Vingegaard stamps his authority
March 12 th 2026 - 16:42
What a contrast from 2025 to 2026 for Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike)! Last year, the Danish star took the yellow and white jersey on day 4 before crashing on the Côte de Trèves the next day and eventually abandoning the Race to the Sun. This time, on the day after his victory in Uchon, he safely went over the same climb before putting the hammer down on the steepest gradients of the day. Untouchable on the Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Muzols, Vingegaard covered the last 21 kilometres on his own to take his second consecutive stage win - with gaps over two minutes - and significantly increase his lead in the overall standings. Dani Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) now trails by 3’22’’, ahead of EF Education-EasyPost’s Georg Steinhauser (+5’50’’) and Ineos Grenadiers’ Kevin Vauquelin (+6’09’’).
After an eventful day 4 that turned the race upside down on the roads of the Morvan, the Race to the Sun continues with a 206.3 km stage between Cormoranche-sur-Saône and Colombier-le-Vieux. With relentless ups and downs and gradients reaching 16%, the riders face 2,950 metres of elevation gain — the highest figure of this edition.
A massive battle for the break
Attackers are inspired by the challenges of the day, furthermore after many teams lost all their GC hopes on Wednesday. A flurry of attacks animates the first part of the race but riders fail to open differences on flat terrain.
Eventually, a distinguished climber of the calibre of Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) accelerates on the cat. 3 ascent of the Côte de Lentilly. He goes first over the top (km 63.7) and presses on afterwards.
Four riders join him to make the first break of the day at km 70: Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United), Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM).
5 + 3 = 8 leaders
Behind them, Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike try to restore order in the bunch and control the gap at around 1’40’’. The pace is hard, too hard for David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), who was 5th in the overall standings but is forced to abandon.
As the race hits the second ascent of the day, the Côte de Trèves (summit at km 106.7), Movistar’s Ivan Romeo and Lorenzo Milesi set off in pursuit. Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) follows their move.
The three counter-attackers join the five leaders with 90 km remaining. Visma-Lease a Bike drive the bunch and the gap never gets higher than 2’05’’ (66 km to go). It drops to 1 minute at the bottom of the Côte de Sécheras, the first of three steep kickers inside the last 35 km.
Vingegaard in his own world
The breakaway explodes, with Cepeda going solo at the front. Vlasov and Prodhomme try to chase him while the rest are swallowed by the bunch, including Tarling and Campenaerts, who bring more firepower to Ineos Grenadiers and Visma-Lease a Bike. The two teams work together to get back to Cepeda on the first slopes up the mighty Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Muzols (2.2km at 11% with gradients reaching 16%).
Jonas Vingegaard attacks with 1 kilometre remaining. Nobody can follow the overall leader of the race. Seven riders emerge in pursuit: Dani Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Kevin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Mathys Rondel (Tudor), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step).
While Vingegaard safely rides to victory in Colombier-le-Vieux, Paret-Peintre attacks over the top of the final climb of the day, Côte de Saint-Barthélémy-le-Plain. The Frenchman eventually takes 2nd place (+2'02''), ahead of Harold Tejada (+2'20'') and the rest of the chasers.
