Matthew Brennan arrived at his first Grand Tour wondering how his 21-year-old body would respond to three weeks of racing. He reaches the final day of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana with five stage victories and a place in the record books. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike youngster has become the youngest r...

The 2026 Vuelta a Espana will end beneath a cloud of controversy after the riders and CPA successfully pushed for the final 9.8 kilometres of Stage 21 to be neutralised for the general classification. The stage victory and points classification will remain live until the finish, but GC times will be...

Mathias Norsgaard reaches the final day of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana with one overwhelming feeling: relief. The 29-year-old Lidl-Trek rider sits 142nd and last in the general classification, 6:11:51 behind Enric Mas, after three weeks spent battling heat, repeated climbing and terrain that rarely pla...

Enric Mas has won his first grand tour at the 16th attempt with victory in the Vuelta a Espaa.The Spaniard may have inherited the red jersey when Tadej Pogaar crashed out on stage eight, but he showed himself worthy of it across the following fortnight and rightfully ascended to the top step of the podium in Granada.When the Slovenian broke his collar bone on an innocuous piece of straight road en route to Xeraco, Mas was already 3.50 in arrears. But over the course of the next two weeks he put over a minute into Primo Rogli (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) to show there was also a gap in quality behind him. Throughout those weeks the Spaniard has been keen to point out that he is in the form of his life.This has been a long time coming for Mas. He rode his first grand at the Vuelta in 2017 for Quick-Step. He won a stage the following year with a gutsy attack on the races penultimate stage. It was a ride that also vaulted him into second place overall, just behind GC winner Simon Yates.That performance at 23 made him one of a still growing list of riders to be saddled with expectations of filling the hole left in Spanish cycling by Alberto Contadors retirement the year before.It was an expectation Mas never quite able to fulfil. Over the next decade he became consistent top ten performer at the Tour de France and made it back onto the Vuelta podium in 2021, 2022 and 2024 but always seemed to be missing the extra power to challenge the dominant riders of his generation. He could keep pace with them most of the time he even beat Pogaar at the one-day Giro dell'Emilia in 2022 - but couldnt quite challenge them on the toughest days in stage races. Its notable that the Mallorca native hadnt pulled on a grand tour leaders jersey until this race.To their credit Movistar, whove backed him for the majority of his career, have been happy to go into many races with him as their leader and todays victory will surely be a sweet reward for that patience.This win is Mas finally delivering on the promise he showed early in his career. But that promise was never that hed be in Contadors class, dominating GC classifications across multiple years. He said as much. Speaking to Dan Benson at Cycling News in 2018 Mas said saw the compliment in the comparison but said: I want to be the first Enric Mas, not the next Alberto Contador."The promise of young Mas was of a strong GC contender, much of the rest was out of his hands who youre riding against does matter, as Raymond Poulidor would atest. On that promise he delivered. And these last two weeks hes shown a strength and maturity that all that experience gives.Contador himself pointed it out earlier this week telling Spanish outlet AS: This time a Grand Tour lead became 'vacant', and Enric seized that opportunity."That's not a gift; it's thanks to his hard work and his form. He was the strongest."During his time in red Mas has cut a figure who knows these opportunities and these legs are rare. And that its rarer still they coincide. Asked after the races queen stage what his impending victory meant for his future he said: Let me enjoy the Vuelta, please.At 31 its hard to imagine this win will vault Mas far up the GC pecking order. Further grand tour wins are far from guaranteed. But should he finish with just this one, knowing the number of hard years, and near misses it took to get here, Mas himself might well be satisfied with that.

The first red jersey of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana will be decided immediately in Monaco, where a 9.4-kilometer individual time trial opens a race featuring more than 58,000 meters of climbing, repeated summit finishes, and a second race against the clock later in the final week. This live classificat...

