VUELTA’26 STAGE 13: Wout van Aert claimed his first victory of this Vuelta a España with a perfectly timed late attack and a commanding two-up sprint against Valentin Paret-Peintre. Matthew Brennan did a mountain of work to set up his Visma | Lease a Bike leader, then still had enough left to win the chase-group sprint for third. Jarno Widar took fourth.
After Thursday’s summit finish at Calar Alto, Stage 13 looked like one of those awkward Vuelta transition stages—too difficult for the pure sprinters, not quite hard enough for the GC men, and just right for a breakaway.
The 192.8-kilometre route from Almuñécar to Loja included three categorized climbs. The biggest came almost immediately: the Alto de la Venta de la Cebada, 14.5 kilometres at 5.3%, beginning after only 15 kilometres.
Next came the Alto del Legionario—15 kilometres at 3.1%—followed later by the Puerto de Granada, 7 kilometres at 5.9%. From the top of that final climb, a little under 40 kilometres remained, including a nasty uphill drag to the finish.
It was a route that offered plenty of possibilities—and the peloton responded by letting almost everyone go up the road.
Forty Riders Hit the Front
A monster breakaway of 40 riders formed on the opening climb and received the peloton’s blessing.
Visma | Lease a Bike was particularly well represented, placing Wout van Aert, Matthew Brennan and Bruno Armirail in the move. Other notable escapees included Jarno Widar, Finn Fisher-Black, Léo Bisiaux, Kevin Vermaerke, Santiago Buitrago, Mattias Skjelmose, Magnus Cort, Andreas Leknessund, Lorenzo Fortunato, Cristian Rodríguez, Gijs Leemreize and Urko Berrade.
With that much talent in the break, this was never going to be a quiet procession to Loja.
Back in the peloton, there was bad news for Felix Gall. His key mountain lieutenant Gregor Mühlberger—ninth overall at the start of the stage—was forced to abandon following a crash.
The Break Splits Apart
On the second climb, Andreas Kron, Cristian Rodríguez and Iñigo Elosegui decided that 40 riders were about 30 too many and increased the pace.
They were later joined by Vermaerke, Brennan, Bisiaux, Clément Berthet, Guillaume Martin, Leknessund, Lars Craps and Vincenzo Albanese.
The resulting ten-rider group began the Puerto de Granada with almost a minute over the chasers and close to five minutes over the peloton.
With 40 kilometres remaining, Vermaerke attacked. Several riders immediately found themselves in trouble, but Brennan followed impressively.
The gap between the two front groups was falling, however, and Van Aert began working to bring everything back together. Just before the summit, the heavily reduced groups merged.
Visma had its numbers back at the front—and that meant trouble for everyone else.
Visma Starts Throwing Punches
Brennan and Van Aert took turns attacking on the descent, making it clear that Visma wanted to break up the group before the finish. Fisher-Black and Vermaerke also tried their luck, but nobody could make an attack stick.
The repeated accelerations still did plenty of damage. The lead group was reduced to nine riders, including the fast-finishing Albanese.
With 10 kilometres remaining, the leaders held a little more than a minute over the first chase group. That was enough to fight for the stage, but not enough to start looking at one another.
Bisiaux attacked with just over 7 kilometres to go. Surprisingly, it was Brennan who closed the gap while Van Aert sat at the back of the group.
Visma’s plan was becoming clear: Brennan would police the attacks, while Van Aert saved his legs for the final move.
Simon Dalby tried twice, but Brennan shut him down both times. The young Brit was doing a huge amount of work—and making it look almost effortless.
Van Aert Makes His Move
With just under 4 kilometres remaining, Van Aert finally went.
The Belgian opened a gap immediately, with only Valentin Paret-Peintre able to follow. Behind them, Brennan stopped chasing and the hesitation began.
That was all Van Aert needed.
The two leaders entered the final uphill kilometre with a comfortable advantage. Paret-Peintre tried to steal the win by launching the sprint first, but the French climber was never going to beat Van Aert in a straight fight.
Van Aert quickly came around him and powered clear to take his first stage victory of the 2026 Vuelta—and the fourth win of the race for Visma | Lease a Bike.
It was a textbook team victory: numbers in the break, pressure on the climbs, attacks on the descent, Brennan controlling the finale and Van Aert delivering the knockout punch.
Brennan Completes the Visma Celebration
Brennan wasn’t finished.
After spending much of the finale closing attacks for Van Aert, the young Visma rider still had enough left to win the sprint from the chase group and take third place. Widar crossed the line fourth.
The peloton arrived exactly three minutes behind the winner, with no meaningful changes among the leading overall contenders.
Skjelmose did gain some time from the break and moved to within a little more than 30 seconds of Jakob Omrzel, but Enric Mas remained safely in the red jersey.
Stage 13 belonged to Van Aert—but this was a team win from start to finish. Brennan supplied the horsepower, Visma supplied the tactics, and Van Aert supplied the result.
La Vuelta a Espana 2026 Stage 13 Video Hilights
PEZ Stage 13 Takeaway
Wout van Aert finished the job, but Matthew Brennan made the victory possible. The 21-year-old shut down attack after attack before Van Aert launched the decisive move—a near-perfect display of Visma’s strength, numbers and tactical control.
La Vuelta a Espana 2026 Stage 13 Results
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