August 30, 2026
The first week is going out with a bang as the riders have to take on nearly 5,000 meters of elevation gain, the most of the entire race. With the start just outside of Benidorm in Villajoyosa, many of the riders will know the climbs from pre-season training camps in the area but that might not make it any easier to cope with. The first 100 km of the stage loops North, over the Puerto de Tàrbena and the crest of the famous Coll de Rates, up the 5 km, 10% Puerto de El Miserat and the shallower 5.7% Port de Tollos. Once at the top of the 4.5 km, 6% Port de Tudons, the riders will make a small loop through Benifallim for the Intermediate Sprint with the Bonus Sprint coming 5 km later at the top of the Port de Benifallim which tops out 47 km from the finish. The next 26 km are mostly downhill with the exception of a 2 km kicker halfway through the descent. With 22 km to go, the road will climb up the Sella River valley to the junction where the riders crested Port de Tollos but instead of going down the Port de Tollos, they turn right to continue climbing all the way to the finish atop the Alto de Aitana. In all, the final climb is 22 km long and averages 5.8% but the last 6.5 km are the hardest at nearly 8%. There is a long way to go in this Vuelta and anything can happen but today will be a good indicator of who will be on the top step when the race finishes in Granada in two weeks.
Race Summary
The neutral zone began from the beautiful sea side town of Villajoyosa with perfectly clear skies once again. Crowds packed in to see the riders off before they set out through the streets and into the country side towards KM0. When the racing got underway, NSN Cycling were active with Alexey Lutsenko and one by one, other riders bridged over to the Kazakh. Five other riders joined Lutsenko including Pavel Sivakov of UAE-XRG, Andreas Kron of Uno-X Mobility, Alastair MacKellar of EF-Education EasyPost, Fabian Weiss of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Alessandro Romele of XDS-Astana. They had 30 seconds on Lennard Kämna of Lidl-Trek, Iván Cobo of Equipo Kern Pharma, and Reuben Thompson of Lotto Intermarché with 166 km to go but the first categorized climb was approaching and the peloton looked prime to kick off again.
By the bottom of the Puerto de Tàrbena, the six leaders had 50 seconds on the peloton who had absorbed the Kämna group. 6 km from the top, Weiss was dropped from the front group as the remaining five worked through way up along the steep gorge road with sharp outcroppings of rocks situated overhead. There were countless attempts to break free from the peloton but the situation was mostly status-quo as Kron led the break over the top of the Puerto de Tàrbena with 35 seconds on the bunch.
Just as the field was coming over the summit, Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe got a gap with Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep and Urko Berrade of Equipo Kern Pharma. Stefan Küng of Tudor Pro Cycling bridged up on one of the short downhills before they reached the top of the Coll de Rates. By the bottom in Parcent, groups consolidated at the front to make a leading break of 15. The group included the original five of Lutsenko, Sivakov, Kron, MacKellar, Romele then also Fisher-Black, Paret-Peintre, Berrade, and Küng. Six more had gotten away and the joined the front group before Movistar shut the attacking down with Gijs Leemreize of Picnic-PostNL Raisin, Bruno Armirail of Visma-Lease a Bike, Kevin Vermaerke of UAE-XRG, Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious, Embret Svestad-Bårdseng of Netcompany-Ineos, and Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech.
Another group of a dozen riders formed a chase group but with 127 km to go near the base of the Puerto de El Miserat, they were 1 minute behind the leading group of 15 and their cohesion was poor. At the start of the steep Puerto de El Miserat, the chasers were drifting out to 1 minute 35 seconds and the momentum was firmly with the leaders. Regardless of the group, each rider had to toil up the climb with sustained gradients of over 15%. They reached the craggy, rocky summit at 113 km to go with stunning views for miles all around, even out to the sea where the race began. Buitrago led the group over the top for maximum KOM points 3 minutes 20 seconds ahead of Orluis Aular and the Movistar led peloton. No time gaps were given to the chase group but a handful of riders had bridged with a huge effort to make a lead group of 19.
The roads heading to the Port de Tollos were narrow and led the riders into a dry and desolate area with more olive trees than people. The break worked their way up the Port de Tollos through the sun-burned brush landscape and it was Buitrago who secured maximum points at the top nearly 5 minutes ahead of the peloton. Four more riders bridged and they were the last of the chase group to join the front of the race with 82 km to go just as the lead group was gathering bottles and taking a breath before the next difficulties.
Even with so many passengers in the front group, they still managed to arrive at the base of the Port de Tudons with 4 minutes 30 seconds on the Movistar led peloton. A big crowd had formed in the last kilometer of the Port de Tudons to see Buitrago snag more points to add to his KOM tally. 4 minutes later, the peloton pedaled through to the top and were keeping the race within touching distance for the finale.
