Twelve
Years
Ended
No processional this year. The Vuelta's finale threw four ascents of the cobbled climb below the Alhambra at a race that refused to coast, and it produced both endings at once: Tobias Halland Johannessen outkicking Alessandro Romele for the stage after Ramses Debruyne split the front group inside 2 km — and Enric Mas, three times a runner-up, crossing the line as the first Spanish winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014. He inherited red the day Pogačar crashed out and defended it on every summit the race could find. By 2:15 over Roglič, after 21 stages and one very long twelve years: campeón.
La Vuelta
- 01Monaco → Monaco
- 02Monaco → Manosque
- 03Gruissan → Font-Romeu
- 04Andorra la Vella → Andorra la Vella
- 05Falset → Roquetes
- 06Alcossebre → Castellón
- 07Vall d'Alba → Valdelinares
- 08Puçol → Xeraco
- 09La Vila Joiosa → Alto de Aitana
- 10Alcaraz → Elche de la Sierra
- 11Cartagena → Lorca
- 12Vera → Calar Alto
- 13Almuñécar → Loja
- 14Jaén → Sierra de la Pandera
- 15Palma del Río → Córdoba
- 16Cortegana → La Rábida
- 17Dos Hermanas → Sevilla
- 18El Puerto de Santa María → Jerez de la Frontera
- 19Vélez-Málaga → Peñas Blancas
- 20La Calahorra → Collado del Alguacil
- 21Granada → Granada
From the peloton,
this week
Étape 04Seventy-Five Metres of Patience: Evenepoel Outlasts Ciccone in Québec
After 41 days without racing, Remco Evenepoel returned at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and rode the finale like a man who had spent the layoff studying everyone else's tells. Twenty laps of the redesigned Québec City circuit whittled the field to half; Evenepoel bridged to the decisive group with 40 km to go, countered Alberto Bettiol at 28, dropped Anthon Charmig on the last Côte de la Montagne — and then, with Giulio Ciccone glued to his wheel and refusing a single turn, led out the sprint himself and won it anyway. A masterclass in doing all the work and keeping the win.
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Étape 05Caught at the Last: Dunbar Runs Down Buitrago on Peñas Blancas
The first half of the Vuelta's climactic mountain double-header went to the breakaway, and to the most patient man in it. Santiago Buitrago attacked with two kilometres of Peñas Blancas left and looked gone; Eddie Dunbar, who had animated the escape all day, paced the 19 km climb like a time trial and swept past inside the final kilometre to win by 14 seconds, with his 24-year-old team-mate Thomas Gloag third. Behind, the GC held its breath: Enric Mas covered everything, Roglič sits at 1:37, and the red jersey that fell to Mas the day Pogačar crashed out is one summit from Granada.
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Étape 06The Race of Truth Tells the Truth: Küng Wins in Jerez, Mas Bends but Holds
The Vuelta's second race of truth ran 32 flat kilometres through sherry country from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez, and it told everyone exactly what they suspected. Stefan Küng, beaten to the hot seat all season, took it back at 54.4 km/h — three seconds ahead of 21-year-old Callum Thornley, denied by a whisker in a Grand Tour time trial for the second time this race. Primož Roglič rode an inspired fourth and took 33 seconds out of Enric Mas; Mas rode a limiter's time trial and kept 1:37 of red jersey. Two mountains left. The Vuelta knows its question now — it just doesn't know the answer.
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Étape 07Five, Like Cavendish: Brennan Completes the Set in Sevilla
The Vuelta's last pure sprint went the way every sprint of this race has gone when Matthew Brennan wanted it. Enzo Paleni made the day honest with a lone raid that ended 4 km from the line; Wout van Aert made the finale simple; and Brennan finished it past Jordi Meeus and Magnus Cort on the run between María Luisa Park and the Guadalquivir. Five stage wins in a single Vuelta — the youngest rider ever to do it, and the first Briton to take five in a Grand Tour since Mark Cavendish in 2013. Visma's seventh. The sprinting part of this race is finished, and it had one author.
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Étape 08Four From a First Grand Tour: Brennan Joins Gaviria in La Rábida
Off the rest day and down to the Atlantic, the Vuelta gave the sprinters the long flat run to the Columbus monastery at La Rábida — and Visma gave everyone else no chance. A five-man break was managed to extinction, Red Bull's crosswind ambush near the Río Tinto estuary fizzled, and Wout van Aert delivered Matthew Brennan through the last corner and released him at 125 metres. Daylight. Coquard second, Braet third. Four stage wins in his first Grand Tour — a thing nobody had done since Fernando Gaviria at the 2017 Giro — and Visma's sixth of the race, with the kid two days from more history.
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Étape 09Forty Degrees, Five Riders, One Winner: Van Aert Rules Córdoba Again
The heat won the first half of stage 15 — the Extreme Weather Protocol cut 79.5 km from the route with temperatures pushing 40°C — and Wout van Aert won the rest. Visma set fire to the shortened stage on the Puerto Artafi, five riders escaped, and Van Aert spent the run to Córdoba personally closing down every attack from the other four before beating them all in the sprint: Romele, Nys, Debruyne, Leknessund, in that order, with no complaints possible. Two wins in three days for the Belgian, a second career victory in Córdoba, and a rest day for a race that badly needs the shade.
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