Tadej Pogačar launched a race-defining attack on the Collada de Beixalis with 50 kilometres remaining to win stage 4 of the 2026 Vuelta a España and extend his general classification lead to 3 minutes and 21 seconds.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader made his move on the steepest sections of the first-category Beixalis climb, initially drawing only Felix Gall into his wake. The Austrian could hold the red jersey's wheel for barely a minute before Pogačar rode clear alone, cresting the summit roughly 1:40 ahead of the nearest chasers.
From there the Slovenian simply kept pedalling. Over the Coll d'Ordino his advantage ballooned to three minutes, and with only two descents and the short Alto de La Comella remaining on the 104.8-kilometre Andorran circuit, the stage victory was all but sealed. Pogačar crossed the line with his arms raised, completing a demolition job on what was supposed to be the first real test of this year's Vuelta.
Behind him, Wout van Aert led the fragmented chase home to finish second at 3:21, unable to contain the world champion's relentless power on the high-altitude roads. The gap between Pogačar and the rest of the general classification field has turned what many expected to be a competitive three-week race into a procession — and the Vuelta is only four stages old.
Pogačar now simultaneously wears the red jersey for the overall lead, the green jersey for the points classification and the polka-dot jersey for the mountains classification. It is a rare treble that underlines his total dominance of every facet of racing at this year's Spanish Grand Tour.
"I felt strong today and the team gave me a perfect platform," Pogačar said after the stage. "We knew the Beixalis would be the key moment and I just went for it. To take all three jerseys is something special, but there are still 17 stages to go."
The result is a severe blow to the ambitions of van Aert and the other pre-race favourites, who will now need to find significant time on Pogačar in the remaining mountain stages if they are to mount any serious challenge. With the individual time trial and the high sierra stages still to come, the task looks almost insurmountable.
The Vuelta continues with stage 5 on Tuesday.
Sources
- Cyclingnews — Pogačar twists the knife with 50km solo raid in Andorra: https://www.cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/racing/vuelta-a-espana-tadej-pogacar-twists-the-knife-with-solo-raid-in-andorra-to-win-stage-4/
- CyclingUpToDate — Results Vuelta stage 4 Pogačar: https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/results-vuelta-a-espana-2026-stage-4-race-over-tadej-pogacar-all-but-wins-la-vuelta-already-and-puts-minutes-into-rivals-with-devastating-50km-andorra-raid
