Tadej Pogačar claimed victory in the opening stage of the 2026 Vuelta a España on Saturday, August 22, winning a dramatic individual time trial through the streets of his adopted home city and taking the race’s first red jersey in the process.
The Slovenian, riding for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, completed the 9.4-kilometre course in 10 minutes and 57 seconds, edging out Britain’s Ethan Hayter of Soudal Quick-Step by just nine hundredths of a second, the smallest possible margin of victory. Josh Tarling of Netcompany INEOS rounded out the podium in third, finishing four seconds back, with fellow Briton Callum Thornley completing a strong showing for the nation in fifth. Four-time Vuelta champion Primož Roglič, one of Pogačar’s chief rivals for the overall title, finished 24th, 22 seconds down, an immediate early setback in his bid for a fifth title.
The course wound through some of Monaco’s most recognisable landmarks, taking in stretches of the circuit famous for hosting the Formula One Grand Prix, before finishing on Boulevard Albert 1er. With 25 corners packed into just 9.4 kilometres, riders faced a technical test that rewarded bike-handling and confidence as much as raw power, both Pogačar and Hayter averaged 51.5 km/h across the course, a testament to how tightly matched the two were throughout.
The win marked Pogačar’s 36th career Grand Tour stage victory and his fourth specifically at the Vuelta, a race he is competing in for the first time since 2019, as he continues his pursuit of completing the full set of Grand Tour titles, having already won the Tour de France on five occasions and the Giro d’Italia in 2024.
Monaco’s turn hosting the Grand Départ marks the seventh time in the Vuelta’s 81 editions that the race has begun outside Spain, and the fourth time in the past five years alone, following previous starts in Lisbon, Assen, Nîmes, Utrecht and Piemonte. The Principality’s selection also made history in its own right, becoming the first city ever to have hosted the opening stage of all three men’s Grand Tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and now the Vuelta a España.
The 2026 Vuelta continues over the following three weeks, running from Monaco through to a finish in Granada on September 13, with the second stage taking riders from Monaco to Manosque.