Evenepoel attacks, protests, then crashes in bizarre Catalunya final

Remco Evenepoel looked on track for a stunning long-range heist after detonating the race in crosswinds and dragging Jonas Vingegaard along for the ride, but a bizarre crash with 500 meters to go cost him everything.

Evenepoel single-handedly blew up the race, and then it suddenly went wrong inside the red kite in stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya.

After blowing up the transition stage with 30km to go, the Belgian hit the final kilometer still off the front with the Dane, badgering him with a trademark arm-waving, elbow-flicking tirade to force cooperation.

Then, sweeping into a final roundabout, Evenepoel suddenly crashed.

“I wanted to go to my drops for the sprint, and right at that moment, there was quite a big hole, and I hit it,” Evenepoel told journalists at the team bus.

“I didn’t see it, and it was also not clear on the road, no markings or whatever, so I just didn’t see it, and I lost my bars.”

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe star hit the deck hard, and was left bloodied and cut up in a bizarre ending to a transition stage no one expected to explode.

“I’m still standing. Nothing is broken, so that’s positive,” Evenepoel said. “We will see, I think, some bigger injuries, so we’ll have to see tonight and tomorrow morning how everything is reacting.”

Things rarely go to script when Evenepoel is in the race.

A raid no one saw coming

No one expected much in Wednesday’s transition stage ahead of back-to-back decisive summit finales in the Spanish Pyrenees, and Evenepoel said as much at the start.

With nearly 30km to go on a fast, flat zone exposed to crosswinds, Evenepoel sensed an opening.

Perhaps stinging from missing out on the win in stage 1, he launched a brutal acceleration that instantly split the race and made at least one Visma rider look like a fool.

Only Vingegaard could respond, and the pair were off to the races.

Evenepoel drove the move, but Vingegaard sat on.

The Belgian, visibly frustrated when the gap stretched to 20 seconds, waved his arm and flicked his elbow as the Dane stayed glued to his wheel.

“The cooperation was amazing,” Evenepoel said with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Vingegaard refused to pull through, calculating that collaboration wouldn’t do him much good in what’s a big week.

“I don’t know how Remco fell,” Vingegaard told TV at the line. “He just flew over his steering wheel; it was very bizarre. I didn’t want to take advantage of that, so I waited for the peloton.

“Yes, Remco was not happy with me today, but we have our tactics,” the two-time Tour de France winner said. “He was also very strong on the flats, logical because he is very aero. We tried to work together. I hope he’s okay.”

Moments later, the peloton swept through. Dorian Godon finished the job in the sprint kick.

Damage before the mountains

Evenepoel’s all-in gamble backfired on the eve of the 2026 Volta’s decisive stages.

Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike said no one expected a move that violent.

“We know that Red Bull was going to try to do something in the wind, but we never expected Remco would attack alone,” Kuss told Spanish TV. “It was a nice duel between those two, but let’s see what happens tomorrow in the mountains. Jonas trains all year in the crosswinds of Denmark, and he has the motor to close it down when something like that happens.”

Evenepoel came into this Volta with something to prove in this week’s clash of the WorldTour giants, especially after melting in the desert heat at the UAE Tour last month.

A heavy crash ahead of back-to-back summit finishes is far from ideal.

Volta a Catalunya stage 3 results