Major changes of crunch 2026 Vuelta a España mountain stage set to test Tadej Pogačar and other top GC contenders

The toughest stage of the 2026 Vuelta a España, and very possibly the last obstacle between Tadej Pogačar and a historic first victory for the Slovenian in Spain’s Grand Tour, has been radically altered by a series of landslides in southern Andalusia.

While stage 20’s summit finish on the Hors Categorie ascent of the Collado del Alguacil – a climb never used before in the Vuelta – remains in place, it’s what comes before on that same stage through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains that now looks radically different.

Rather than Hazallanas – the climb where Chris Horner laid a key foundation to his 2013 overall victory and also used in the 2022 and 2024 Vueltas, the latter sparking a solo win for Adam Yates – in 2026, stage 20 will now tackle the nearby Cat. 1 Puerto de El Duque as the day’s second-to-last ascent prior to the Collado del Alguacil.

Never tackled before in the Vuelta, El Duque rises out of the same deep, rocky River Genil valley as Hazallanas. Its final two kilometres are identical to those of the better-known climb, reaching the main road up to Sierra Nevada ski station at its summit at 1,670 metres above sea level.

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Despite the similar heat-blasted, rocky terrain, El Duque is marginally less steep and shorter than Hazallanas, too, with an average gradient of 8.2% over roughly 4.8 kilometres, compared to Hazallanas’ 9.8% over 5.5 kilometres. El Duque also lacks Hazallanas’ legendarily tough series of 18% and 19% lower slopes, which begin from the moment the riders reach the bottom of a previous very technical descent from the nearby village of Güejar Sierra.

Perhaps to compensate for this slight drop in toughness, the stage will now tackle the notoriously difficult Cat. 1 ascent, the Alto de El Purche twice, before heading onto the grand finale of the Puerto de El Duque and then the showdown on Collado del Alguacil.

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The total number of kilometres for the stage is almost identical to the original route, dropping from 187 kilometres long to 186.8km. The total of vertical climbing metres remains at around the 5,000 mark too, compared to 5,120 in the initially planned stage.

No matter what happens on the Vuelta’s toughest climbing day, 24 hours later, the very last stage of the 2026 route on Sunday, September 13, a 99-kilometre route centred on the city of Granada remains unchanged

Beginning with a Carrefour supermarket start – just like in 2024 in Jerez de la Frontera – and stage 21 ends with laps of a local circuit that include a short, sharp ascent past the Alhambra monument in the city centre. The finish of the final Grand Tour of 2026 is situated after a technical drop down to a broad boulevard and park, often used for finishes in the Vuelta and other races, next to Granada’s River Genil.

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