Longest solo Grand Tour victory
Following the cancelled stage 3, Pogačar put on a spectacular one-man show for spectators on Tuesday’s stage 4, breaking away from the peloton on the second of four categorised climbs, the category 1 Collada dei Beixalis (6.5 km @ 8.5%), and riding the last 50.3 km unchallenged to the finish line, his longest-ever solo stage win in a Grand Tour race. The 20-year-old Belgian Jarno Widar (Lotto Intermarché) outsprinted Felix Gall (Decathlon GMA GCA) and several other GC contenders to finish second, 2:39 behind.
After four stages, with only three stages actually run, the road race world champion already led the race by 3:21, which is usually the winning margin of an entire Grand Tour race. The surprising Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) was in second, with another veteran, Movistar’s Enric Mas, third, at 3:32. It was a bad stage for GC hopefuls Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who finished 2:57 and 3:17 adrift, apparently still carrying fatigue in their legs from their efforts in the Tour de France.
“When Jay [Vine] let me pass on the wheel of Decathlon, I knew I didn’t want to be isolated against all the GC riders because they will all play against me,” Pogačar said. “I tried with an attack on the climb and just hoped that I could survive until the finish when I saw that I could open the gap, and I did it. It was pretty tough, but beautiful out there.”
I think that this solo attack was either the plan from the start or was conceived while Decathlon was driving the peloton at a high pace. The reason I think so is that Pogačar had only two teammates with him when the peloton reached the Collada dei Beixalis. I can’t imagine that they were all dropped by Decathlon’s speed. UAE would never let Pogačar ride without sufficient support unless they decided he didn’t need it. I think the boys were told to relax and save their legs for later, bigger challenges.
Asked if he was happy about the size of his lead, he said, “I mean, any gap is more than enough. But, yeah, it’s super good because now I can be calm and confident for the next days. We just keep going day by day and focus on each day after this, because it will be a little bit less stressful for sure.”
Asked if he wants to hold the red jersey for the rest of the race, Pogačar said, “I will say you never know, but now it’s a good gap. So we give our best to control it every day. But if it’s uncontrollable, you cannot control [it], and then we will have to fight. But it’s going to be tough. We have a really strong team here, so we are ready.”
As for young Widar, who is leading Lotto Intermarché in the race, he turned professional in February and surprised even himself with his podium finish and strong sprint after a hard stage.
“It’s not normal,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws. I’m actually a bit surprised today, and I’m incredibly proud of it. […] I had to come from behind with speed, and I succeeded. For my weight, I’m pretty fast at the finish. Finishing second after the best rider ever is not bad, is it?”
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Two for two for Brennan
Before this Vuelta, Visma–Lease a Bike’s 21-year-old sprinter Matthew Brennan had never ridden in a Grand Tour race. After riding his fifth Grand Tour stage, he had won two, following another dominant victory on Wednesday.
“It’s fantastic,” he said afterwards. “Second one in the bag, first Grand Tour. Everyone just went full [gas] throughout the day, so I’m very thankful to finish it off again. The boys are also quite relieved.”
This victory was very much a team win as Visma spent much of the second half of the stage driving the peloton at pace, trying to tire or drop the sprinters. This was evident also on the only climb of the stage, on the deceptive Alto de Paüls (3.9 km @ 6.6%, but with ramps up to 16%). That’s where many of the sprinters were dropped and eliminated from taking part in the finish. Visma teammate Wout van Aert was also active in chasing down breakaways in the final 25 km.
He and Christophe Laporte then took charge of the lead-out, pulling Brennan around a 90-degree corner 200 metres from the finish, with Laporte dropping him off in front of his rivals, who never had a chance. Jordi Meeus (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) finished second, with Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education–EasyPost) coming third.
“It was pretty spot-on, to be fair,” Brennan said about the lead-out. “Wout and Christophe are probably some of the – in fact, the best – guys you can have in the world for this type of thing. They supported me all the way into the final.”
He went on to say: “I wouldn’t say I’m a sprinter, but I can climb a little bit, so on this type of terrain, it works really nicely – especially with the support I have here. Even Stevie [Kruijswijk] and Bruno [Armirail], these guys were just so strong. When you’ve got these guys with you, it really gives you the confidence to go and try to achieve more.”
Pogačar is caught, almost crashes, wins again
Thursday’s stage 6 saw a Tadej Pogačar we’re not used to seeing. First, he was caught by Movistar’s rejuvenated Enric Mas on the stage’s final climb and then rode off the road and nearly crashed on the descent. But of course, he won the stage.
