August 27, 2026
The race moves a bit further South along the Azahar coast for the start in Alcossebre in what is another difficult day in the saddle. The 177 km stage can be split in two halves. The first half contains two categorized climbs, the 14 km Puerto de La Serratella and the 4 km Coll de la Bandereta. Neither are particularly difficult but the combination will start to add fatigue in the legs. The course turns back to the coast and heads to Benicàssim for the intermediate sprint. The real race should begin after the sprint at the foot of the 7.5 km Alto del Desierto de las Palmes. The course does a 20 km loop from the summit of the Alto del Desierto de las Palmes back around to its base to start the final climb to Puerto El Bartolo. The climb itself is 9.5 km at 7%, half of which is the first half of the Alto del Desierto de las Palmes, but the route turns off to take on almost 2 km of gravel that the skinny GC guys will have to rattle over to get to the top. Bonus seconds are available at the top as well as the KOM points so there is a lot to play for in this short span. Prizes not withstanding, the finish in Castellón is just 21 km from the summit of the Puerto El Bartolo, over half of which is on a focused descent. Whether the break makes it or not, there will surely be a GC battle brewing at the end of the day.
Race Summary
The race to make the break away was as intense as the heat. With 106 km to go on the descent of the Coll de la Bandereta, there were four leaders, included among them were George Bennett of NSN Cycling, Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious, Andreas Kron of Uno-X Mobility, and Gijs Leemreize of Picnic-PostNL Raisin. Just 1 minute behind, a group of twelve were trying to break clear but the Decathlon CMA CGM led peloton was not content and were chasing hard to close it down.
Before the peloton could catch the chase group, the four leaders were caught to make sixteen riders at the front with 97.5 km to go but they were still in sight and certainly not clear. A new chase group formed from out of the main field of comparable size to the lead group but it contained race leader Tadej Pogačar and a few of his UAE-XRG teammates, as well as Oscar Onley of Netcompany-Ineos. That move was stitched back together with 91 km to go and the bunch settled to allow the front group a bit more distance.
UAE-XRG slowly let the break increase their gap out to 2 minutes 30 seconds as Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike took the uncontested intermediate sprint in Benicàssim with 57 km remaining. Almost immediately after the sprint, the road began to rise for the start of the Alto del Desierto de las Palmes. A few more seconds were added to the gap by the time José Manuel Díaz of Burgos-Burpellet BH led the group over the top at 49 km to go with a wonderful view of the sea down below. Nine other riders were with Díaz including Kron, Buitrago, Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Urko Berrade of Equipo Kern Pharma, Carlos Canal of Movistar, Thomas Gloag of Pinarello Q36.5, Vincenzo Albanese of EF-Education EasyPost, Lars Craps of Lotto Intermarché, and Gianmarco Garofoli of Soudal Quickstep.
On the descent, a few of the dropped riders rejoined the head of the race which disrupted the flow. A little split formed when they reached the bottom and Kron snuck away with Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious as the other looked on and waited for someone else to chase. Oddly, Bilbao refused to work and seemed to want Buitrago with him going into the final climb. The pair were caught and the group got back into rotation but they had lost 40 seconds to the UAE-XRG led peloton in the squabble.
When the break reached the bottom of the final climb of the Puerto El Bartolo at 30 km to go, their gap was down to 1 minute 35 seconds and closing as the GC teams were battling for position into the base. Bilbao did the first kilometer as hard as he could to set Buitrago up then swung off, calling it a day. Kron was the first attacker and he managed to split the group in half, bringing only the best climbers with him. Back in the peloton, UAE-XRG were ramping up the pace and had cut the favorites group to around 20 riders with 5 km to climb. Among those dropped was Jarno Widar of Lotto Intermarché who showed so well in Andorra but looked to be struggling with the heat.
Debruyne led the break through the right turn, off the main road, and onto the steep section of the Puerto El Bartolo 47 seconds ahead of the peloton. All of Pogačar's teammates were used up as the peloton began the steepest sections leaving the race leader to set the pace. It was not a full on attack but it was a lifting of pace which not everyone could handle. Only Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost, Enric Mas of Movistar, Oscar Onley of Netcompany-Ineos, and Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were still present when the gradients ramped up to 19%. Onley was the last to let go of Pogačar's wheel as the Red Jersey caught and passed dropped riders from the break.
Pogačar caught Debruyne about 1 km into the gravel section which looked more like a hard-packed dirt section than chunky gravel. Debruyne could not react as the red flash danced up the road with no one else in the camera shot behind. When we got images on the chase, Mas was leading by around 10 seconds back to Roglič, Carapaz, Onley, and Felix Gall of Decathlon CMA CGM who made his way through traffic to reach the rest of the GC favorites. With 2.5 km to climb, Pogačar's lead was 38 seconds and growing but so was Mas's lead over the others.
Off the gravel with 1 km to the top, Pogačar took on a little downhill before the concrete road ramped back up. Mas was proving to be on a great day and had closed to around 10 seconds to Pogačar with Gall, Roglič, and Debruyne a further 1 minute back. Some of the steepest ramps came right at the top through throngs of fans urging Mas on. The Spaniard managed to reel in Pogačar right at the top and even jumped passed to take on the descent in the lead and 6 bonus seconds.
The descent was just as narrow and almost as steep as the climb. The road bent and twisted around the curves of the ridge line with unencumbered views of the coastline and the expanse of the sea. Mas looked as though he knew the descent well and was taking the corners quickly but a bit of bravado snuck into Pogačar and he took the lead after under cutting Mas in a tight left bend. A few turns later, Pogačar went off the side of the road and Mas flew passed. Pogačar popped back onto the pavement, got back to Mas in short order, and decided to hang behind for the rest of the descent.
They turned onto a wider road at 18 km to go that they took earlier in the day with 30 seconds on Gall, Roglič, and Debruyne and 45 seconds to Carapaz and a resurgent Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana who must have done a daredevil descent to reach Carapaz. The descent shallowed out with 11 km to go and the race was closing in. The Gall group was just 15 seconds down with Carapaz and Tejada at 30 seconds. The last kilometers through the coastal plains were covered quicker by Mas and Pogačar. With 5 km to go, they had 30 seconds on the Gall group which was now five riders as Tejada and Carapaz had caught on.
Mas did the majority of the work on the flat, only relinquishing the lead with 1,200 meters to go. Mas sat on as Pogačar led the pair down through a little chicane and into the finish straight. Mas got out of the saddle to wind up the speed but Pogačar saw it and snapped into his sprint. Mas had no answer and no choice but to sit down and accept second place on the day, but a second place he can be proud of. Pogačar took his third stage win in only six days of racing and the clock started ticking for the rest of GC riders to come home. Gall led into the finish straight but Debruyne took the sprint for third and mopped up the last of the bonus seconds available.
Pogačar increased his GC lead to 3 minutes 34 seconds on Mas who leap frogged over Roglič into second place. Roglič and the others lost 46 seconds on the run in so the four-time Vuelta Champion is now 4 minutes 21 seconds back in third. One of the big losers of the day was Oscar Onley who was the last to try and hang with Pogačar. The Brit lost 1 minute 38 seconds and now sits in seventh overall at 5 minutes 37 seconds after just six stages.