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The final Grand Tour of the year is on the horizon as the peloton gathers in Monaco for the start of the Vuelta a Espana<\/a>. <\/p>\n Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> will not take to the start line after winning the Giro d\u2019Italia this spring before crashing and breaking his collarbone at the Tour de France<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n But his great rival Tadej Pogacar<\/a> – seemingly not content with the Dane completing the trio of grand tour victories before him – is the headline name as he returns to the Vuelta for the first time in seven years<\/a>, after he finished third, winning three stages and the best young rider\u2019s classification, in 2019. <\/p>\n The two-time world champion is, as always, the overwhelming favourite, even after his exploits winning a record-equalling fifth Tour de France this summer, while his UAE Team Emirates-XRG outfit have enough quality to complete a podium sweep, with Joao Almeida and Jay Vine in tow as super-domestiques. <\/p>\n Away from the general classification battle British starlet Matthew Brennan has been selected for his first grand tour, while the evenly-matched Wout van Aert<\/a> and Mads Pedersen<\/a> are likely to do battle for the points jersey. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s everything you need to know to watch the race.<\/p>\n When is the Vuelta a Espana 2026?<\/p>\n The Vuelta a Espana runs for 21 stages plus two rest days from 22 August to 13 September 2026, beginning in Monaco and finishing in Granada. <\/p>\n How can I watch it?<\/p>\n Viewers in the UK can watch the Vuelta a Espana on TNT Sports and streaming service HBO Max. Free-to-air highlights will be available on DMAX. <\/p>\n Vuelta a Espana 2026 route<\/p>\n Stage 1 (August 22): Monaco to Monaco: Time trial (9.4km)Stage 2 (August 23): Monaco to Manosque (France): Hilly stage (214.3km)Stage 3 (August 24): Gruissan to Font-Romeu: Medium mountain stage (174km)Stage 4 (August 25): Andorra la Vella to Andorra la Vella: Mountain stage (104.8km)Stage 5 (August 26): Falset to Roquetes: Hilly stage (173.4km)Stage 6 (August 27): Alcossebre to Castell\u00f3: Medium mountain stage (177.4km)Stage 7 (August 28): Vall d’Alba to Aram\u00f3n Valdelinares: Mountain stage (149.8km)Stage 8 (August 29): Pu\u00e7ol to Xeraco: Flat stage (171km)Stage 9 (August 30): La Vila Joiosa to Alto de Aitana: Mountain stage (187.4km)Rest Day (August 31) Stage 10 (September 1): Alcaraz to Elche de la Sierra: Hilly stage (184.7km)Stage 11 (September 2): Cartagena to Lorca: Flat stage (151.3km)Stage 12 (September 3): Vera to Calar Alto: Mountain stage (166.6km)Stage 13 (September 4): Almu\u00f1\u00e9car to Loja: Medium mountain stage (192.8km)Stage 14 (September 5): Ja\u00e9n to Sierra de La Pandera: Mountain stage (154.5km)Stage 15 (September 6): Palma del R\u00edo to C\u00f3rdoba: Medium mountain stage (189.7km)Rest Day (September 7) Stage 16 (September 8): Cortegana to La R\u00e1bida (Palos de la Frontera): Hilly stage (181.1km)Stage 17 (September 9): Dos Hermanas to Sevilla: Flat stage (185km)Stage 18 (September 10): El Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda to Jerez de la Frontera: Time trial (32km)Stage 19 (September 11): V\u00e9lez-M\u00e1laga to Pe\u00f1as Blancas (Estepona): Hilly stage (210km) Stage 20 (September 12): La Calahorra to Collado del Alguacil: Mountain stage (187km)Stage 21 (September 13): Granada to Granada: Flat stage (99.4km)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-744932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}