La Vuelta a España is around the corner, promising three weeks of spectacle, brutal climbs, and daily opportunities. But why just watch when you can join the battle yourself? With the FREE Vuelta a España Manager from CyclingUpToDate.com, you build your own roster and try to beat friends, family, and fellow cycling fans.
La Vuelta starts on Saturday, 22.08. in Monaco and finishes three weeks later, on Sunday, 13.09., in Granada. With Tadej Pogacar, Felix Gall, Oscar Onley, Richard Carapaz, Mattias Skjelmose, Wout van Aert, and Mads Pedersen on the start list, the field is exceptionally strong.
Do you think Pogacar is worth his sky-high price? Or would you rather spread that budget over several outsiders? That is exactly the trade-off you face in our Vuelta game.
How does the Vuelta a España Game work?
Every participant gets a budget of 380 million euros. With that, you must assemble a roster of 25 riders. It sounds generous, but with an average of just 15.2 million per rider, you will quickly find you cannot pick all the big names.
Pogacar is, at 60 million, by far the most expensive rider in the game. Felix Gall costs 37.3 million, Oscar Onley 30.5 million, and Enric Mas 29.1 million. If you select several GC leaders of that calibre, you will need to find bargains elsewhere.
Crucially, you do not automatically score with all 25 riders each day. For every stage you field a team of eight riders. Only those eight can earn points that day. You can adjust your lineup until the stage start.
You also order your substitutes. If a rider drops out before the start of a stage, he is replaced by the next reserve still in the race.
That daily puzzle makes the game especially compelling. On a flat day you load up on sprinters, while in a tough mountain stage your climbers and GC riders come to the fore. For a time trial you make a completely different call.
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How you score points
In every stage, the first 25 riders score points. The winner gets 50 points, second place 40, and third 35. After that, the tally drops gradually. Even 20th place is worth six points, and 25th earns one point.
Consistency can pay off handsomely. A rider does not need to win stages to be a strong points earner over three weeks. Someone who regularly finishes in the top 15 or 20 can rack up a solid haul.
There is also a hefty bonus at the end of La Vuelta for the general classification. The overall winner earns 100 points, followed by 80 for second and 70 for third. The full top 25 scores. There is one key difference from stages: for the final GC, all 25 riders in your roster count, regardless of your daily lineups. Building a balanced squad is therefore essential.
Five riders to consider for your Vuelta team
1. Tadej Pogacar – 60 million
The obvious choice is also the toughest. Pogacar is by some distance the most expensive rider and swallows nearly sixteen percent of your total budget.
In return, on paper he offers the most scoring potential. The Slovenian starts as the clear favourite for the overall win and, in this particularly hard Vuelta a Espana, will find plenty of chances to place highly in individual stages.
With summit finishes on Aitana, Calar Alto, La Pandera, and finally the Collado del Alguacil, the route is tailor-made for GC riders. If you pick Pogacar, you pay top dollar, but you get a rider you can field on many days.
Pogacar also won the Tour de France earlier this year.
2. Mads Pedersen – 28.8 million
If you do not want to spend everything on GC riders, it is hard to look past Mads Pedersen. The Dane is expensive, but his versatility makes him appealing.
Pedersen can score in bunch sprints, yet he does not disappear as soon as the terrain gets tougher. Precisely because you can field only eight riders per day, those who can perform across different profiles are especially valuable.
At 28.8 million he is a serious investment, but potentially one you can deploy frequently over three weeks.
3. Primoz Roglic – 14.8 million
Here the real gamble begins. For just 14.8 million you get Roglic, a four-time Vuelta winner, but his preparation has been far from ideal. The Slovenian was hit by a car during training earlier this summer and does not appear to start La Vuelta with clear GC ambitions.
That’s exactly why his price is intriguing. If Roglic grows into the race and starts targeting stages, 14.8 million could suddenly look like a bargain. But this is clearly a risky call.
Roglic has already won the Vuelta a Espana four times in his career, in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2024.
4. Jay Vine – 10.5 million
At 10.5 million, Jay Vine is an appealing pick to keep in reserve for the mountain stages. Within UAE he does not need to ride for GC and will have to do plenty of work for Pogacar, but his pure climbing makes him interesting.
The Vuelta route features a hefty 58,156 metres of elevation gain, making it one of the toughest editions in recent years. For just over ten million, Vine can be a smart addition to a squad where the big money is spent elsewhere.
5. Georg Steinhauser – 3.1 million
Every fantasy team needs budget riders to balance the books. Georg Steinhauser costs just 3.1 million and barely dents the budget.
Don’t expect a rider at that price to score every day. But in a Grand Tour, attackers and climbers can spring a big result from the break. With points down to 25th each day, a cheap rider doesn’t even need to win to repay his modest fee.
Steinhauser is the type who frees up funds to bring in Pogacar, Pedersen, or another expensive leader elsewhere.
The right balance can make the difference
The trick is not simply to select the 25 best riders, but to find 25 who fit within 380 million and still give you enough options for every stage.
If you spend everything on climbers, you may struggle on the flat days. Conversely, six sprinters are of little use when the road points uphill for days. The 2026 Vuelta is especially demanding, with a short opening time trial in Monaco, multiple summit finishes, gravel, and later a 32-kilometre individual time trial.
And don’t forget to pick your eight starters every day. A potential stage winner left on the bench scores exactly zero points.
So build your squad here, challenge friends and family, and prove over the next three weeks that you’re the best directeur sportif in the free Vuelta a España Game from CyclingUpToDate.com!
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Me too!!!!!Occam10-11-2026
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- the time for a GC rider to retire is when they cannot win stages, or have a significant level drop like from winner/podium into top 5/10 consistently. Roglic is still competitive and Froome raced even though he became pack fodder.abstractengineer10-11-2026
- He should be in a different team. It was detrimental. For them it does not matter if he does not develop. He should have gone to a team where they need him to succeed.abstractengineer10-11-2026
- Technically it is "strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching into the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others". But: 1. Marie did not endangered anyone. 2. Above rule 2.3.036 is a Road Cycling rule not CX. 3. In Cyclocross we have only not well defined "irregular sprint" without description what would that mean. But even if you use 2.3.036 for CX it is still wrongly applied rule.averagecyclist10-11-2026
- Technically, leedorney is correct. There was a deviation. It was just a very questionable call to disqualify Marie from the victory, especially since she most likely would have won regardless of it..
santiagobenites10-11-2026 - You're WRONG!!! ... Capish?PogiSloFans10-11-2026
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- No org will admit fault until the evidence in overwhelming and not even then. They have protected abusers and criminals.abstractengineer10-11-2026
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