Jonas Vingegaard enjoyed a dominant start to the season earlier this month at Paris-Nice, winning the race for the first time on his third attempt. Next week, he’ll continue his road to the Giro d’Italia with a trip to the Volta a Catalunya.
The Dane has never competed at the week-long stage race before, but he heads to Sant Feliu de Guíxols as the top favourite in what will be his only other race before his Giro debut.
Vingegaard, who triumphed in Paris-Nice with two stage race victories and took the overall by 4:23, plus the points and mountains jerseys, will face a stronger field in Catalunya. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) head up the list of his rivals.
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“Paris–Nice was my first race of the year, and it was promising. I hope to maintain that feeling over the next seven days.”
The Volta a Catalunya route will start with a mix of sprint and hilly stages over three days ahead of stage 4’s summit finish at Vallter (11.4km at 7.8%). Further mountain stages to La Molina (16.5km at 7.2%) and Queralt (6km at 7%) follow, ahead of the traditional hilly closer in Barcelona’s Montjuïc Park.
As well as Evenepoel, Almeida and Pidcock, Vingegaard will battle with a host of other top GC racers next week – Enric Mas, Florian Lipowitz, Mattias Skjelmose, Felix Gall, Mikel Landa, Oscar Onley, Ben O’Connor, and Richard Carapaz.
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