After three runner-up finishes, Enric Mas has finally won his home Grand Tour. The 31-year-old Movistar leader from Mallorca rode safely through Sunday’s final stage in Granada, September 13, to win the 2026 Vuelta a España, his first three-week title.
Final standings
- 1. Enric Mas (Spain, Movistar)
- 2. Primož Roglič (Slovenia, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) at 2:15
- 3. Felix Gall (Austria, Decathlon) at 2:44
Mas is the first Spaniard to win the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014. Norway’s Tobias Johannessen won the final stage, a short circuit race with repeated climbs around the Alhambra.
The jerseys
- Points (green): Wout van Aert, who was also named the race’s most combative rider.
- Mountains: Santiago Buitrago (Colombia).
- Best young rider: Oscar Onley (Great Britain).
How the race was won
The defining moment came on stage 8. Tadej Pogačar, the world’s dominant rider, was leading the race by 3 minutes 50 seconds when he crashed heavily and had to abandon. Mas inherited the red jersey and then defended it for almost two weeks, extending his lead in the mountains and limiting his losses to Roglič, a four-time Vuelta champion, in the time trial.
Some will say Mas benefited from Pogačar’s misfortune, but the margin over Roglič was built on consistency. Contador, writing in the Spanish sports daily AS, said it was no gift: “He was the strongest.”
What it means
Mas had finished second at the Vuelta three times and was often described as a nearly man. “It was a long wait and a long way to today,” he told reporters at the finish. For Movistar it is one of the team’s biggest results in years, and for Spanish cycling it ends a long wait for a home champion.