The action kicked off on the slopes of the Puerto El Bartolo (9.4 km @ 7%, with ramps of up to 19%), which included a 1.9 km gravel section. As expected, once UAE riders upped the pace in pursuit of the breakaway, Pogačar attacked with 3.3 km left on the climb, 24 km from the finish line. After he caught the last breakaway rider, Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin–Premier Tech), he appeared to open up a gap of over 1 minute on his pursuers, which, according to data, showing on the TV screen, did not include Mas.
But suddenly, as if he’d been deposited on the mountain by an alien spaceship, there he was, 15 seconds behind Pogačar and gaining on him with every pedal stroke. Mas passed him just before the summit and crested first. TV viewers were not the only ones taken by surprise.
“I was really surprised on the top [of the climb],” Pogačar said. “He flew past me like a rocket. I was not expecting it, because I heard on the radio that I was leading by 40 seconds to the chasers. There was no mention of Enric, so when he passed me, I was a little bit shocked.”
The reason for his, and our, confusion was the false information provided by the race radio, according to UAE team boss Joxean Fernández Matxin. “What happened was we were told over race radio [on the Bartolo climb] that Tadej was alone and that the Roglič group [the closest chase group] was at 53 seconds,” he said. “We gave him that information and then suddenly we saw that Enric Mas was there with him. We didn’t know that Enric was so close.”
Mas then led Pogačar on the descent and even warned him, with hand signals, when they approached a tricky corner. But the world champion ignored the warning and, in his haste to pass and gap Mas, overcooked the corner and rode off the course, just managing to keep from crashing.
“He hadn’t done the recon of the descent because what he did between the Tour and the Vuelta was rest and train,” Matxin explained. “He’d seen videos, but, obviously, that’s not always the same. We’d been down the descent, but not with the new tarmac and that changed things, too. So when he went off the road, we had a big shock.”
All’s well that ends well. Pogačar and Mas worked efficiently together and were able to increase their lead on the flat run to the finish from 15 seconds to 46 seconds at the line, where the Slovenian outsprinted his Spanish fellow traveller for his third victory in six stages.
In the end, Pogačar was grateful to have Mas along for the ride. “I was sure he knew the downhill, and I was just happy to be with him in the last 10 km into the headwind, because I had no water,” he said. “It was nice to have a companion next to me. I knew I could beat him in the sprint, but I appreciated that he committed fully, and I committed fully too. Chapeau to him, and it was a great race.”
He now leads the race by 3:34 over the resurgent Mas, who last won a stage of the Vuelta in 2018. His gap over the third-place Roglič is 4:21. The stage was a disappointment for Sepp Kuss (Visma–Lease a Bike) and Oscar Onley (Netcompany INEOS), who lost 1:38 to the winner and almost 1 minute to their fellow also-rans and now sit more than 3 minutes off the podium.
Takeaways after the stage: Pogačar wants to hold the red jersey for the rest of the race, win as many stages as possible and win the race by the biggest possible winning margin.
2026 Vuelta a España, Stage 6: Acossebre to Castelló (177.4 km)
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates–XRG | 4:12:40 |
| 2 | Enric Mas | Movistar | same time |
| 3 | Ramses Debruyne | Alpecin–Premier Tech | +0:46 |
| 4 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education–EasyPost | +0:46 |
| 5 | Harold Tejada | XDS Astana | +0:46 |
| 6 | Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM | +0:46 |
| 7 | Primož Roglič | Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe | +0:46 |
| 8 | Cristián Rodríguez | XDS Astana | +1:38 |
| 9 | Clément Berthet | Groupama–FDJ United | +1:38 |
| 10 | Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl-Trek | +1:38 |
2026 Vuelta a España, General Classification After Stage 6
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates–XRG | 15:38:27 |
| 2 | Enric Mas | Movistar | +3:34 |
| 3 | Primož Roglič | Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe | +4:21 |
| 4 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education–EasyPost | +4:50 |
| 5 | Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM | +4:55 |
| 6 | Sepp Kuss | Visma–Lease a Bike | +5:36 |
| 7 | Oscar Onley | Netcompany INEOS | +5:37 |
| 8 | Ramses Debruyne | Alpecin–Premier Tech | +5:40 |
| 9 | Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl-Trek | +5:58 |
| 10 | Harold Tejada | XDS Astana | +6:30 |