Vuelta sticks with familiar points system as green jersey fight promises fireworks

The Tour increased the value of its sprint stages this summer in an attempt to give the fastest men more leverage in the points competition. The Vuelta has kept the system it has used in recent seasons, where the reward at the finish depends on the type of stage.

On this year's route, the effect is particularly noticeable. Only stages 11 and 17 fall into the highest points category, leaving riders with far fewer opportunities to make large gains through a conventional bunch sprint.

For 2026, the Tour raised the reward for winning its flattest stages from 50 to 70 points. Second place increased to 50 points and third to 40.

The changes followed Tadej Pogačar's second place behind Jonathan Milan in the 2025 points classification, when the Slovenian came within 78 points of adding green to yellow and polka dots.

The new scale was intended to put greater emphasis on the bunch sprints, but the eventual winner still found much of his advantage elsewhere.

Mads Pedersen scored consistently at the intermediate sprints and continued to do so once the race reached the mountains. He joined breakaways, survived the early climbs and collected points on days where many of the quicker sprinters were no longer in a position to contest them.

That proved enough for Pedersen to take green despite the increased rewards available on the flat stages.

The Vuelta divides its stages into six groups for the points classification.

Group 1 carries the highest reward, with 50 points for the winner. Victories in Groups 2 and 3 are worth 30 points, while Groups 4, 5 and 6 offer 20.

The first 15 riders at each stage finish score points.

At intermediate sprints, only the first five riders score. The winner takes 20 points, followed by 17, 15, 13 and 10.

Although four stages on the route are officially listed as flat, only two of them fall into Group 1 for the points classification.

Stages 11 to Lorca and 17 to Sevilla are the only days where the winner can collect 50 points. Stages 8 and 21 are also classified as flat on the route profile, but sit in Groups 2 and 3 and therefore offer 30 points for victory.

The limited number of 50 point finishes increases the importance of the intermediate sprints. Winning one is worth 20 points, the same reward as winning a mountain stage or a time trial.

That could become relevant if Pogačar starts collecting stage victories. With few opportunities for the sprinters to respond with 50 point wins, a strong run of results on the harder days could quickly put the Slovenian high in the standings.

Pogačar has made clear, however, that the secondary classifications are not part of his plans in Spain. His priority is overall victory and completing his set of Grand Tour wins, and he has spoken about conserving energy wherever possible during the three weeks.

Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is an obvious candidate after his Tour success and has already shown how effectively he can use intermediate sprints on difficult stages.

Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) has many of the same tools. Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) and Axel Laurance (Netcompany-Ineos) are also capable of scoring from breakaways and selective finishes, where the pure sprinters are less likely to feature.

Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Premier Tech) sit closer to the traditional sprinter profile, although neither requires completely flat terrain to be competitive. Groves has the added advantage of already knowing how to win this competition, having taken the Vuelta points classification in 2023 and 2024.

Taken together, it is a strong and varied group of contenders, with enough overlap in their strengths to keep the green jersey fight close deep into the race. It could provide exactly the kind of uncertainty that may be harder to find in the general classification.