With six racing days left, he leads Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) by 2:06, with Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) now down in third, at 2:10. There is a 32.1 km time trial still to go (stage 18) as well as the two hardest mountain stages on Friday and Saturday, so nothing is guaranteed. But he and his team are riding with such confidence and intelligence that it might seem unfair if they failed. This race is now his to lose.
Van Aert – at last
With its three categorised climbs, 3,400 metres of altitude gain and long descent to the finish, stage 13 – 192.8 km from Almuñécar to Loja – was always going to be one for a strong breakaway. A lot of the riders thought so too, because eventually there were 43 of them riding together at the front of the race, with the peloton, controlled by Movistar, keeping it on a loose leash.
Among the 43 were three strong Visma–Lease a Bike riders – Bruno Armirail, triple stage winner Matthew Brennan and stage favourite Wout van Aert – all of whom controlled its narrative and its pace until van Aert attacked 3.7 km from the finish, with only Valentin Paret-Peintre, a strong climber but not known as a sprinter, on his wheel.
By that time the front group had been whittled down to nine riders, thanks to hard pacing by first Armirail, then Brennan and van Aert. In the finale, the multiple attacks started with Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM) 7.5 km from the line, but they were all brought back by Brennan or van Aert. When van Aert launched his winning attack, only Paret-Peintre had the legs to ride with him. But the Frenchman weighs in at about 52 kg, not enough to match the power of 80 kg van Aert on the uphill finish.
But he gave it a shot, attacking with about 300 metres left to ride. But as the plucky loser put it afterwards, “Hey, it is Wout van Aert, after all. You don’t just beat him in a sprint. But anyway, you have to keep believing in it, grit your teeth, and go all out. And well, then he took off like a rocket, so I have no regrets.”
“We’d targeted this stage, we knew it was favourable for us,” van Aert said. “It was great to have Matthew in that front group on the climb early on; I could ease back a little, and that was a good situation going into the final. Then after I’d bridged across, Matthew and I made sure we could win from every situation that developed after that. There were a lot of attacks, but we controlled them all. As long as one of us was there, we always had the advantage of having the fastest sprint.”
He also praised Paret-Peintre, who contributed to the winning attack. “With Valentin, I had a nice companion,” van Aert said. “He gave me a few turns, and it was nice to battle to the line together.”
The victory marked Visma-Lease a Bike’s fourth at this Vuelta. The team has certainly benefited from Tadej Pogačar’s absence and the resulting freedom in the peloton to attack, as well as the lack of punch by his teammates, some of whom were ill and have dropped out. By contrast, Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates–XRG has had a tough race since he left it. With Pavel Sivakov abandoning during stage 13, that left only four UAE riders in the race, and one of them, Kevin Vermaerke, is riding with a cracked rib.
Decathlon’s Gregor Mühlberger and Jordan Labrosse, who were Felix Gall’s most effective domestiques, also dropped out of the race. With young Matthew Riccitello so far firing blanks, that puts a lot of pressure on Collum Scotson to step into the breach.
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Another day, another monster breakaway
It took 45 minutes for the massive, 45-rider breakaway to form on Saturday’s stage 14, with Movistar and Mas again letting a gap slowly grow to 4 minutes with 83 km left to ride on the 154.5 km course from Jaén to Sierra de la Pandera. It was very hot, with temperatures reaching 38°C (100°F) as yet another heat wave struck the Iberian Peninsula.
Surprisingly, many of those 45 riders were still in the breakaway when it reached the final climb, to a summit finish on the Sierra de la Pandera (11.8 km @ 7.5%, with several 15% ramps near the top). But they were not the front of the race. That was Vermaerke on his own, cracked rib and all, who had embarked on a solo escape from the breakaway at the end of the descent from the day’s first climb, the Puertoviejo, 50 km from the finish.
“To be honest, that was not the plan at all,” he told TNT Sports after finishing 19th. “But I made it into the break, let’s say fairly, easily. It was a pretty big move, and once in there I pretty much sat at back and took it super easy.
“Then they told us over the team radio there was a technical descent coming up. I knew I’m pretty strong on the descent, so I went on the front. I didn’t take any risks; I just didn’t want to go on a crash and for us to lose another guy. So I went at my pace and had a bit of a gap at the bottom. It was a bit of an impulse that I kept it going.”
He kept it going over the next climb, the category 2 Puerto de Locubin (8.8 km @ 5.1%), constantly increasing his lead over the big chase group until it reached nearly 2 minutes, with the peloton 7:20 behind. But everything exploded on that final climb as first Georg Steinhauser (EF Education–EasyPost) and then Guillaume Martin (Groupama–FDJ United) passed him.
