August 29, 2026
The route continues its march South with a 171 km stage from Puçol to Xeraco. The majority of the stage runs parallel with the Mediterranean as it skirts around the metropolis of València and the Parque Natural de la Albufera. Today is one of the flatest stages of the race with just 1,300 meters of climbing but in true Vuelta fashion, a climb near the end of the stage will make the sprint teams a bit nervous. When the race reaches Simat de la Valldigna with 34 km to go, they will pass through the Intermediate and Bonus Sprint and start climbing the Puerto de Barx. The first 4 km of the climb averages 6% but then flattens off for the second half to make 8.6 km of uphill at 3.8%. A steep descent will take the riders into Gandia and to the sea side for a likely sprint finish in Xeraco.
Race Summary
There were no clouds in the sky when the riders got under way with warm but managable temperatures around 28C (82F). Before the flag dropped, a big crash took down a number of riders with Floris Van Tricht of NSN Cycling and Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Pharma having to abandon as a direct result. There was basically no interest in attacking when the flag dropped with Sinuhé Fernández of Burgos-Burpellet BH going up the road all on his own. With 120 km to go, Fernández had 5 minutes 20 seconds on a tired peloton who were happy to have an easier day.
Visma-Lease a Bike and Groupama-FDJ United were the teams that each put a rider on the front to control Fernández. Through the town of Cheste with 105 km to go, the gap was down to 4 minutes 10 seconds as the bunch rolled through the gentle hills and passed the low scrub brush vegetation with more momentum than a solitary rider. Over the next hour or two, Steven Kruijswijk of Visma-Lease a Bike did nearly all of the pace making in the main field, pulling the bunch along through groves of olive, almond, and citrus trees.
Through Algemesi with 56 km to go, Fernández was just 1 minute 15 seconds up on the peloton and his time at the front of the race was coming to an end. As Fernández neared the sprint and proceeding Puerto de Barx, the hills of the Natural Municipal of La Murta y La Casella came into view and rose up before him. 5 km from the sprint, sprint and GC teams alike moved forward but it was still Kruijswijk leading to bring Fernández back to give Wout van Aert a chance at maximum sprint points.
Nerves intensified on the run to the sprint as riders got the call on the radio to organize and be at the front. The bunch barreled towards the sprint but only van Aert was interested and the Belgian took maximum points for the Green Jersey as well as the 6 bonus seconds. The speed did not ebb after the sprint however because the Puerto de Barx was just ahead. Before the bunch reached the bottom, race leader Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG either bumped a rider to his right or hit a bottle but he lost control and flipped over the bars and onto the ground. A few others came in the crash but Pogačar seemed to be worse off. A call for calm was made at the front of the peloton to give Pogačar a chance to get back in but the Slovenian was forced to abandon the race with a broken collar bone, concussion, facial cuts, and a stable but fractured vertebra.
The departure of Pogačar was a great loss but the race always goes on. The bunch rode a fast but controlled pace up to the KOM line with Visma-Lease a Bike, Pinarello Q36.5, and now the defacto race leading team of Movistar on the front. The first rider to break the accord was Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5 who put in a dig with 26 km to go on the false flat after the summit. He arrived at the bottom of the descent at 19.5 km to go with a lead of just under 20 seconds.
As the sea came into view with 9 km to go, the speed was high as were the nerves. Another crash occurred in the bunch which brought down around five riders including Roland Thalmann of Tudor Pro Cycling who didn't have much of the back of his skin suit left. Meanwhile up front, Azparren was still powering away on the wide high way as the peloton were baring down for the inevitable catch.
Off the high way and into town with 5 km to go, the peloton strung out as they turned through the city streets of Xeraco racing towards the finish. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe owned the front from 5 to 3 km to go when Groupama-FDJ United appeared and took over. The catch was finally made with 1,500 meters to go when Netcompany-Ineos committed and put their train on the front for Ben Turner. Wout van Aert brought the Visma-Lease a Bike train to the front with 1 km to go but there was no Matthew Brennan on the wheel. Van Aert emptied the tank nonetheless and dragged the group along with his teammate Christophe Laporte in second wheel and then Turner, Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, and Orluis Aular of Movistar behind. Van Aert swung off with 300 meters to go just as a huge crash took down many riders about 20 wheels back. Laporte continued as if Brennan was on his wheel and pulled off 150 meters from the line leaving Pedersen to open the sprint. Pedersen and Jordi Meeus of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were battling on the right side of the road and looked to be even at 50 meters to go. In the last moments, Bryan Coquard of Cofidis popped out of Meeus's slip stream and lunged for the line in a dead heat with Pedersen and Meeus. No one dared to celebrate because it was hard even for them to know who took the win. Moments later, Coquard was rejoicing with his teammates as he was declared the winner of his first Grand Tour stage win in his thirteenth Grand Tour of his career, a real demonstration of determination and perseverance. Pedersen came up short by half a wheel for second with Meeus just behind in third.
We didn't expect a change in GC today but due to unfortunate circumstances, Enric Mas assumes the race lead after Pogačar's abandon. Primož Roglič now sits in second at exactly 1 minute with Felix Gall in third at 1 minute 11 seconds.