February 18, 2026
The 72nd Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol kicks off in Benahavís, just down the coast from Marbella, for 150KM of racing to Pizarra. The sprinters have to work for every opportunity they get when racing in Andalucia and if they fight, they may make it to the finish to contest for the win. They first have to get through the initial 80KM however. The race immediately heads inland towards the town of Ronda to take on three categorized climbs, all between 4-6% average with varying lengths. The opening climb is 20KM long, followed by 6KM and the final one tops out with 70KM to go after 4KM of uphill. The rest of the stage is more or less downhill or flat. It's a tough profile for the sprint teams to control, especially if attacking riders get the sense that a stage win from the break is a possibility.
Highlighted Riders
Sprinters to watch this week: Søren Wærenskjold, Orluis Aular, Alex Aranburu, Milan Fretin, Paul Penhoët, Axel Zingle, Christophe Laporte
GC riders to watch this week: Tim Wellens, Pavel Sivakov, Jan Christen, Tom Pidcock, Aleksandr Vlasov, Ion Izagirre, Romain Grégoire
Race Summary
Southern Europe has been pummeled by bad weather but things were calm, sunny, and warm at the start in Benahavís. Victor Campenaerts of Visma-Lease a Bike attacked in the first few meters of the opening race of his season but as the race progressed over the first climb, he was caught and a group of seven riders went away including Rayan Boulahoite of TotalEnergies, Josh Burnett of Burgos-Burpellet BH, Ibai Azanza of Equipo Kern Pharma, Nicolás Alustiza of Euskatel-Euskadi, Dylan Vandenstorme of Flanders-Baloise, Lucas Towers of Modern Adventure, and Luca Cretti of MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort. When live coverage began with 70KM to go, everything was kicking off. A group of around twenty riders had caught the seven leaders at the top of the final categorized climb of the Puerto de la Abejas with the rest of the peloton around 20 seconds behind.
Groups were about to join together on the descent but there was more than one attack in the downhill and the composition of the front group was constantly changing. At the bottom with 54KM to go, a group of around twenty were away with the chasing peloton led by Uno-X Mobility at 30 seconds. Visma-Lease a Bike had numbers in the front and were instigating a few probing attacks. The group split in half with 48KM to go and ten riders found themselves at the front including Jan Christen of UAE-XRG, Jefferson Cepeda and Iván Romeo of Movistar, Quinten Hermans of Pinarello Q36.5, Luke Tuckwell of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Iván Cobo of Euskatel-Euskadi, Axel Zingle of Visma-Lease a Bike and Burnett, Alustiza, and Vandenstorme from the original break.
Cepeda crashed out of the break with 43KM to go after a stray bottle thrown from someone in the group hit a soigneur's foot and bounced back into the group which left only Romeo in the front for the Spanish squad. Alustiza was the next one popped as the pace ramped up through the town of Guaro. Christen tried to drag the group along but the chase being led by Cofidis was strong enough to bring everyone back together to reset the race with 37KM remaining. The bunch was strung out in single file and splits threatened to form anywhere along the line.
The peloton took a collective breath which allowed Uno-X Mobility to come forward and try to control for the final 33KM of racing. They got some help from Visma-Lease a Bike and with limited elevation change for the rest of the stage, a sprint was looking much more likely than it was 20KM before. The peloton was blocked at the front coming into 10KM to go with Visma-Lease a Bike, Uno-X Mobility, UAE-XRG, Pinarello Q36.5, and MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort all sitting on the front and guarding their position.
The pace was full on with 4KM to go. Movistar entered the mix at the front but life got hard for everyone with 1,500M to go when the road went up slightly and Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG put on power to move his teammates up. The acceleration jumbled many of the trains but it offered a bit of room for Visma-Lease a Bike to come forward. The men in yellow took the group through 800M to go but they didn't have the firepower to keep up the speed and the front of the peloton went flat with no one to make the pace. It wasn't until Fred Wright of Pinarello Q36.5 went at 400M that the sprint opened up. The last few hundred meters dragged up and Wright didn't have enough to hold his speed and he was swamped. Bastien Tronchon of Groupama-FDJ United was in perfect position to sprint on the left side of the road and had a clear lane but the winner came from the right in the form of Christophe Laporte of Visma-Lease a Bike. His timing was right and he had the legs to out-dual Tronchon for his first road stage win since Paris-Tour in 2024. Modern Adventure continue to punch above their weight by placing Ben Oliver in the final podium spot.