Distance
167km
The
Rock
In The Road
Thirty-three kilometres from Xeraco, on the flattest stage of the Vuelta, Tadej Pogačar hit something small on the left side of the road and went over the bars at the front of the peloton. Blood on his face, his left shoulder in a sling, three stage wins and a 3:50 lead gone in an ambulance — the first Grand Tour the world champion has ever failed to finish. Behind him the sprinters raced through two more pile-ups, Bryan Coquard won his first Grand Tour stage at 34, and Enric Mas inherited a red jersey nobody wanted to win this way.
Climbing
—m
Duration
—h
Avg Pace
—km/h
Category
Flat
Date
29·08·26
Stage 0202
Le Tour Femmes
Finished · See you next August
100%
9 / 9 stages1,175 / 1,175 km0 stages to Nice
Stage 0303
From the peloton,
this week
Race ReportCover · Iss. 47
The Rock in the Road: Pogačar Crashes Out of the Vuelta as Coquard Wins in Xeraco
Thirty-three kilometres from Xeraco, on the flattest stage of the Vuelta, Tadej Pogačar hit something small on the left side of the road and went over the bars at the front of the peloton. Blood on his face, his left shoulder in a sling, three stage wins and a 3:50 lead gone in an ambulance — the first Grand Tour the world champion has ever failed to finish. Behind him the sprinters raced through two more pile-ups, Bryan Coquard won his first Grand Tour stage at 34, and Enric Mas inherited a red jersey nobody wanted to win this way.
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Race Report
28·08·26 · Race Report
Black Armbands and a Norwegian One-Two: Leknessund Wins at Valdelinares
King Harald V of Norway died on the morning of stage 7, and by the afternoon two Norwegians in black armbands were first and second on the ski-station climb to Valdelinares. Wout van Aert attacked from the gun and built the break; Andreas Leknessund attacked it 7.5 km from the summit and rode away; Tobias Halland Johannessen sat on Van Aert's wheel and dropped him inside the last kilometre for the one-two on Uno-X's Vuelta debut. Four minutes back, the GC group produced its own drama: Gall attacked, Pogačar countered, and Carapaz cracked. The red jersey's lead over Mas is 3:50.
Race Report
27·08·26 · Race Report
Dirt, a Ditch and a Duel: Pogačar Beats Mas in Castellón After the Bartolo Gravel
The Vuelta's first gravel stage delivered the best day of racing so far — and the first crack in the world champion. Tadej Pogačar attacked on the 11% dirt of the Puerto de Bartolo four kilometres from the summit and dropped everyone, then watched Enric Mas do what nobody had managed all week: claw back a committed Pogačar climbing attack, alone, and pass him for the mountain points. On the descent Pogačar ran wide, skidded off the road into the grass, unclipped at the edge of a ditch and rejoined a Mas who waited. Two-up sprint into Castellón; Pogačar won it. Third stage win, red jersey by 3:34 — and, for the first time, a rival who looked him in the eye.
Race Report
26·08·26 · Race Report
Two From Two: Brennan and the Visma Machine Win Again in Roquetes
The Vuelta finally gave the sprinters a stage, and Visma–Lease a Bike took it apart. Crosswinds off the Ebre delta kept the peloton nervous for 170 km, the Alto de Paüls and its 12% ramps failed to drop anyone who mattered, and in Roquetes Christophe Laporte led Matthew Brennan into the last corner and let him go. The 21-year-old beat Jordi Meeus and Vincenzo Albanese for his second win in three road stages — the youngest rider to win multiple stages of this race since a 20-year-old Pogačar in 2019. The man himself finished safely in the bunch, three minutes ahead of everyone who matters.
Étape 04Race Report25·08·26
Race Report
Fifty Kilometres Alone: Pogačar Detonates the Vuelta in Andorra
A day after the hail, the Vuelta got its first mountain finish and Tadej Pogačar got the day he had been waiting for: 105 km around Andorra la Vella, four climbs, and an attack on the 16% ramps of the Collada de Beixalis with 50 km still to ride. Felix Gall followed for a few hundred metres. Nobody followed after that. The red jersey crossed the line 2:39 ahead of 20-year-old Jarno Widar and a chase group containing every other contender in the race — the longest solo win of his Grand Tour career, and a lead of 3:21 over Roglič after four days. The Vuelta is not over. It just feels like it.
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Étape 05Race Report24·08·26
Race Report
The Day the Mountain Said No: Hail Stops the Vuelta on the Col de Mont-Louis
The first summit finish of the Vuelta never happened. With Mats Wenzel and Lorenzo Fortunato clear on the Col de Mont-Louis and the peloton six kilometres from the top, a Pyrenean storm dropped rain, wind, lightning and then a carpet of hail onto the road to Font-Romeu. Tadej Pogačar, in the red jersey, sat up, waved the bunch to a stop and led it into a roadside restaurant. The organisers neutralised the stage, then cancelled it outright: no winner, no podium, no time gaps, and a GC frozen exactly where Sunday left it. Sometimes the grupetto is everyone.
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Étape 06Race Report23·08·26
Race Report
The Kid Beats the Champion: Brennan Wins the Uphill Sprint in Manosque
The longest day of the Vuelta — 215 km from Monaco into Provence with 3,000 metres of climbing hidden in it — ended on an uncategorised ramp in Manosque with Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar off the front together and the peloton refusing to let them go. When the trio came back at the flamme rouge, Matthew Brennan, 21 years old and riding the first Grand Tour road stage of his life, launched past everyone and simply rode away. Pau Miquel was second, the red jersey third. Ethan Hayter spent the afternoon as the virtual race leader from a breakaway; Pogačar kept the real one by nine seconds.
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Étape 07Race Report22·08·26
Race Report
Nine Hundredths: Pogačar Steals the First Red Jersey on His Home Streets in Monaco
The Vuelta opened in Monaco — the first city to host the start of all three Grand Tours — with 9.4 km of hairpins, tunnels and Formula 1 tarmac, and it came down to the width of a tyre. Ethan Hayter sat in the hot seat on 10:57 until the last man off, Tadej Pogačar, riding past his own front door, overturned the deficit in the final sector to win by 0.09 seconds. Josh Tarling rode to third a week after burying his brother. Roglič lost 22 seconds, Mas 29, Gall 46 — and the world champion wore the red jersey after an opening stage for the first time in his career.
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Étape 08Race Report09·08·26
Race Report
Twice in Yellow: Vollering Wins the Stage, the Duel and the Tour in Nice
Eight seconds separated yellow from second at the start line in Nice — the closest final day the modern Tour de France Femmes has ever staged — and Demi Vollering ended the argument the way champions do: by winning everything at once. She answered Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney's attack on the last Col d'Èze, countered 16 km from home, and soloed onto the Promenade des Anglais to take the stage by 1:04 and the Tour by 1:18 — the first rider to win this race twice. Marlen Reusser's podium ended on the tarmac of a descent; Elisa Longo Borghini inherited third.
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Étape 09Race Report08·08·26
Race Report
The Counterpunch: Vollering Snatches Back Yellow on the Road to Nice
Twenty-four hours after losing the Tour on the Ventoux, Demi Vollering took it back on a stage everyone had given to the sprinters. FDJ United–SUEZ set fire to the run-in to Nice, Vollering attacked on the steep Chemin de l'Arieta six kilometres out, and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney couldn't answer. A solo win, a 17-second gap, ten bonus seconds — and a Tour de France Femmes that enters its final day with eight seconds between yellow and second, plus a finish-line confrontation that made it personal.
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On the wire
LIVE · ON-AIRSTG · 01 · 2:51
March 12, 2026
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