September 4, 2026
On today's stage, the riders will come within 25 km of Granada where La Vuelta will ultimately end but the riders still have eight more days of racing before celebrating in the great Moorish city. The start in Almuñécar is right along the coast of the Alboran Sea, the western most part of the Mediterranean, and heads predominantly North and West for a 193 km stage with the finish in Loja on the banks of Genil River. After leaving Almuñécar, the roads goes straight up for a 14 km ascent of the Venta de la Cebada. Two more little peaks follow before the field will reach Padul near the start of the 6 km, 5% Alto del Legionario. The next 60 km roll downwards to the Intermediate and Bonus Sprints in Tocon with 47 km to go. If a break is leading, the last real chance to go clear is on the Puerto de Granada. The climb is 6.5 km long at just over 6% but it summits with 41 km to go which would likely be too far for anyone to go solo. The last part of the race is false flat downhill into Loja with only a 700 meter, 5% kicker with around 2 km to go. It feels like a 50/50 toss up between break and a hearty sprinter taking the stage, so it will come down to who is willing and able to control over such a long stage.
Race Summary
Mother nature turned up the heat with temperatures recorded as 38C (100F) at the finish as the riders got underway in Almuñécar. The fight for the break was fierce and a big group got clear over the top of the first climb of the day of the Venta de la Cebada. When cameras began rolling, there were 103 km to go and the remnants of the break had just crested the Alto del Legionario and were descending towards Los Bermejales Reservoir. There were eleven riders left in the break at this point and they had 50 seconds on a dropped group of thirty riders and 4 minutes on the Movistar led peloton. Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek was in the chase group and started the day in seventh on GC at 7 minutes 42 seconds. His presence forced Movistar and EF-Education EasyPost to remain vigilant of the gap to not allow such a rider back into the top GC placings.
The front group of eleven consisted of Clément Berthet and Guillaume Martin of Groupama-FDJ United, Cristián Rodríguez of XDS-Astana, Léo Bisiaux of Decathlon CMA CGM, Axel Laurance of Netcompany-Ineos, Andreas Kron and Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility, Kevin Vermaerke of UAE-XRG, Vincenzo Albanese of EF-Education EasyPost, Lars Craps of Lotto Intermarché, and Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike. With 98 km to go, eleven became ten when Laurance lost his front wheel through a right corner and came down. He hopped quickly up but the fall took quite a lot of skin from his right side and he needed a new bike from the car which was a long way back.
As the leaders rode across the dam wall of the Bermejales Reservoir with a seemingly endless grove of olive trees over their right shoulders, they had extended their lead to 1 minute 40 seconds on the chase. The gaps remained stable as the leaders reached the town of Loreto with 60 km to go and it did not look like the thirty rider chase group was going to get organized enough to bring the leaders back. Coming into the Intermediate Sprint with 47.5 km to go, Rodríguez popped out of the saddle to try and take the points and bonus seconds but Brennan put that effort down quickly and easily took the maximum prize.
The Puerto de Granada began shortly after passing through Tocon and the chasing group was finally making in-roads into the gap as Visma-Lease a Bike had Wout van Aert in the chase. 55 seconds separated the first two groups while the peloton was still sitting just under 5 minutes from the front. The heat was also turning into a serious factor as temperatures had pushed to 43C (110F) and were on the verge of becoming dangerous. The gap continued to go down and was only 30 seconds with 5.5 km to the summit as they rode up through the olive groves that covered every spare meter of cultivatable land.
2.5 km from the top of the Puerto de Granada, Bruno Armirail had dragged the chase group to within 15 seconds of the front and Vermaerke sensed it was time to attack to stay away. Only Martin and Albanese were dropped by the acceleration but Leknessund countered and went clear with 39.5 km to go with no reaction from the others. Bisiaux did not panic however and the young Frenchman dragged Leknessund back single handedly. Uno-X Mobility then sent Kron on the attack but he was tracked down by Brennan and the move stalled again. Meanwhile behind, Armirail pulled off when the leaders were in sight and van Aert was forced to attack his group and try to come across. 400 meters from the top, the two groups came together to make around twenty riders at the front of the race but some weren't happy with the composition and attacks continued. Vermaerke tried one last time before the summit but he was marked again by Brennan and the American shut his effort down.
The descent brought the lead group into Montefrío and passed the Iglesia de la Villa perched high on the rocks with a stunning view out over the sea of olive trees. Once the road flattened out, tactics got tricky as many wanted a fuga della fuga with such strong sprinters still in the group. The main aggressors however were Brennan and van Aert who each took turns attacking to avoid being attacked. They managed to split the group down and brought seven other riders with them including Vermaerke, Bisiaux, Albanese, Jarno Widar of Lotto Intermarché, Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep, Simon Dalby of Uno-X Mobility, and Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe.
The games continued in the front group but they were still riding quickly and distancing the rest of the chase who had drifted to 1 minute with 15 km to go. Over the next 5 km, the leaders found an accord and settled into a rotation, albeit still weary of each other. Aggression kicked off once more just outside of 7 km to go when Bisiaux went for it. It was a big effort but was closed down by Brennan and immediately countered by Vermaerke. Van Aert covered and the group was back together once again. Dalby was next to try to sneak away. He got a decent gap but the grimaced face of Brennan hauled it back and the group looked around at each other.
A few more attacks were attempted with Dalby and Bisiaux before a hammer blow was dealt by van Aert who came from the back and hit the group with speed. Only Paret-Peintre had the legs to cover the attack and the pair established 10 seconds very quickly. Brennan acted as an anchor and the group resigned itself to third place as the best possible outcome. Van Aert led through 1 km to go and held tight on the left side of the road. Coming into 500 meters to go, van Aert moved to the right to keep the inside line around the final sweeping right corner. Paret-Peintre stayed patient until 200 meters to go when he launched for the line. The wiry Frenchman was able to get level with van Aert but the powerful sprint of the Belgian was too much for Paret-Peintre to handle and van Aert hit the line comfortably to take the victory in a true team win for Visma-Lease a Bike. Brennan won the sprint for third 24 seconds later, just pipping Widar on the line.
The GC riders closed 2 minutes in the last 40 km of the stage and finished 3 minutes down on van Aert but more importantly, just 2 minutes 10 seconds down on Skjelmose. The Dane still sits in seventh overall but has trimmed his deficit to 5 minutes 32 seconds and much closer to a top five than he was this morning. During the stage, Gregor Mühlberger of Decathlon CMA CGM, who started the day in ninth overall, crashed and was forced to abandon. Not only was the GC place lost for the French squad, they lost the best mountain domestique for Felix Gall who is in contention to win the race at the end of the three weeks.