SPECIAL | The Vuelta a Espana from the inside: Remco's view, Manzanares' hooligans and Pelayo Sánchez's future
Cycling
The day dawned cloudy in the Sierra, with intermittent showers and heavy traffic on the way to Manzanares El Real, the beautiful Madrid town that hosted the start of the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a España, the last one that could prevent Sepp Kuss from taking home the red.
In the Adolfo Suárez square, next to the starting line, we had breakfast in the traditional La Charca Verde, a mollete with bacon and cheese and a carajillo before living the presentation of the teams. Festive atmosphere in the village while the first rays of sunshine could be seen between some clouds that seemed to want to give respite to the race: Madrid did not want to imitate the start in Barcelona.
The tension could be seen in Remco Evenepoel's eyes seconds before the start. The Belgian was hungry for his fourth victory and, aware that he was going to go out at full throttle, he didn't want to lose his concentration.
Juan Ayuso was congratulated for his 21st birthday and the fans present at the start sang him the traditional 'Happy Birthday'. The man from Jávea, very happy, smiled as champions do. Thus, after the protocol ribbon cutting with authorities eager to be in the photo, the start was given to the very hard stage with 10 ports and 4000 meters of unevenness that Remco had described as 'harder than the Liège'.
We were trying to leave Manzanares to go to the 2 mountainous difficulties that we thought were going to decide the stage: the Cruz Verde and the Alto de San Lorenzo del Escorial. However, some vandals were dedicated to slashing car wheels and we hit the jackpot: our FIAT Panda had both left wheels smashed.
After the nails that almost ended the Vuelta of Juan Ayuso or the oil confiscated by the Guardia Civil before being thrown on the road, came another act of vandalism in an edition of the Vuelta a España that does not win for upsets and in which, unfortunately, the hooligans have been shining by their presence.
Thus, the circumstances 'forced' us to return to the Charca Verde and nourish ourselves with 3 free-range eggs accompanied by 'torreznos de Soria' while we followed the race via Eurosport. All this while waiting for the race caravan to leave the town and the crane could come to assist us.
As we finished the free-range eggs, Remco Evenepoel and company were a few minutes ahead of the peloton and it looked like there would be no fight in the overall to threaten the red of Kuss.
Minutes later, at the foot of the Robledondo pass, when the breakaway was 5 minutes ahead of the peloton, the tow truck came to our rescue and managed to drop us off at a workshop in Collado Villalba. The efficiency of Pedro, the kind guy of the tow truck, allowed us to take a cab that left us in El Escorial to live the last of the climbs of the day.
At that point it was clear that there was no ambition among the general classification and the interest was in Remco could offer us another victory or someone from the breakaway could snatch it. The atmosphere in El Escorial was festive, with hundreds of people eager to enjoy the last mountainous difficulty of the Vuelta a España 2023.
Great atmosphere in the cobbled area of the Escorial, which looked like the Mur de Huy, with a spectacular Pelayo Sanchez who gave us an interview in the run-up to the race and showed the class he had.
Tremendous finale, with a well-deserved victory for Wout Poels, who already showed in the Angliru to be in an extraordinary form. Remco and Pelayo were left with the desire. We were able to enjoy him in the final cobblestones despite the problems... and the Vuelta, despite everything, is still a lot of Vuelta.
Juan LarraCycling Journalist
Juan Larra is a writer for Cyclinguptodate and editor-in-chief of Ciclismoaldia, where he has played a central role since its inception. Under his leadership, the website has become a trusted source for professional cycling coverage, offering in-depth analysis, news, and feature stories.
A sports journalist with over 20 years of experience, Juan earned his degree in Journalism from the University of Seville in 2007. He began his career covering a wide range of sports—including football, basketball, Formula 1, MotoGP, tennis, and cycling—for platforms such as the official La Liga app, Vodafone and Movistar websites, NBA Blogdebasket, and Cadena Cope, honing his skills in writing and editorial management.
In addition to his work at Ciclismoaldia, Juan contributes to Cyclinguptodate and serves as editor-in-chief for the tennis-focused site Tenisaldia. Throughout his career, he has conducted exclusive interviews with cyclists and sports figures, provided detailed analysis of competitions ranging from local Spanish races to major international events, and acted as a special correspondent at prestigious races including Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España.
Juan’s combination of experience, expertise, and direct access to athletes has established him—and the platforms he leads—as authoritative voices in professional cycling.
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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💥🤏 🏆 Wout se lleva la 𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙖 en Guadarrama. 🏆 Wout 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙣 in Guadarrama. #LaVuelta23 📸 @sprintcycling
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