Preview Volta a Comunitat Valenciana 2026 stage 3 - Is Evenepoel going to nuke hilly stage?

From the 4th to the 8th of February the World Tour peloton take on the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana. A race above many of its World Tour peers in terms of startlist, it features every year a whole array of starts looking to use the good weather and familiar roads to kick off their season. We preview stage 3, which is estimated to start and finish at 13:20 and 17:00CET.

The Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana is one of the most cherished early-season stage races on the European calendar, marking its first edition in 1929 and evolving over nearly a century into a key preparation target for GC-oriented riders and ambitious classics contenders alike. Initially known under names like Vuelta a Levante and Vuelta a Valencia, the race has seen interruptions — including a long hiatus after 2008 before its successful revival in 2016 — but its reputation has remained sky-high as the teams race in the road where they train all winter long to prepare for their seasons.

In the 20th century it gave chance to many Spanish riders who have added this race into their palmarès, however in the 1950's it became popular amongst international figures as well, specially with Rik van Looy taking the win back in 1959 - the second non-Spanish win, and the only time until 1990 where there wasn't a Spaniard on the podium.

The list of winners then grew in quality exponentially in the 1980's with Bernard Hinault and Stephen Roche being crowned winners; the likes of Alex Zülle, Laurent Jalabert, Alxandre Vinokourov, Abraham Olano, Alejandro Valverde, Alessandro Petacchi have then won the race as well... Since the 'modern' Valenciana was brought back in 2016 the list of winners has not become more modest, with Nairo Quintana and Tadej Pogacar amongst those who have raised their arms. Last year it was Santiago Buitrago who won the overall classification.

Stage 3 is a warm-up to the decisive days of the race, but this one can in itself be key. The riders will pass through Alicante and then climb the 7.5-kilometer long Alto di Tibi which averages at 5% and finishes with 37 kilometers to go.

However there are bonus seconds at the top and there are bonus seconds yet again only a few kilometers later. The combination of explosive climbs and descending makes chasing very hard and into San Vicente del Raspeig we could see a small group or solo winner - or potentially a small peloton sprint between those who survive.

Biniam Girmay goes into the stage with the race lead, however he is going to have a difficult time maintaining it if the race is as attacked as was the case on the opening day. The fay features more climbing and if there is an aggressive peloton, it will be almost impossible to control the climbs and the downhill finale. With the time trial having no gaps, the GC riders are still on the same time, and this stage may be attacked much harder.

Remco Evenepoel, Giulio Pellizzari and Aleksandr Vlasov are certain to be a deadly trio for this hilly terrain taking into consideration the form they have all shown in the opening two stages; whilst UAE will need to try and control these attacks and match the German team.

*** Remco Evenepoel, Giulio Pellizzari
** Brandon McNulty, Mathias Vacek, Ben Turner
* Antonio Tiberi, Aleksandr Vlasov, João Almeida, Marc Soler, Magnus Sheffield, Pablo Castrillo, Iván Romeo, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Biniam Girmay

Pick: Remco Evenepoel

How: Solo attack.