September 6, 2026
Originally planned as 189 km, the stage was paired down to 110 km after the Extreme Weather protocol was implemented due to sustained temperatures above 40C (104F). The new parcours takes the riders from Palma del Río to Córdoba over a much more manageable route. The first 20 km are reasonably flat as the bunch will ride East towards Posadas in the Guadalquivir Valley. They make a turn North into the hills of La Sierrezuela for two category three climbs followed by the Intermediate and Bonus Sprints with 31.5 km to go. The race descends out of the hills and back into the valley to the city of Córdoba with the last 10 km being completely flat to the line. A bunch sprint feels inevitable but it will be tricky to get right as the run in through Córdoba has ten corners with the last being a sweeping right that only straightens up 200 meters from the line.
Race Summary
The riders waited until the last moment to line up at the start line just to stay out of the blistering sun for as long as possible. Once the flag dropped, the bunch was quite active knowing it's a short day and a possibility to break the stranglehold of Visma-Lease a Bike. The first few kilometers went by very quickly as the bunch powered their way passed the citrus, almond, plum, and fig trees that are grown in the fertile valley. Tudor Pro Cycling and Groupama-FDJ United were present in nearly every attempt to form a break but as the groups got to six or seven members, Visma-Lease a Bike would shut it down and the moves would re-start.
A break got away with 95 km to go that was bigger than Visma-Lease a Bike would have wanted. Eleven riders went up the road including Ivo Oliveira of UAE-XRG, Ethan Hayter of Soudal Quickstep, Enzo Paleni of Groupama-FDJ United, Frederik Wandahl of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5, Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility, Rudy Porter of Jayco AlUla, Reuben Thompson of Lotto Intermarché, Fabian Weiss of Tudor Pro Cycling, Alastair MacKellar of EF-Education EasyPost, and Gijs Leemreize of Picnic-PostNL Raisin. The Dutch squad immediately got to work on the front of the peloton and they got help from Cofidis who wanted another opportunity for Bryan Coquard to sprint for victory.
There was no risk taken by the peloton who pegged the gap at just over 1 minute which also had the effect of creating a siege against the break who weren't able to receive aid from the team cars due to the narrow gap. Every time the camera panned to the back of the peloton, riders were collecting bottles, dumping water over their head, and taking as much ice on board as they possibly could just to keep the core body temperature down.
The break reached the base of the first climb of the Puerto de la Forestal at 82 km to go with a gap of 1 minute 5 seconds. The gap remained around 1 minute and as they approached the summit, Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost decided to jump from the peloton to bridge up to the break. By the time the leaders crested, they were only 40 seconds ahead of the peloton with Steinhauser sandwiched somewhere in between. The course stayed up in the hills instead of descending and Steinhauser was able use his power on the undulating roads to make contact with 71 km to go. The situation was on the edge however because the peloton had closed to within 30 seconds which threatened to rest the entire race.
Over the next 20 km, the road constantly twisted and turned and was never flat as it weaved its way through the hills. During this time, the peloton never allowed the break more than 50 seconds. By the time they reached a 2.5 km, 6% uncategorized climb with 49 km to go, their gap was still firm at 45 seconds but a change was coming in the peloton. UAE-XRG came forward and increased the pace, bringing the gap under 30 seconds very quickly. Some of the sprinters were drifting backwards and out of the peloton as an attack came from Michael Gogl of Alpecin-Premier Tech. The break felt the pressure and split apart as Thompson attacked and ripped down the technical descent.
In no time, the remnants of the break reached the bottom of the descent and began the Puerto Artafi, the second and final categorized climb of the day. In the lead was Thompson, Azparren, and Weiss who were joined moments later by Leknessund to make four at the front of the race. Gogl was making his way forward through dropped riders and the peloton was at 35 seconds being led by Visma-Lease a Bike. With 40 km to go, roughly 3 km from the summit, Leknessund went clear with Azparren but the Norwegian was strong and was alone 500 meters later.
There was a lot of action happening in the final few kilometers of the climb. Bryan Coquard of Cofidis was dropped and desperately trying to get a bottle. Visma-Lease a Bike was burning off riders to keep the race in check and Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech had attacked from the peloton and was second on the road to Leknessund as he came over the top with 37 km to go.
The connection between Leknessund and Debruyne was made with 33 km to go but the peloton of around 40 riders was not terribly far behind. Debruyne led across the Intermediate and Bonus Sprint line in Santa Maria de Trassierra and it was Alessandro Romele of XDS-Astana who edged out Wout van Aert for third when the peloton came through just 10 seconds later. Van Aert kept going and towed Romele up to the leaders to make four at the front which caused panic behind as other teams were caught on the back foot and needed to fire riders up into the front group. Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek was the only one to join the leaders and, with such a reduced peloton, no team had the numbers or cohesion to form a chase and the bunch came to a stand still.
A counter move formed with around 15 riders, including three from Equipo Kern Pharma, when the gap was around 30 seconds but they never managed to get any closer and were out to over 50 seconds with 24 km remaining. Even though the leaders had a good buffer on the chase group, both Debruyne and van Aert each had a dig to try and escape, but the five riders crested the final hill with 19 km to go and started the descent towards Córdoba together.
Everyone made it down the descent safely with larger gaps between groups. Nearly 1 minute separated the five leaders from the chase and the peloton had drifted out to almost 2 minutes and out of contention for the stage win. At the front, everyone was taking their pulls except for Leknessund who positioned himself on the back of the group. He was allowed to get away with it until 5 km to go when van Aert tried to get him to fill the gap after his pull. Leknessund didn't bite and was fully committed to risking it all for the victory. Romele tried to take Leknessund off the back 1 km later but the young Italian didn't want to let a sprint chance pass and he closed the gap once he saw Leknessund was not going to.
The first attack came from Nys who went with 3.2 km to go. Debruyne followed and it was Romele who was forced to tow van Aert and Leknessund back. Romele couldn't finish the job so van Aert jumped out of the slip stream and closed down the gap to bring the five riders together again. Leknessund made his move at 2.5 km to go but it didn't seem like a full effort and van Aert shut it down easily. Leknessund went again from the front of the group but it ended in the same result. They went under 1 km to go all looking at each other. Leknessund did another half effort which only left him stuck on the front of the group to lead out the sprint. When the sprint opened with 300 meters to go, it was Leknessund followed by van Aert, Romele, Debruyne, then Nys. Nys was the instigator and launched early but he had a good sprint and put everyone on the ropes to latch on. Van Aert settled into second wheel with Romele in third until 125 meters from the line when van Aert opened up. The experienced Belgian was quickly passed his younger compatriot and there was no hope for Romele who only just got passed Nys on the line for second place. The win marked the second for van Aert and the fifth for Visma-Lease a Bike in this Vuelta, a staggering haul with a week still to race.
The GC remains as it was at the start of the day and should continue for a few more days with a few easier stages to come.