February 22, 2026
The last two days have been relatively calm but today's fifth and final stage has enough lumpy terrain to potentially upset the current GC order. After leaving La Roda de Andalucía, the riders head due North to the town of Fernán Núñez before cutting back South to intermediate sprints in Montemayor and Montilla. With 42KM to go, the riders enter a circuit in the finish town of Lucena which is taken on twice. The main feature of each lap is the Alto de la Primera Cruz, a 6% climb at 2.8KM in length with 3, 2, and 1 bonus seconds at the top on each lap. At the bottom of the first descent only, there is an 800M kicker at 7% before looping back around to do the Alto de la Primera Cruz again. The top of the second ascent is just over 4KM from the finish and turns off before they take on the 800M hill. Anyone who started the week with GC aspirations and is still in the game will certainly be up for rolling the dice and being aggressive on these last two climbs.
Race Summary
There was not a cloud in the sky when the peloton was let loose at KM0. The opening kilometers were rapid and a strong group of three broke clear with Julius Johansen of UAE-XRG, Milan Vader of Pinarello Q36.5, and Markus Hoelgaard of Uno-X Mobility. They mopped up the points at the intermediate sprints and with 65KM to go, they had 2 minutes as they passed through yet another sea of olive trees that extended as far as one could see. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Cofidis, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Movistar were the four teams chasing and they had the bunch strung out in single file just to keep the break in check.
The chase was cohesive and with 40KM to go, the gap was under 1 minute with the first passage of Alto de la Primera Cruz just on the horizon. Even though the three leaders had not started the official climb, when they turned off the main road roughly 4KM from the base, they were already riding uphill. As they made the turn, they could see the bunch coming over their left shoulder just 35 seconds down the road. The peloton went from one long line to wide across the road as teams were fighting to position their leaders into the climb.
Vader led the break through the right turn on to the climb up through the olive trees. Modern Adventure kicked things off in the peloton but Visma-Lease a Bike got control and set a hard but manageable pace so their man, Christophe Laporte, could stay in contact. Cofidis reignited the group with 700M still to climb with eyes of getting Alex Aranburu a stage win. The break was caught 200M later and attacks started flying. Burgos-Burpellet BH sent a rider that was countered by Iván Cobo of Equipo Kern Pharma. Aranburu latched on and, at the top, sprinted to take 3 bonus seconds. Visma-Lease a Bike returned to the front on the descent which was wide open and very fast. At the bottom was a tight roundabout and the first few riders got through alright but a crash about 20 wheels back took down three riders and held up plenty more. One of the men down was Laporte who looked generally ok but he was out contention.
The race continued however and, out of Lucena, the riders hit the 800 ramp. The bunch stretched and was trimmed to around 50 riders but it didn't snap. A bit of calm was restored as the riders took their last bottles through the feed zone at 20KM to go. Movistar was controlling and able to weather attacks from Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG and Adrien Boichis of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. A third attack came from Victor Campenaerts of Visma-Lease a Bike but he wasn't a threat in GC. Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility jumped across to add firepower to the move but Groupama-FDJ United and Cofidis matched it by contributing to the chase.
Wærenskjold dropped from Campenaerts on the dragging road up to the official start of the climb. Pinarello Q36.5, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Uno-X Mobility and Groupama-FDJ United were all battling for the front on the run in to the right turn. Campenaerts was caught 300M before the base and it was Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe who led through the turn. Pinarello Q36.5 immediately took over to set the pace. They burned through all of their men but there was no attack. Groupama-FDJ United inherited the front and ramped up the speed. The bunch was starting to swing but no cracks had formed until Tom Pidcock of Pinarello Q36.5 attacked. The move came with 1KM to climb and the Brit blew everyone off his wheel.
Pidcock managed to keep the speed to the top and had momentum as the descent began with 3 bonus seconds in his pocket. Jan Christen of UAE-XRG was second on the road with a handful of riders chasing behind including first, second, and third overall Iván Romeo, Andreas Leknessund, and Romain Grégoire respectively. Pidcock went through 1KM to go with a gap still to Christen which he held to the line for his first win of 2026. Christen came in 10 seconds later for second with Grégoire leading the sprint in for third among the GC chase group at 12 seconds.
Iván Romeo defended well and held on to take the overall classification win by 7 seconds to Andreas Leknessund. Unfortunately for Romain Grégoire, the gap to Pidcock and Christen pushed him off the podium and into fifth place. Pidcock took third overall with Christen moving into fourth on the same time as Grégoire but ahead on countback.