Preview Vuelta a Andalucia 2026 stage 4 - Visma, UAE and Pinarello fight for another uphill sprint win

The 2026 Vuelta a Andalucia is going to take place between the 18 and 22nd of February, in the southern region of Spain where the stages are always either hilly or mountainous. This edition is no exception, with a set of stages that is set to make for some chaotic and tactical racing. We preview stage 4, which is estimated to start and finish at 11:10 and 15:10CET.

The Spanish race carries a long history, having had its first edition in 1925, followed by a 30-year hiatus. In 1955 the race began to have consistent editions, mostly dominated by the eras' Spanish headliners. Former Belgian World Champions Jean-Pierre Monseré and Freddy Maertens brought the race more international recognition, but the race has always featured a very prominent list of Spanish winners.

Over the years we've seen riders such as Erik Zabel (1997), Erik Dekker (2001), Óscar Freire (2007), Alejandro Valverde (2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), Chris Froome (2015) and more take victories... In 2023 it was Tadej Pogacar who decided to make the trip to Spain and dominated the race, whilst last year in 2025 it was his teammate Pavel Sivakov who took the overall win.

Stage 4 starts out in Montoro and is the day that is perhaps best suited to the sprinters that make the trip to Spain. As any Andalucia stage, it is not completely flat, but the main obstacle is close to the start of the stage with and the gradients are not going to go above 5% for too long. There is going to be a golden kilometer close to the finish, the only one in the race, on a flat section with 14 kilometers to go which can trigger some moves...

However preventing a bunch sprint here will be hard. The finale is also completely straightforward, but the final kilometer does tilt up once again, making it a sprint that is not pure, where having the legs is gong to be just as important as having the peak power in the final dash to the line.

*** Christophe Laporte, Milan Fretin
** Paul Penhoët, Alex Aranburu, Tom Pidcock
* Tim Wellens, Quentin Hermans, Soren Waerenskjold, Jon Barrenetxea, Tom Crabbe, Romain Grégoire, Bastien Tronchon, Sandy Dujardin

Pick: Christophe Laporte

How: Regular bunch sprint.