“You just know that he didn’t have the legs” - Red Bull’s perfect plan falls short as Primoz Roglic misses Vuelta a Espana history

Primoz Roglic is set to leave the 2026 Vuelta a Espana with the ninth Grand Tour podium of his career, but still sharing the race’s all-time victory record with Roberto Heras. Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe prepared one final attempt to dislodge Enric Mas on stage 20, only for Roglic to lose another 38 seconds to the red jersey on the Collado del Alguacil.

The Slovenian had started the penultimate stage 1:37 behind Mas after dragging an interrupted preparation into the final weekend of the race. His prospects had changed significantly when pre-race favourite Tadej Pogacar crashed out on stage 8, opening a route towards the fifth Vuelta title that would have moved Roglic clear of Heras.

Roglic claimed his first Grand Tour victory at the 2019 Vuelta before successfully defending the red jersey in 2020 and 2021. He abandoned the 2022 edition following a crash and finished third behind Team Visma | Lease a Bike teammates Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard in 2023, but returned a year later to secure his fourth overall victory.

That 2024 success brought him level with Heras, whose four titles were won between 2000 and 2005. Roglic has also collected 15 individual stages at the Vuelta and has never finished lower than third in an edition he has completed.

His 2026 season had produced fifth at Tirreno-Adriatico, third at Milano-Torino and a top-10 finish at the Tour de Suisse, with Roglic also spending parts of the campaign working for other Red Bull leaders. The Vuelta was the only Grand Tour included in his programme.

A collision with a driver during training at the end of July then cost him approximately ten days of preparation. Roglic withdrew from both the Clasica San Sebastian and the Vuelta a Burgos before returning directly at the Vuelta.

Pogacar began the race as the overwhelming favourite for UAE Team Emirates – XRG, while Red Bull remained cautious over the condition of their own leader. The complexion of the general classification changed when Pogacar’s race ended on stage 8.

“Of course, we started the Vuelta with Tadej Pogacar, so then already it's always different,” Red Bull sports director Sven Vanthourenhout told Cycling News. “And from the moment Tadej was out, of course, we knew that the race restarts again.”

Mas took control of the race with victory on the Alto de Aitana on stage 9, where Roglic finished 1:18 behind. The Movistar leader gained another 27 seconds at Calar Alto and added 15 more at La Pandera, pushing Roglic down to third place behind Felix Gall.

Stage 18 offered Roglic his best opportunity to recover a substantial part of the deficit. He finished fourth in the 32.1-kilometre individual time trial between El Puerto de Santa Maria and Jerez de la Frontera, taking 33 seconds from Mas and moving back above Gall into second overall.

“I think we analysed a lot of performance, especially from Primoz, and we saw that he did one of his best time-trials ever, and that means that we speak about his best three, four TTs ever,” Vanthourenhout said.

Mas still carried a 1:37 advantage out of the time trial. Roglic attacked near the summit of Penas Blancas on stage 19, but the red jersey responded immediately and the pair finished together.

Red Bull had deliberately kept its main offensive for the closing stages because of the preparation Roglic had lost before the race. “There were other opportunities on the road towards Granada, but we always had in mind that Primoz lost ten days before the Vuelta, and that's why we were always careful, and we were always waiting for the last week to take initiative or to do something,” Vanthourenhout explained.

The penultimate stage featured more than 5,000 metres of climbing and represented the last realistic opportunity to overturn the general classification. Red Bull placed riders in the breakaways to give Roglic support later in the day, with Finn Fisher-Black completing the final effort on the Collado del Alguacil.

“We waited until the last climb and had Finn Fisher-Black to launch him, but then if you don't have the legs anymore to accelerate, then it is what it is,” Vanthourenhout said. “And then, in the end, you have to be happy with second place at this moment.”

Rather than Roglic attacking Mas, Gall accelerated and took the race leader with him. Roglic conceded 38 seconds to Mas and 55 to Gall, leaving him 2:15 off the red jersey and only 29 seconds ahead of third place. “We had three key points. Two of them were really special to do something with Primoz,” said Vanthourenhout. “In the end, if he doesn't do the acceleration we talked about before, then you just know that he didn't have the legs, and each performance in the last week was actually a good one.”

Mas’s advantage had grown rather than contracted across the final two mountain stages, despite Roglic producing what Red Bull considered one of his finest career time trials between them. Vanthourenhout nevertheless maintained that the team had delivered the stage 20 plan as intended.

“We always had in mind to trust the process towards the end of the Vuelta,” he said. “[And today], we did actually everything perfect. But, yes, we always should sign for a second place on GC before the Vuelta because we knew what kind of preparation Primoz had towards this Grand Tour, and we're happy with it.”

Roglic is set to finish second in Granada, adding another podium to Vuelta victories in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024. He and Heras remain the joint record holders with four titles each.