There were small chase groups all over that mountain, with the peloton also closing the gap. Eventually, there were four riders in front with 1km left to ride: Iván Ramiro Sosa (Kern Pharma), Cristián Rodríguez (XDS Astana), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) and Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling).
Buitrago took off under the Flamme Rouge and looked to be riding away with the win. But, after taking a few moments to try to zip up his jersey, Brenner set out in hot pursuit. He soon caught the Colombian, and the two rode together until, 300 metres from the line, the former German champion unleashed his sprint and easily won, registering his and his second-division team’s first-ever Grand Tour stage victory.
“I can’t really believe it,” Brenner said. “I wasn’t feeling super until now; I wasn’t feeling like myself. I was travelling with some sickness early in the race and had a crash. But I really wanted to show myself,but also my teammates, who have been working really hard for me the whole time so I can be up there. Also today, I had two guys with me in the breakaway [Larry Warbasse, Will Barta] who did a super job.”
Asked to describe his winning move, this year’s Tour of Poland winner said, “On the final climb, I could actually feel that I had the kick today. I was feeling better and better throughout the day. In the end I started believing in it. I made the move. Santiago passed me, but I could catch up, and in the end I beat him in the sprint.”
In the GC battle, Mas again neutralised attacks by Gall and Roglič, but the four-time Vuelta champion faded on the final climb and lost second place in the GC to Gall.
Van Aert again
Due to forecast temperatures of 41°C (106°F), Sunday’s stage 15 was shortened from 189.7 km to 110.2 km, but that didn’t keep it from providing lots of drama and didn’t prevent van Aert from winning his second race in three days.
Though there were only two category 3 hills to climb, the route was so lumpy, the pace was so fast, and it was so hot that it must have felt like a mountain stage. This time the breakaway consisted of only 11 riders. Of them, only Andreas Leknussend – who had already won a stage for Uno-X Mobility in this race – managed to still be at the front with Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) and Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin–Premier Tech) when van Aert joined the lead group with Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) immediately after racing through the intermediate sprint.
These five worked well together for the remaining 31.5 km of the stage to keep a 10-rider chase group at arm’s length. Van Aert chased down a few attacks by Nys and Leknussend, so that the five were still together 300 metres from the line when Nys, hoping to catch van Aert off-guard, attacked, but the green jersey leader is only not alert when he’s sleeping. Van Aert again won the sprint easily, with Romele finishing second and Nys third, as Visma registered its fifth win of the race. With van Aert having a lock on the green jersey, the team is having a very successful Vuelta.
“I smelled the moment [to attack] there at the intermediate sprint and with Matthew [Brennan] behind, there was no risk at all to give it a try, because we always had a good option in the bunch. That was how I like to race,” van Aert said afterwards. “It’s amazing! Most of the days we thought we were able to win, we won actually, so that’s pretty impressive. On a stage like today, how we took control as a team is something to be really proud of, and I have to be very grateful for the work of the boys again.”
Results 2026 Vuelta a España Stage 15: Palma del Río to Córdoba (110.2 km)
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jakob Omrzel | Bahrain Victorious | 4:29:53 |
| 2 | Urko Berrade | Kern Pharma | +1:56 |
| 3 | Santiago Buitrago | Bahrain Victorious | +2:13 |
| 4 | Alexey Lutsenko | NSN Cycling | +2:49 |
| 5 | Mauri Vansevenant | Soudal Quick-Step | +2:53 |
| 6 | Enric Mas | Movistar | +2:56 |
| 7 | Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM | +3:23 |
| 8 | Primož Roglič | Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe | +3:23 |
| 9 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education–EasyPost | +3:23 |
| 10 | Gregor Mühlberger | Decathlon CMA CGM | +3:50 |
2026 Vuelta a España General Classification After Stage 15
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enric Mas | Movistar | 40:31:51 |
| 2 | Primož Roglič | Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe | +1:45 |
| 3 | Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM | +2:06 |
| 4 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education–EasyPost | +3:53 |
| 5 | Oscar Onley | Netcompany INEOS | +4:29 |
| 6 | Jakob Omrzel | Bahrain Victorious | +4:59 |
| 7 | Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl-Trek | +7:42 |
| 8 | Sepp Kuss | Visma–Lease a Bike | +7:58 |
| 9 | Gregor Mühlberger | Decathlon CMA CGM | +8:27 |
| 10 | Harold Tejada | XDS-Astana | +8:33 |