One minute, 28 riders, two savage climbs: The Vuelta Femenina is about to explode

If you haven’t been watching the Vuelta Femenina, now’s the time to start. We’re five stages into the first ‘Grand Tour’ of the 2026 season, and with just two days to go, the race is delicately and intriguingly poised.

As Escape’s Abby Mickey wrote in her preview of the course last week, this year’s Vuelta Femenina has a real sting in the tail with back-to-back uphill finishes to close out the race – both on climbs with average gradients over 10%. And as for the GC battle: that’s in a fascinating spot too. Some 28 riders are within less than a minute of one another, and with the brutal Angliru climb to close out the race on Saturday night – one of the most feared climbs in all of world cycling – it’s almost impossible to pick a winner from here.

Race recap

Before we look to the days ahead, here’s a reminder of what’s happened in the race so far.

Stage 1

After a late crash and a tricky 1 km drag to the line, Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) surged clear in the sprint, holding off Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Paris-Roubaix winner Franzi Koch (FDJ United-Suez) to take the first red leader’s jersey.

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Noemi Rüegg wins opening stage of La Vuelta FemeninaThe EF Education-Oatly rider took the first red jersey of the week-long stage race in Spain.Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey

Stage 2

Race leader Rüegg crashed out with 12 km to go in an aggressive finale, before a reduced bunch sprint. Kopecky’s foot popped out of her pedal after bumping into Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal) in the final sprint, with Bossuyt winning the stage ahead of Koch and Évita Muzic (FDJ United-Suez). Koch moved into the overall lead.

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Bossuyt wins second La Vuelta stage, Koch moves into race leadStage 1 winner and race leader Noemi Rüegg crashed with 12 km to go and was unable to get back on her bike.Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey

Stage 3

After another attack-filled finale that saw race leader Koch distanced, Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) got away with 2 km to go and held on to win the stage. Koch managed to get back to the chase group to hold the overall lead for another day. ‘Winning’ the bunch sprint for second moved Kopecky into second overall, just two seconds down.

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Cédrine Kerbaol wins La Vuelta stage 3Franziska Koch held onto the overall lead ahead of stage 4.Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey

Stage 4

A day-long breakaway was only caught 2.6 km before the line. Kopecky won the bunch sprint that followed (ahead of teammate Anna van der Breggen) moving the Belgian into the overall lead.

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Lotte Kopecky wins La Vuelta stage 4, takes over GC leadThe Belgian was only two seconds behind previous leader Franziska Koch heading into the fourth stage and will start stage 5 in red.Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey

Stage 5

Another breakaway led for most of the day before being wound in with 8.5 km to go. Van der Breggen (one of the pre-race favourites) went down inside the final 3 km (meaning she wouldn’t lose any time) before the peloton geared up for another bunch sprint. For the second day running, SD Worx-Protime went 1-2, this time with Mischa Bredewold turning her leadout for Kopecky into victory, when Kopecky sat up. Kopecky maintained her overall lead.

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SD Worx-Protime go 1-2 at La Vuelta with Bredewold and KopeckyLotte Kopecky kept her red jersey and gained some seconds over Franziska Koch going into stage 6, where the climbers will take over the spotlight.Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey

Two tough days

And so to the final two stages. Here’s what the riders have to contend with as they trade the Classics-like stages of the first five days for the mountains of Asturias.

Stage 6

There’s a bunch of climbing throughout the 106 km stage, but the final climb is particularly nasty. After a steep, technical downhill in the proceeding kilometres, the final ramp is 3.6 km at 12.9% – the sort of gradient that will suit only the very best climbers.

The climb that ends stage 6. Note the flat section in the middle which brings the average gradient down to 12.9%.

Stage 7

The final stage is easily the hardest of the Vuelta. It features nearly 3,300 metres of climbing in 133 km, three early climbs, then finishes with the notoriously difficult Alto de l'Angliru. All up, the climb is more than 12 km long at roughly 10% average, with the final 6.4 km being particularly savage at an average of 13% and peaking at 21.3%. The time gaps might be close at the top of the GC now, but they won’t be on Saturday night.

The profile for the final stage.

Tight at the top

Here’s how the GC looks ahead of the two last two stages, with 28 riders clustered within a minute of one another. Again, a minute is nothing in the context of what lies ahead.

[race_result id=9058 stage_id=90152 count=30 gc=30 year=2026]

So many questions are yet to be answered. The most pertinent: does Kopecky have any chance of holding on to her overall lead, to win her first 'Grand Tour' after a couple of runner-up finishes?

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