2026 Vuelta a España preview: Tadej Pogacar chases more history in final Grand Tour of 2026
Three weeks of racing before Tadej Pogačar wears the red jersey on the final podium in Granada. Right?
Almost certainly. The Slovenian is the overwhelming favorite to complete his set of Grand Tour victories at the Vuelta a España, and by a wide margin.
But the Vuelta always retains an air of unpredictability — and features the hardest parcours of any Grand Tour this season, with seven major summit finishes, plus the expectation of extreme heat.
From Monaco to Granada, this is everything you need to know about the 2026 Vuelta a España.
Jonas Vingegaard won the Vuelta in 2025 but is not defending his title (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
Who can hope to challenge Pogacar for the red jersey?
It was in Spain (well, technically, initially stage four in Andorra) that Pogačar first burst into the elite level at the 2019 Vuelta a España. It marked the emergence of a titan. The then-21-year-old won three stages and finished third overall behind Primoz Roglic and Alejandro Valverde — but has not returned to the race since.
Seven years on, the Slovenian has won the last four Grand Tours he entered — having never finished off the podium in his three-week stage racing career — the last two by a combined 11 minutes. This season, Pogačar has won every race he entered but one, Paris-Roubaix, where he took second in a sprint finish.
Realistically, there is no coherent argument that any rider at this Vuelta can beat him on form alone. Pogačar is deservedly an overwhelming favourite, and only misfortune, realistically, will deny him red.
Tadej Pogačar made his Grand Tour debut at the 2019 Vuelta and won three stages (Ander Gillenea/AFP via Getty Images)
With that said, Jonas Vingegaard’s crash at this year’s Tour shows how quickly races can change — while the two favorites at last year’s Giro d’Italia, Roglic and Juan Ayuso, both abandoned with injuries. Cycling carries no guarantees, and three weeks is a long time.
Chasing Pogačar, competing for the podium, is a phalanx of riders headlined by Felix Gall. The Decathlon CMA CGM rider, set to join Lidl-Trek next season, impressively finished second behind Vingegaard at the Giro this spring.
The Austrian is something of a throwback in this era of cycling; a pure climber whose time trialling would bring out an aerodynamicist in hives, but who is likely to be the second-best in the high mountains.
Roglic, a four-time winner of this race, also returns to the Vuelta. This could be the 36-year-old’s final tilt at the race — amid a stacked Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe roster, this is the only Grand Tour he is leading this year — but he enters with uncertain form, having suffered injuries after being hit by the driver of a car three weeks ago.
There is a good chance that Pogačar could share the podium with a UAE Team Emirates teammate, just as he did with Isaac del Toro at the Tour. Joao Almeida, second at the Vuelta last year, has had a strange season after injury ruled him out of the Giro, and he was overlooked for the Tour. He starts the race as a superdomestique first, but on top form is undoubtedly one of the top five climbers in the race.
With Vingegaard absent, this Vuelta also represents a rare leadership opportunity for Sepp Kuss, who famously won this race in 2023. The American had an outstanding Tour, despite Visma’s struggles, though his own time trial struggles may limit his podium bid. Nevertheless, the 31-year-old, riding his third Grand Tour of the season, deserves this chance. After his stage 20 Alpe d’Huez heartbreak, it would be fantastic to see him fly.
Another podium contender to watch closely is Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose, who had an impressive Tour in finishing sixth, ahead of presumptive team leader Ayuso, and who produced an outstanding time trial on stage 16 to shore up his general classification credentials. If the Dane has maintained his conditioning, he is a good bet for stage wins at worst.
Two other stage hunters, EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz and UNO-X’s Tobias Halland Johannessen, could also target GC here.
But of all these contenders, this Vuelta potentially matters the most to British climber Oscar Onley, who joined Netcompany INEOS from Picnic-PostNL last winter. Injured for the Tour after finishing fourth the year before, the 23-year-old was signed to be the big-budget squad’s leader — and has openly put pressure on himself throughout a difficult first season. A podium here could be massive for him.
Oscar Onley will hope for a productive three weeks in Spain (Anne-Christine Poujoulate / AFP via Getty Images)
Who are the emerging riders to watch?
