Vernon wins the sprint in Camprodon and Godon reinforces his lead in the Volta

The British cyclist Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling Team) won this Thursday the fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya, finally held between Mataró and Camprodon over 151 kilometers, by winning a head-to-head sprint against the even more general leader, the Frenchman Dorian Godon (INEOS Grenadiers).

Despite the disappointment of the cancellation, on Wednesday evening, of the final climb to the Vallter 2000 ski resort due to the risk of strong wind and cold at the summit, the stage was held and Vernon, who was second in the third stage in Vila-seca, obtained an unexpected prize because, if he had climbed, he would not have had any option. In addition, it is his third partial victory in the Volta, after the stages won in 2025 and 2022.

Not going up to Vallter 2000, a station of the FGC group, did avoid the arrival of the high mountains to this Volta in a stage that promised a lot and that came to nothing in terms of the fight for the general classification. Of course, Godon received a bonus, as did Thomas Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), third in the stage and new second place overall, 13 seconds behind the French leader.

Upon arrival at Camprodon, after a last kilometer of slight uphill but not very selective, the peloton entered very compact and well launched by several teams that wanted to compete for the partial victory. At the last roundabout, located about 180 meters from the finish line, the group rushed forward in single file, and in that final head-to-head, Vernon managed to overtake Godon, who was on the verge of signing a surprising triplet of stages in this edition of the Catalan round but who did add a new bonus to reinforce his lead.

Before, the peloton had neutralized the breakaway of the day 18.3 kilometers from the finish, formed by Samuel Fernández (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Merhawi Kudus (Burgos Burpellet BH), who animated the day for a good part of the route until being absorbed by the main group when the pace began to increase, already thinking about the end.

With the race already grouped, the peloton rode wide and compact for several kilometers, maintaining a sustained pace before facing the intermediate sprint of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, where Pidcock took the bonus.

The Briton then tried to break the calm by launching with Simone Gualdi (Lotto Intermarché), the Spanish Iván Romeo González (Movistar Team), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), but the attempt was unsuccessful and the peloton regrouped about 13 kilometers from the end.

In the last stretch, with several teams such as EF Education-EasyPost, INEOS Grenadiers or the NSN Cycling Team itself working in the lead to prepare for the sprint, the group arrived together at the last kilometer. Even Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) tightened the pace on the final climb towards Camprodon, although without launching a definitive attack.

Looking ahead to this Friday, the fifth stage should take place, if there are no last-minute changes, between La Seu d’Urgell and La Molina/Coll de Pal over 155.3 kilometers of mountain, with five passes – three of them first category (Colldarnat, Fumanya and Sobirana) – before the final climb, in the Special category, to La Molina, 16.5 kilometers at an average slope of 7.2 percent.