser made it to the summit of the Alt de Castell one last time, he was well within sight of a much-reduced bunch as he did so.

All of the main favourites were in the front group of 40 riders with one former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas doing much of the spadework for another, teammate Egan Bernal. Hunched over the frame to eke out as much advantage as possible on the fast, sweeping descent, Steinhauser maintained his minimal gap as the race came through the finish with two laps to go, but with 14.4 kilometres to go, he was finally caught.

A gutsy move by Kern Pharma's Pablo Castillo fizzled out almost as quickly as it had begun, and another by Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) had equally little effect, except to see Pogacar chase it down in person. The surging move by the Slovenian gained a rapid response from Bernal and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), but the margins were minimal and a front group of some 20 riders briefly reformed on the fast downhill.

The group swelled again on the descent to the finish line as dropped riders came back to the front of the race for the final 8km. However, the road would soon rear uphill again, for the last time in the race.

UAE Team Emirates led the way onto the climb, their plan briefly interrupted by Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Dstny) as the veteran Belgian struck out for glory in his final kilometres at a race where he's won five stages in the past.

Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) struck out on the counter as De Gendt was caught 6km from the line, and over the top of the climb he was joined by a select group including Tadej Pogačar, Enric Mas, and Egan Bernal.

On the way down, the front of the peloton came back into it, making it a larger group in the lead, from which João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) launched an attack with 3km to go. He'd be brought back just inside the final kilometre, leaving the chasing pack to briefly set up the sprint before dashing to the line.

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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews , he has also written for The Independent ,  The Guardian ,  ProCycling , The Express and Reuters .

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