Romele threw caution to the wind and bombed the descent in an effort to re-establish the gap and drop some of the passengers in the break. Approaching the sprints in Benifallim, Romele had built the gap back up to 5 minutes but the main problem for him was that no one followed. When he reached the sprints, he rolled through 50 seconds ahead of the rest of the group and decided to sit up and take a breath before the start of the Port de Benifallim. Once on the climb, Romele got back into his rhythm and continued alone.
With 50 km to go and 2 km to the top, Romele still had 25 seconds on Spanish Champion Marcel Camprubí of Pinarello Q36.5, one of the last riders to join the break, and 6 minutes on the peloton which had changed shape as Decathlon CMA CGM took over from Movistar. At the top, Sivakov joined up with Camprubí and crested 20 seconds after Romele with most of the rest of the group another 15 seconds back.
After the little town of La Torre de les Maçanes at the base of the 2 km rise in the middle of the descent, Sivakov and Camprubí caught up with Romele to make three at the front while the rest of the group was languishing 45 seconds back and growing. The chase group fractured on the climb but swelled once again and became more disorganized with every rider that caught back on.
The descent was long and fast on wide, sweeping roads with a good surface and perfect for railing the corners and carrying speed. Through Relleu with only a bit of the descent remaining, the three leaders had built 1 minute on the chase and retained 5 minutes 25 seconds on the peloton and it was looking like they might be able to stay away for the stage win.
With 22 km to go, the three leaders turned off the descent and started the final climb up to the Alto de Aitana. The initial few kilometers were more of a false flat drag which only hindered the disorganized chasing group. The first attack came from Buitrago who was followed by Lutsenko, Paret-Peintre, and Milan Vader as the gap to the leaders blew out to 1 minute 40 seconds. Sivakov and Camprubí were strong as the road reached 6% but Romele paid for his earlier efforts and was dropped, leaving two riders at the front with 90 seconds on the Buitrago group and 4 minutes 15 seconds to the Decathlon CMA CGM led peloton that was in full flight but burning resources fast.
In the chase, Lutsenko disappeared but was replaced by Zana who went to work for Paret-Peintre. They weren't making much progress however and with 12 km to go, they were still stuck at 90 seconds while the peloton of around 25 riders was charging at just 3 minutes. Second by second the gap was coming down and with 10 km to go, Sivakov decided it was now or never and went clear from Camprubí to go alone.
Gregor Mühlberger did a mammoth pull for Felix Gall which splintered the favorites group and left Sivakov with just 1 minute of his advantage with 7.5 km to the finish. With Gall was Enric Mas of Movistar, Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost, Oscar Onley of Netcompany-Ineos, Jarno Widar of Lotto Intermarché, and Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. 2 km later, the crowds were huge as they gathered near the entrance of the military base, the highest point that spectators were allowed to venture.
Gall surged for a bit, as did Widar, but no one could break the group and they shut down with no teammates left to set a pace. Carapaz immediately saw his opportunity and sprang clear as the others stared at each other. Carapaz went under 5 km to go with 15 seconds on the favorites group and 20 seconds to a fading Sivakov. Onley reached out in pursuit of Carapaz but it was Mas that shut everything down, catching Onley, Carapaz, and Sivakov in the same moment with 4.5 km to go. The favorites went under 4 km to go all across the road with Gall, Onley, Carapaz, Roglič, and Mas riding shoulder to shoulder.
The altitude was starting to show in the flora as trees turned to bushes which gave way to low grasses and cacti. Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana came back with Widar and even Buitrago was still hanging around the front group as the favorites continued their stand-off. With 3.5 km to go, Skjelmose reached the front and immediately attacked with a response only coming Tejada and Widar. The first big move finally came 500 meters later Mas attacked and was quickly across and passed the Skjelmose group. Onley came up to Mas and started to pull with the Spaniard as Widar and Roglič were next to try to bridge. Widar blew up but Roglič made it three at the front at 2 km to go but Mas kept the pace high making life difficult for Roglič after his effort.
If the riders could have seen passed their front wheel, they would have noticed the panorama view offered by the elevation and the crystal clear atmospheric conditions. Mas led through 1 km to go and passed the radio tower with Onley stuck to his wheel and Roglič dangling at 5 seconds. Mas opened the sprint just outside 200 meters to go and it looked like Onley might have enough to come around but the Scot didn't have the legs and it was Mas who won on his first day in Red at this Vuelta. Roglič drifted back to 12 seconds by the time he crossed the line for third on the stage with Gall in fourth, a further 6 seconds down after looking like he might lose more time in the last few kilometers.
Mas goes into the rest day looking like the out and out leader of the race, even if the gap is still relatively close at 1 minute 18 seconds to Roglič. Gall remains in third at 1 minute 39 seconds as Onley pops up to fourth at 2 minutes 20 seconds after a jour-sans from Sepp Kuss who lost 1 minute 44 seconds on the last climb.