The five moments that defined the 2026 Vuelta a España

For the bones of a week, the Vuelta looked exclusively like a Tadej Pogačar joint. The race favourite got off to a flying start by winning the opening time trial in Monaco and when he defended the lead the following day in Manosque, the assumption was that he’d keep the lead for the entire three weeks like Tony Rominger back in 1994.

Pogačar hammered the point home on stage 4 to Andorra. Felix Gall’s Decathlon CMA CGM team surprised by taking up the reins and shedding Pogačar of his teammates on the Collada de Beixalís. Pogačar responded in his habitual manner, powering remorselessly clear with 50km to go to claim his longest-ever solo victory at a Grand Tour. 

“I didn’t want to be isolated,” he said by way of explanation. Pogačar was out in his own by the finish, coming home almost three minutes clear of the chasers. The Vuelta looked like it was already over, but the succession of climbs in Andorra had offered some pointers about the form of Enric Mas and Primož Roglič. Despite nursing doubts on the eve of the race, it seemed like each man would be in the hunt for a podium spot in Granada.

Pogačar is measured by a different yardstick to everyone else, and that fact was underlined in Castelló on stage 6. The Slovenian won the stage, but the day’s news was the fleeting moment of vulnerability he had shown on the upper reaches of the climb of Puerto El Bartolo.

Outside the UAE Team Emirates-XRG bus, sports manager Matxín Joxean Fernández grinned playfully at the impromptu steward’s inquiry that developed after Pogačar’s third stage win. “A less good day?” he said. “Tell me what the bad ones look like then…”

In truth, the worst day of Pogačar’s Vuelta to that point was still better than the best day of most riders’ careers. He had attacked with intent on the climb of Puerto El Bartolo, making light of the stiff gradient and the gravel road, and he would win the stage in Castelló to extend his overall lead to 3:34. So far, so dominant.

The fly in the ointment, however, was that Pogačar had company on the run-in to Castelló. When Pogačar attacked on El Bartolo, race radio suggested he had opened a lead of almost a minute on his putative GC rivals. 

But as Pogačar approached the summit, Enric Mas suddenly emerged behind him, shooting past before the beginning of the descent. Shades of Stephen Roche at La Plagne. “He flew past me like a rocket,” said Pogačar, who confessed he had initially mistaken Mas for an over-eager spectator.

Pogačar risked disaster when he overshot a corner on the descent, but he steadied the ship on the run-in to Castelló before dispatching Mas easily in the two-up sprint. Understandably, the focus in the aftermath was on Pogačar’s rare misstep, but Mas’ Vuelta was clearly on a surer footing than even he could have anticipated beforehand. Stage 6 was a red-letter day on the Vuelta, even if we didn’t realise it at the time.

The terrible beauty of cycling is that even a race of 3,310km can be decided in an instant. For most observers, Pogačar had already won the Vuelta in the first week, building a lead of 3:50 on his rivals, and the race’s final two weeks seemed destined to double as a very public training camp for the World Championships in Montreal.

But the Vuelta and Pogačar’s tilt at history changed utterly on an anonymous stretch of road 32km outside Xeraco on stage 8, when the red jersey fell heavily after apparently hitting a stray rock.

We’ve become so accustomed to Pogačar’s superhuman feats that we still expected him to bounce back up off the tarmac and carry on as before, just like he did at Milan-Sanremo in March. But this time, there would be no miracle. Pogačar attempted to remount but his instincts were quickly overridden by his pain. He would later be diagnosed with a broken collarbone and a stable cervical fracture. His season was over.

When word filtered through to a stunned peloton that the Vuelta winner in waiting was gone, nobody quite knew what to do. That sense of confusion still prevailed when the race reached the finish in Xeraco. Mas was ushered onto the podium to accept the red jersey, but out of deference to Pogačar, he refused to put it on. He was the race leader, but the Vuelta was suddenly without a figurehead.

It’s all in the eye of the beholder as to whether the Vuelta was a better or worse spectacle after Pogačar’s abandon. For some, Pogačar’s tilt at perfection was the main attraction. For others, the spirited contest between an imperfect slate of contenders was a most compelling substitute. But both constituencies can agree on one thing: Pogačar’s absence made for a very different bike race.

That much was evident on stage 9 to the Alto de Aitana, the first without Pogačar. His abrupt abandon meant that Mas, Gall, Primož Roglič, Richard Carapaz, Sepp Kuss and Oscar Onley suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves in a race for the red jersey, and that led to a remarkable slugging match on the Aitana.

Rather than the typical Pogačar procession, the Aitana produced a flurry of attack and counterattack among GC contenders who were eager to test the waters but uneasy about making a big splash.

Mas, now wearing the red jersey, bided his time until the final 3km before unleashing a searing attack that only Onley could initially follow. The canny Roglič bridged up gradually, and although he was burnt off when Mas kicked again near the top, he limited the damage to just a dozen seconds.

Roglič looked to be in crescendo after his pre-Vuelta crash. At that juncture, and with the Jerez time trial still to come, he looked the most likely winner, but Mas’ mastery on the upper reaches of the Aitana was a sign that he had the wherewithal to meet the moment.

Mas continued his rich vein of form in the second week, proving the best of the GC men at Calar Alto and La Pandera to extend his buffer to 2:06 over Gall and 2:10 on Roglič by the second rest day.

The 31-year-old had finished on the podium of the Vuelta four times without ever threatening to win it, and he faced repeated questions as to whether he truly believed he could win this one. The biggest obstacle in his path was the 32.1km time trial to Jerez de la Frontera on stage 18, where received wisdom said that Roglič would slash his overall advantage. Although Roglič was never likely to take red there, a strong performance would herald the beginning of a Rogmontada and plant ruinous doubt in the mind of Mas before the final two mountain stages.

Instead, Mas produced the time trial of his life limiting his losses on Roglič to just 33 seconds on a flat and fast course that seemed weighted against him. Most surprisingly, the Mallorcan was four seconds quicker than Roglič on the final third of the course. It was clear that the Vuelta 2026 iteration of Mas was radically different to the rider who had flattered to deceive so often in the past.

Although there were two mountain stages left, the Vuelta was all but won. There was a brief wobble when Mas was caught behind a split early on stage 20, but Movistar quickly marshalled him back into place. Carapaz’s constant attacking whittled the red jersey group down to its bares bones for the final 90km, but Mas had an answer for everything.