September 13, 2026
The last day of the Vuelta has finally arrived with a 113 km ride around Granada. The start will be given just outside a Carrefour Supermarket where the riders will roll out of the city on a large 65 km lap. Once they arrive back in Granada with 48 km to go, the race proper should begin with four laps of a reasonably hard circuit to navigate. Directly after passing the finish line on each lap, the route climbs up Alhambra for 2.1 km at 6.6%. There is a 2 km descent then rolling roads before reaching the finish line once more. It's a difficult final day and we should see fireworks coming into the last few laps with attacks to break the hold that Visma-Lease a Bike has had in this Vuelta on finishes such as this.
Race Summary
In the morning before the start, the riders and the organization came to an agreement to neutralize the GC times on the finish line coming into the final lap to avoid any issues that may occur when the racing intensifies for the stage win. After sign-on, the riders lined up to give the guard of honor to five of their fellow comrades of the peloton who were starting the last race of their careers. Those honored were Steven Kruijswijk, David de la Cruz, Pello Bilbao, Magnus Cort, and Jesús Herrada. The riders slowly rolled out and, as is tradition in all of the Grand Tours, teams and even some nationalities had their chance to ride at the front of the bunch to have their photos taken together as team in the first 20 km of the stage. Movistar slowly increased the speed with 93 km remaining and deserved the opportunity to lead the peloton through Granada in sharp looking new white kit with red shorts to celebrate their GC accomplishment.
The views around Granada were stunning with the high peaks of Sierra Nevada in the background and the ever-present Alhambra perched over the city. The bunch continued around back to the local circuit with huge crowds through every corner to see the first Spanish winner of La Vuelta in a dozen years pass by. Teams started to move forward when they entered the circuit but it was Movistar leading as they crossed the finish line with 41.5 km to go in front of tens of thousands of fans.
The first passage of the climb was controlled with Movistar and Visma-Lease a Bike setting the pace. Although not raced fast, the narrow climb caused a number of bunch ups at the back of the peloton and there were sections of the surface that were paved with small stones which looked slick. Everything was still controlled coming back through three laps to go but Groupama-FDJ United were increasing the pace and coming into the base of the climb with speed. Bastien Tronchon rode up the climb like it was an all-out, max interval in training and only had seven riders with him by the top including Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike, Axel Laurance of Netcompany-Ineos, Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek, Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep, Alessandro Romele of XDS-Astana, and Milan Vader of Pinarello Q36.5.
After the descent, Bahrain Victorious and Uno-X Mobility picked up the chase through the city streets and had the leaders at just 8 seconds as they passed through the finish line for two laps and 19.5 km to go. Only around 50 riders were left in the chase as all of the GC riders stayed together further behind in group three with the majority of the peloton. The lead group was caught shortly after starting to climb Alhambra and they were all together over the top after a more conservative ascent than the previous time up. Of possible stage winners in a sprint, we could see Wout van Aert, Matthew Brennan, Bryan Coquard, Thibau Nys, and Magnus Cort still in the group and looking to hold on one for one more trip up Alhambra.
Bahrain Victorious lit up the lead group which was around 45 riders at the start of the climb for the final time and hit the lower slopes like a sprint lead out. Pello Bilbao took over in one final effort in his professional career and he had the riders behind him swinging just to stay in his wheel. A gap formed back to the rest and Bilbao was clear. Netcompany-Ineos started to ride for Laurance but the Frenchman had just one teammate there in a group that was less than 20 riders. The Spanish fans were urging their man to the top of the climb but as they neared the summit, Laurance made his bid for victory and sprang from the chase group. He was quickly across the 10 second gap to Bilbao who could not hold the wheel and drifted backwards into a chase group which contained Romele, Nys, Jarno Widar of Lotto Intermarché, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech. Romele did the majority of the work and caught Laurance just at the top as the road tipped down back into Granada and the finish.
On the descent Tronchon, Paret-Peintre, and Brennan made their way into the lead group to make 11 riders with just 5 flat kilometers remaining. No one could afford to take Brennan to the line so there was a lot of looking around to see who would attack which slowed the group. Pau Martí of NSN Cycling was able to come up to the group to further complicate the tactics just as Bilbao gave it one more nudge. Brennan was forced to respond and shut it down with 3 km to go but more attacks were coming. Laurance went 500 meters later and was followed by Johannessen, Debruyne, and Romele and a big gap formed as the other riders in the group looked at Brennan to chase. Brennan was losing steam so Nys jumped into the gap with Widar and they bridged up to make six at the front under the 1 km to go banner. Debruyne refused to allow the newcomers to spoil his party and put in a big attack which shed everyone but Romele and Johannessen. Neither Romele or Johannessen wanted to pull when Debruyne flicked his elbow and there was a momentary slow down. Johannessen decided to hit the other two with an attack from third wheel which Romele was ready for. Johannessen led Romele through a left corner at 300 meters to go with a small gap of 2 seconds back to Debruyne who was paying for his attack. Johannessen opened the sprint with 200 meters to go and took the final sweeping right bend still in the lead. The road straightened in the last 125 meters and Romele came out of the slip stream and pulled nearly level with Johannessen on the line. They both lunged their bikes forward and it was Johannessen who hit the line first by half a wheel to take the final stage of La Vuelta and the first Grand Tour stage win of his career in thrilling fashion. Romele came up short for second place with Debruyne rolling in a few moments later for third.
After a few minutes, the rest of the peloton coasted across the line, cheered in by a great crowd who showed their appreciation for an enthralling finale to the final Grand Tour of the year. Mas and his Movistar teammates came in all across the road, arm in arm, to celebrate a marvelous team win over three weeks of racing.
Final Classifications:
Green Jersey: Wout van Aert - Visma-Lease a Bike
Polka Dot Jersey: Santiago Buitrago - Bahrain Victorious
White Jersey: Oscar Onley - Netcompany-Ineos
Red Jersey: Enric Mas - Movistar
Final GC Top 10:
1. Enric Mas - Movistar
2. Primož Roglič - Redbull Bora Hansgrohe
3. Felix Gall - Decathlon CMA CGM
4. Richard Carapaz - EF-Education EasyPost
5. Sepp Kuss - Visma-Lease a Bike
6. Oscar Onley - Netcompany-Ineos
7. Jakob Omrzel - Bahrain Victorious
8. Clément Berthet - Groupama-FDJ United
9. Cristián Rodríguez - XDS-Astana
10. Harold Tejada - XDS-Astana