The Vuelta’s status as a nursery, or, if you prefer, elite finishing school, for the peloton’s top talents is one of the race’s great joys — and maintains its identity against the other two Grand Tours. This year is no different.
Visma are particularly interesting. Wout Van Aert is appearing in his first Grand Tour of the season after missing the Tour with injury, but also named in their line-up is 21-year-old Matthew Brennan, a potential superstar in the making. The Briton burst onto the scene last season, and already has 19 professional wins — his Vuelta debut has been much anticipated as Visma search for Van Aert’s long-term replacement.
Matthew Brennan only turned 21 earlier this month but has 19 professional victories to his name already (David Pintens / BELGA / AFP via Getty Images)
The Dutch squad have also named 21-year-old Jørgen Nordhagen in their squad, a potential future GC leader who transitioned from cross-country skiing three seasons ago. He rode well in supporting Vingegaard at the Volta a Catalunya — his emergence will be crucial for Visma’s attempts to counter UAE Team Emirates’ current dominance.
Pogacar’s squad have their own young gun, home rider Pablo Torres, making his Grand Tour debut. A winner of two Tour de l’Avenir stages two years ago, before an injury-affected 2025 season, the team’s sporting director Matxin is extremely excited about Torres’ potential.
Two other names to mention: Lotto-Intermarché’s Jarno Widar battled Paul Seixas throughout the junior ranks and is a punchy rider who has the acceleration to beat all but a few riders in the mountains. The youngest man in the race at 20 years old, he will be in the hunt for stage wins — and is an extremely fun rider to watch.
And finally, readers may remember Lance Armstrong’s battles with Joseba Beloki throughout the early 2000s, which ended in an infamous crash on the descent of the Côte de la Rochette in the 2003 Tour de France. Now the Spaniard’s son, Markel, will lead EF alongside Carapaz at this Vuelta. Winner of the Tour de l’Ain this year, he is expected to join Netcompany INEOS next season.
Markel Beloki will ride the 2026 Vuelta for EF Education Easypost (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images)
What about the sprinters?
Well, what sprinters? The Vuelta abhors sprint stages like an early dinner. There are a maximum of four pure opportunities, which means that this race is full of hybrid sprinters — riders that can survive the climbing of a breakaway to take victory from a reduced bunch.
In that, at least, are some big names — such as Tour green jersey winner Mads Pedersen, plus Visma pair Van Aert and Brennan. Jordi Meeus could well win from the bunch on a flat stage, Cofidis’ Bryan Coquard will try to get himself up there, while Movistar’s Orluis Aular is another breakaway option.
Really, though, this Vuelta’s battle between Pedersen and Van Aert for green could be tremendous — and given their ability to contend in the intermediate sprints, played out on almost every stage of this year’s race.
Expect Pedersen and Van Aert to battle each other in the points classification (Luca Bettini/AFP via Getty Images)
What is the route?
It is pretty brutal, in all reality — with 58,000m of climbing, over 4,000m more than the Tour de France. This will all play out in Spain’s baking east and south, with the race swerving some of its iconic Asturian ascent in this edition.
The 2026 Vuelta route (ASO/lavuelta.es)
Pogačar will be thrilled by the opening time trial in his adopted city of Monaco — he can sleep in his own bed the night before the race — with the 9km route effectively serving as a prologue to spread the field, rather than a true test of form.
That comes soon after, with the climbing beginning on just stage three, with a flat day’s racing before a dash uphill to the ski station at Font Romeu. The coming days are more hilly than truly mountainous, though that may not stop Pogačar from forcing gaps, with stage nine’s ascent in Aitana, in Alicante, part of a day featuring 5000m of elevation.
Stages 12 and 14, in the extreme south near Andalucia, could be brutal and attritional, with the second time trial of the race not occurring until stage 18 in Cadiz. The Queen? My favourite day of the race is stage 19, with two separate massifs around the gorgeous city of Ronda likely to lead to some GC fun, but stage 20 is truly relentless, with 5000m of climbing and the debut of Collado del Algaucil as a summit finish.
The race ends in Granada (stage 21 gets underway in a Carrefour supermarket), with four circuits of the Alhambra fortress the Vuelta’s response to the Tour’s embrace of the Montmartre climb in Paris. If it leads to stages as good as the last two on the Champs-Élysées, we are in for a treat.