'We were gifted an other opportunity' – British sprinter Ethan Vernon wins shortened stage 4 at Volta a Catalunya
Dorian Godon maintains race lead after summit finish scrapped
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
British sprinter Ethan Vernon won his second WorldTour race of 2026 on Thursday, victorious on the shortened stage four at the Volta a Catalunya.
The NSN Cycling rider was one of the hot favourites on what became a sprint stage, and led the sprint in to the final 200m, with Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) unable to come round. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) finished third.
Godon continued in the race lead as a result, with Pidcock moving up to second overall, jumping over Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) due to bonus seconds.
Article continues belowVernon has now won three stages at Catalunya, out of 14 pro wins. It was his second WorldTour victory of the year after winning at the Tour Down Under in January.
"It hasn't gone to plan for us the first few days, and then we were gifted an other opportunity last night," Vernon said post-stage. "The boys really committed and this one means an extra lot for everyone. It wasn't meant to be today, and I'm super happy with the boys, and another win at Catalunya.
"It's super special, my first pro win was here in 2022 with Quick-Step and now my third win here with NSN. It's the home race of our new sponsors NSN, so I guess this one is just as special as the other two."
The stage had been shortened due to high winds, which took out the hors categorie summit finish, making a bunch sprint almost certain.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"I think we wanted to control it for a sprint, and in the end, quite a small break went, which played to the favour of me as a sprinter, because it meant the day was a bit slower than normal," he continued. "It played into the hands of the fast men at the end, and we made the most of it.
"We saw the new plan last night on VeloViewer, we studied it a lot and made a new plan. The plan was to go into the roundabout in first, that was super close to the finish. Normally you'd start your sprint before the roundabout, but the first race was to go into the roundabout first, and then everyone stayed in the same position coming out of it."
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.