What a great way to end the 2026 Vuelta A Espana, with Tobias Halland Johannessen finally getting his Grand Tour stage win. It’s been a wild three weeks.
Tadej Pogačar was leading early on and looked poised to take his first Vuelta, but crashed during Stage 8. It was quite the development and completely changed the dynamic of the race. Suddenly, the Vuelta was wide open.
A finish to remember
The Norwegian survived a frantic finale in Granada on Sunday. He, Alessandro Romele and Ramses Debruyne battled it out in a three-rider sprint to take the Vuelta a España’s final stage. After so many near misses, the Norwegian finally got his Grand Tour win, and the dude absolutely lost it at the finish. Helt vilt!
Stage 21 of La Vuelta A España
The 112-km closing stage was anything but a ceremonial procession. Riders tackled the climb to the Fort of Alhambra four times, with the 2.1-km ascent averaging 7.3 per cent. The peloton had raised concerns about the safety of the finishing circuit before the start, prompting organisers to neutralize the final 10 km for the general classification. There was a bit of a brouhaha leading up to the final stage. Riders wanted all of the finishing circuits to not count for GC, as they thought they were a bit sketchy.
Organizers said ¡Nop!, it’s all good. But the riders union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA) stepped in and they reached a compromise.
But that meant that the stage hunters could go full gas while the GC contenders could sit back and enjoy the view.
The action begins
Groupama-FDJ then said, “hold my bière” and sent Bastien Tronchon up the road, creating a dangerous front group. Several attacks followed before Pello Bilbao made one last bid for glory in his final Vuelta appearance.
Axel Laurance briefly went clear, but the decisive move came later when Ramses Debruyne attacked. Johannessen and Romele followed, leaving the trio to fight for the win.
Romele appeared to have the advantage when Johannessen launched his sprint from distance, but the Norwegian refused to fade.
Behind them, Enric Mas completed the celebrations. The Movistar rider safely wrapped up his first Vuelta title after four previous podium finishes. His team was decked out in some spiffy special red shorts and white jerseys to celebrate the big win.
Wout van Aert takes the green jersey, Santiago Buitrago takes the mountains, and Oscar Onley the white jersey. Decathlon CMA CGM won the best team competition. Hey, there’s still lots of bike racing left, including here in Canada. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal wraps up today, but then the elite women race the Tour de Gatineau. And not that long everyone, every top cyclist in every category comes to Montreal for the road worlds!