Preview Vuelta a Andalucia 2026 stage 5 - Romeo set for GC win but can UAE turn race on its head?

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 5, which is estimated to start and finish at 11:00 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.

The race ends with a hilly stage, however perhaps the only one where you can realistically see big attacks making differences close to the finish. The stage starts off in La Roda de Andalucia, and feature a hilly and treacherous 167-kilometer long stage which ends in Lucena.

What we find is a final circuit, where the riders will climb the Alto de la Primera Cruz on two occasions, 2.8 kilometers at 5.9% which summit with a mere 4.7 kilometers to go. The climb has bonus seconds on both occasions up it (the first coming with 26.7Km to go) and these can be key. The final time around there can be differences made, the climb is not overly hard but should be raced at a very high pace. Because the finale is fully downhill back into town, any gap over the summit can not only be key to the stage's result, but the entire overall classification.

*** Tom Pidcock, Tim Wellens
** Jan Christen, Romain Grégoire, Alex Aranburu
* Christophe Laporte, Aleksandr Vlasov, Ion Izagirre, Andreas Leknessund, Iván Romeo, Bastien Tronchon, Fred Wright, Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda

Pick: Jan Christen

How: Tactical attack in the finale as UAE will have the numbers.