Wout Poels glorious in gruesome day of racing in Andalucia: "In the sprint I could finish it off"
Cycling
Wout Poels had been without winning since the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné but when he wins he wins big. This saturday he took a brilliant stage win at the Vuelta a Andalucia which has also net him the race lead in a highly contested set of complicated stages. He's talked about his most recent victory after the mountainous day, where he averaged 42.4Km/h for the win.
After the stage, a satisfied Poels talked about the day he had just completed, “a nice but hard day! We had four riders up in the front the whole day and everyone worked perfectly together. In the final phase I still had good legs and followed when Lutsenko went, and in the sprint I could finish it off. Really happy with the win and another hard, last day tomorrow. So let’s see what we have left in the tank!”
After making the crucial split early in the day at the Alto del Purche, Wout Poels hit the jackpot as he once again followed the winning move with 15 kilometers to go on stage four of the Vuelta a Andalucia, following Alexey Lutsenko, collaborating with him until he was in a position to take the race lead, and then beating the Kazakh in the final sprint to take a very important win.
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“After an expected hard start, we got into a 14 riders breakaway with our four riders. Chasing was strong so also those in front needed to push hard and in the last 20kms there was a big fight for the stage and GC and actually we won everything! Now we have a big objective to defend GC in tomorrow’s stage!" Said Gorazd Stangelj, team DS in Spain this week.
With only one more stage to go Wout Poels is in pole position to take the overall classification of the race. It won't go without challenge, as he holds only eigth seconds to his nearest rival Miguel Ángel López and has seven riders within 21 seconds of his race lead, into a summit finish. However if any team is capable of controlling the stage it's Bahrain who's been having a brilliant performance all week long despite having a reduced lineup due to Dylan Teuns' absence.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- yeah... you're right...PogiSloFans04-11-2026
- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
- He will be lol, but he can still win on the climbs hahaawp04-11-2026
- I would love to have his inconsistency. How many wins this year? 2 TdF stages, a WC, a Euro championship, San Sebastian, multiple wins early year. Monument podiums. I'd take it. I don't think he has a chance in the TdF, but he is still amazing.mij04-11-2026
- He's not going to win the TdF. Maybe if they make every single stage a TT he could win. But I still believe Tadej would just sharpen his TT skills and win.mij04-11-2026
- You beat me to it. Should he make a full recovery (likely) and go light early in the year. One, two, three. Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. Should he be on a Feel-Like-He's-Fixin'-to-Die High.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- The deciding factor may be the (TBD) number of (any type of) kilometers without Pogacar.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- Unexplained chronic fatigue is an all too common bitch. The hard to find definitive answer may lie buried in gut mechanisms. A mystery of the deep.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- It's weird to say Evenepoel would be making a "serious mistake by adding the 2027 Giro d'Italia to his calendar, warning that such a decision could even be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his ability to win the Tour de France." It may well be a mistake but with so many commentators (of all sorts) continuously claiming almost everything Remco does as being a mistake, almost nobody should care what the pundits and the disparagers should say. His team may not want him to do the Giro, and that matters. But it's possibly or probably up to Remco to decide and it may not have to be decided on until a month or so ahead of the race. Yes , Remco is inconsistent much like the majority of the best riders but he's enjoying a period of not having been recently injured (or sick). Whatever he does he need not be concerned with critics who will second guess any perceived failure no matter what. I suspect he will have enough other races on his schedule so he won't be considering it. But the worst reason to not race it is because of what some will say - humorous that be.Yepperoni04-11-2026
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🚀 Menudo final en @AytoBaza con victoria para Poels de @BHRVictorious #68RdS #UCIProSeries
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