Results Vuelta a Andalucia 2026 | Christophe Laporte takes victory for Visma on opening day sprint

Stage 1 of the Vuelta a Andalucia was a chaotic day, with several climbs destroying the peloton early on in the day; whilst later on a second peloton joined the head of the race. Christophe Laporte won the reduced bunch sprint amongst those who managed to go through the day's climbs within the front groups.

The 150-kilometer long stage from Benahavís to Pizarra started off with a 20-kilometer long climb right away, one of the longest in the early-season and although the gradients were not very high, the climb was long enough to create damage. No team tried doing so, but after a breakaway went up the road, Victor Campenaerts of Team Visma | Lease a Bike attacked and formed the new head of the race.

However, by himself, the Belgian didn't push on, and waited for more riders to come back to him. However later on, a group of around 20 riders was formed, combining riders from a separate breakaway that formed later, and a group of riders that split from the peloton. Visma was heavily represented with five of their riders in front; whilst Red Bull had three and UAE had both Tim Wellens and Jan Christen. Tom Pidcock and Iván Romeo were also present, meaning most of the GC favourites did not miss out on the attack.

However without good collaboration, this group was caught by a reduced peloton with 48 kilometers to go. A group with Campenaerts, Christen and Axel Zingle amongst other riders went up the road almost at the same time however, but even this one didn't see ideal collaboration and saw the gap to the peloton closed after around 10 kilometers. Hence, the peloton of around 60 riders began moving towards a finish for a sprint that would see those who resisted the climbs fight for the win.

What followed was a chaotic sprint with no true leadouts. Christophe Laporte was the strongest in the final sprint, timing his sprint to perfection in the uphill drag to the line.