Almost effortlessly, Vingegaard took command of the leading group with 2.3 kilometres to go, which at this point included Martinez, Lipowitz, his team-mate Remco Evenepoel and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step). But when the 29-year-old stepped up the pace, he suddenly found himself alone. Without exerting himself, he pulled out a ten-second lead by the finish. In the overall standings, he now leads by 1:22 minutes ahead of Martinez, who in turn is eight seconds ahead of Lipowitz.

The German hopeful has thus made up one place. Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) lost out. The Austrian lost touch with the favourites on the final descent and finished more than two minutes behind the day's winner. This was mainly due to the pace work of Evenepoel, who had stretched out in front of Lipowitz on the final flat section of the 158-kilometre stage with the finish in Queralt to enable the 25-year-old to finish on the podium. "Remco did a fantastic job. I don't even know what to say," said Lipowitz after the race.

The Tour de France bronze medallist from last year still has one stage to go to secure his place on the podium. However, the circuit through Barcelona with several shorter climbs suits Lipowitz less than a long climb at the end. This also applies to Vingegaard, who normally can no longer be kept from overall victory. "We wanted to win the stage again today," he said in the winner's interview. "It was a fight between six riders on the last climb. I had good legs and was able to attack and shake the other guys off my back wheel. It was a good day and I'm happy with the win."

Tour of Catalonia 2026 - Results of the 6th stage

>> All information about the Tour of Catalonia 2026

How the 6th stage of the Tour of Catalonia 2026 went

After a nervous start phase, in which there were crashes before the sharp start and, as a result, Michel Hessmann (Movistar Team) was the first rider to abandon, a 15-man breakaway group formed around Giulio Ciccone (Lidl - Trek) after around 20 kilometres, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Richard Carapaz (EF Education - EasyPost), Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), which built up a two-minute lead up to the Coll de Pradell (HC category).

There, the leaders fell apart after an attack by Soler in the middle of the almost 15-kilometre climb. Ciccone, Carapaz and Embret Svestad-Bardseng (INEOS Grenadiers) managed to get back to Soler at the summit, but the latter won the sprint for the mountain points. Separated by a small counter-climb, 25 kilometres of high-speed descent were then on the programme. At the bottom, the four men at the front still had a one-and-a-half minute lead over the field.

Departure decides

In the climb that immediately followed, Ciccone then pulled away from his fellow riders, made it over the summit ahead of all the chasers and thus took the mountain jersey. At the back, Red Bull dictated the action and tried to capitalise on its superior numbers. While it was Lipowitz who first stepped up the pace briefly, Evenepoel then stretched out in front of the group of favourites. The Belgian put the pressure on, especially on the descent. Gall lost the connection. Evenepoel also worked for the Lipowitz podium on the subsequent flat before the final climb, which paid off in the end.

And so the Red Bull duo, Vingegaard, Martinez and Paret-Peintre set off together on the final climb, which was a good five kilometres long. Evenepoel also set the pace there until the halfway point. When he left the leading position, Vingegaard went to the front and easily tore a gap to Martinez and Lipowitz, who were able to keep up. In the end, however, the Dane celebrated another unchallenged victory.