Tobias Johannessen won a dramatic and attacking final stage of the Vuelta a Espaa in Granada as Enric mas was crowned Vuelta Champion.The Norwegian was among a group that went clear on the final climb of the race and he marked attacks within the final few kilometres of the race to be in a position to contest the sprint.In the end it was a two-up affair and the Uno-X Mobility rider bested Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana).Johannessen, who was narrowly beaten into second atop Collado del Alguacil yesterday, was overjoyed at the finish. He told TNT: In the last lap I heard I was in the front group and I tried to not pull in case [Magnus] Cort came back but I saw we had a gap and I was so focused on trying to get that win because it was over three years since the last time.We had talked about how we wanted to do it with Cort, which was to deliver him into the last corner in first and I remembered that from the meeting. I told myself that Im not going to do anything before trying to be first in the last corner and just go full gas from there. I just cant believe that I can do it today, it feels so good.The Norwegians win capped a very successful first appearance for Uno-X Mobility at the Vuelta. The team has won two stages through Johannessen today and Andreas Leknessund on stage seven and been an animating force throughout the race. Johannessen said: I feel that weve been such a strong team. We had some ups and downs but weve solved every day as best as we could.The win up Aramn Valdelinares was really special and of course yesterday was a really special day for the team and we really got some confidence from that.Johannessens win came after a chaotic couple of laps of the races finishing circuit, which was a stark contrast to the days opening kilometres. Before the stage even started Mass GC victory was given a boost by the decision to neutralise the GC at the start of the final lap of the days finishing circuit.Dry weather had resulted in the tight city streets being slippery and the riders union the CPA agreed with the organisers that the GC times would be taken 10km from the finish.Given the celebrations, the general ceremonial nature of the day and perhaps also the stage neutralisation, well over half the stage had passed, mostly with Movistar in special red kit on the front, before there was anything approaching racing.There was 30km to go as the peloton crossed the finish-line for the second time, the fifth being the end of the stage, and the race opened up as Groupama FDJ United came to the front to set the pace. They had appeared to be working for their sprinter Bastien Tronchon and as the race went up the steep city centre climb he instigated a split with eight riders joining him off the front of the peloton.Alongside Tronchon was the winner of five stages at this years Vuelta, Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) as they built a gap of 11 seconds. Understandably, the Brit was the rider everyone in the group was keen to get rid of.However, that became a moot point when the break was caught the penultimate time up the climb. By now the GC contenders had all intentionally dropped themselves and they would play no part in the finale.Despite several efforts no one could break clear and they entered the final climb all together. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), who is set to retire at the end of the season, was the first to mount an attack and got himself a gap. Soon it began to yawn out but Laurens de Plus (Netcompany Ineos) bridged across and went over the top of Bilbao to go it alone. But as the raced descended back towards the finish a select group of 11 riders, including Brennan and Bilbao, formed at the head of the race.At the bottom of the decent there was only 4km to go and one rider after another attacked. With 2km to it was a group of four riders that went free made of Axel Laurance (Netcompany Ineos), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Johannessen and Romele. Behind everyone looked at Brennan to close the gap but he couldnt.Laurance and Debruyne were dropped in the final few hundred metres leaving the other two to fight it out for the win. Johannessen led out the sprint and despite Romeles best effort he couldnt quite come around the Norwegian.ResultsVuelta a Espaa 2026, stage 21: Carrefour Granada > Granada (112km)1. Tobias Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility in 2:54:082. Alessandro Romele (Ita) XDS Astan3. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech4. Matthew Brennan (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike5. Bastien Tronchon (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious7. Finn Fisher-Black (NZl) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe8. Axel Laurance (Fra) Netcompany Ineos9. Pau Mart (Esp) NSN Cycling Team10. Marco Brenner (Ger) Tudor Pro Cycling, all at same timeGeneral classification after stage 211. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, in 73:52:552. Primo Rogli (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:153. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +2:444. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +6:545. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +8:456. Oscar Onley (GBr) Netcompany Ineos, +9:287. Jakob Omrzel (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, +10:388. Clment Berthet (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +11:419. Cristin Rodrguez (Spa) XDS Astana, +11:5910. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS Astana, +12:51

On the 13th September, the GP de Montral will be taking place in Canada, providing the last World Tour event before the World Championships, which will be taking place in the same area.Here is when and where to watch the race live and on TV, including in the USA and UK. As always, you can always f...

Crashes, illness and injuries can quickly reduce the Vuelta a Espana peloton, with some riders abandoning during a stage and others only ruled out after further assessment once the racing has finished. This live 2026 Vuelta a Espaa Medical Reports and Withdrawals hub will be updated throughout the...

Enric Mass victory at the Vuelta a Espaa 2026 meant far more than a win for Movistar Team. For Eusebio Unzu, the head of the squad, the success crowns a process in which the Balearic rider has rebuilt his confidence and, in his sporting maturity, proved he could still deliver his best version....

Isaac del Toro has announced himself as Tadej Pogacar's potential heir to the World Championships, winning the GP de Montreal in a dramatic uphill sprint against Paul Seixas. After the Decathlon rider broke free from the front on the final lap, Del Toro bridged across to him and then had enough in a...