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The 2026 Giro d'Italia and Tour de France have come and gone, which means there is only one Grand Tour left in 2026: the Vuelta a España. The Spanish stage race begins on August 22, and IDL Pro Cycling will be keeping track of the (confirmed) participants throughout the race. While the start lists for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France are usually announced fairly early, that’s often not the case for the Vuelta. Many riders have already completed a Grand Tour, so it’s often a case of team's making last-minute decisions. This year, the Vuelta will begin in Monaco on August 22 with an individual time trial. Over the course of the three weeks, riders will, of course, have to tackle the usual elevation gain, though the finish will not be in Madrid this time. Due to the Formula 1 street race in the Spanish capital, Granada will host the final stage. The top favorite is Tadej Pogacar, whose team, UAE Emirates-XRG, was the first to announce its eight-rider roster. The Slovenian, who has a chance to complete his Grand Tour trilogy, will be supported by riders including Joao Almeida, Jay Vine, and Kevin Vermaerke. In addition to Pogacar, Wout van Aert, Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Oscar Onley (Netcompany INEOS), among others, are also expected at the start. Riders abandon the Vuelta as early as stage 2 The Tour of Spain started on Saturday, August 22, with a time trial, in which everyone managed to reach the finish in one piece. The first dropout occurred after a crash on day two: Sergio Chumil, a rider from Gautamala riding for Burgos-BH, hit the asphalt hard and had to abandon the race. Day three saw the second withdrawal: Alex Kirsch of Cofidis. After finishing stage 4 with a broken ankle and bursting into tears at the line, Cian Uijtdebroeks stepped off his bike before the start of stage 5. One day later, on stage five, we crossed Roel van Sintmaartensdijk off the list. The Lotto-Intermarché rider crashed and could not continue. The race doctor indicated afterwards that Van Sintmaartensdijk sustained multiple cuts and abrasions. On day six, we saw Josh Tarling abandon. The Briton from Netcompany INEOS nearly won the opening time trial, a week after the death of his younger brother. His abandonment was therefore entirely understandable. Markel Beloki (EF Education-EasyPost) also called it quits on stage 6. Confirmed team and leaders for the 2026 Vuelta a España Participants and bib numbers for the 2026 Vuelta a España Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe 1 Primož Roglič 2 Finn Fisher-Black 3 Jordi Meeus 4 Gianni Moscon 5 Callum Thornley 6 Luke Tuckwell 7 Gianni Vermeersch 8 Frederik Wandahl UAE Emirates-XRG 11 Tadej Pogacar 12 Joao Almeida 13 Domen Novak 14 Ivo Oliveira 15 Pavel Sivakov 16 Pablo Torres 17 Kevin Vermaerke 18 Jay Vine Movistar 21 Enric Mas 22 Jorge Arcas 23 Orluis Aular 24 Carlos Canal 25 Pablo Castrillo 26 Raul Garcia 27 Ivan Romeo 28 Cian Uijtdebroeks Visma | Lease a Bike 31 Wout van Aert 32 Bruno Armirail 33 Matthew Brennan 34 Steven Kruijswijk 35 Sepp Kuss 36 Christophe Laporte 37 Jørgen Nordhagen 38 Ben Tulett Decathlon CMA CGM 41 Félix Gall 42 Léo Bisiaux 43 Oscar Chamberlain 44 Sander De Pestel 45 Jordan Labrosse 46 Gregor Mühlberger 47 Matthew Riccitello 48 Callum Scotson Pinarello - Q36.5 51 David de la Cruz 52 Xabier Azparren 53 Walter Calzoni 54 Marcel Camprubi 55 Edward Dunbar 56 Thomas Gloag 57 David Gonzalez Lopez 58 Milan Vader Netcompany INEOS 61. Oscar Onley 62. Jack Haig 63. Lucas Hamilton 64. Axel Laurance 65. Carlos Rodriguez 66. Embret Svestad-Bardseng 67. Joshua Tarling 68. Ben Turner Bahrain Victorious 71 Pello Bilbao 72 Santiago Buitrago 73 Roman Ermakov 74 Matevž Govekar 75 Pau Miquel 76 Jakob Omrzel 77 Mathijs Paasschens 78 Attila Valter Lidl-Trek 81 Mattias Skjelmose 82 Julien Bernard 83 Lennard Kämna 84 Patrick Konrad 85 Jacopo Mosca 86 Mathias Norsgaard 87 Thibau Nys 88 Mads Pedersen Groupama-FDJ 91 Clément Berthet 92 Olivier Le Gac 93 Valentin Madouas 94 Guillaume Martin Guyonnet 95 Rudy Molard 96 Enzo Paleni 97 Rémy Rochas 98 Bastien Tronchon Alpecin-Premier Tech 101 Kaden Groves 102 Francesco Busatto 103 Lindsay De Vylder 104 Ramses Debruyne 105 Gal Glivar 106 Michael Gogl 107 Hugo Houle 108 Sente Sentjens NSN 111 Alexey Lutsenko 112 George Bennett 113 Jan Hirt 114 Hugo Hofstetter 115 Moritz Kretschy 116 Pau Marti 117 Nicholas Schultz 118 Floris van Tricht Soudal Quick-Step 121 Mikel Landa 122 Alberto Dainese 123 Gianmarco Garofoli 124 Ethan Hayter 125 Valentin Paret Peintre 126 Fabio van den Bossche 127 Mauri Vansevenant 128 Filippo Zana Uno-X 131 Magnus Cort Nielsen 132 Simon Dalby 133 Fredrik Dversnes 134 Tobias Johannessen 135 Andreas Kron 136 Andreas Leknessund 137 Rasmus Tiller 138 Martin Tjøtta Cofidis 141 Emanuel Buchmann 142 Bryan Coquard 143 Alex Kirsch 144 Sylvain Moniquet 145 Paul Ourselin 146 Alexis Renard 147 Louis Rouland 148 Sergio Samitier Samitier Jayco AlUla 151 Alessandro Covi 152 Koen Bouwman 153 Paul Double 154 Asbjørn Hellemose 155 Hamish McKenzie 156 Finlay Pickering 157 Rudy Porter 158 Jasha Sütterlin EF Education-EasyPost 161 Richard Carapaz 162 Vincenzo Albanese 163 Markel Beloki 164 Alastair MacKellar 165 Darren Rafferty 166 Juan Rodriguez 167 James Shaw 168 Georg Steinhauser Tudor 171 Marco Brenner 172 William Barta 173 Arthur Kluckers 174 Stefan Küng 175 Roland Thalmann 176 Lawrence Warbasse 177 Fabian Weiss 178 Hannes Wilksch XDS-Astana 181 Harold Tejada 182 Yevgeniy Fedorov 183 Lorenzo Fortunato 184 Victor Langellotti 185 Henok Mulubrhan 186 Cristian Rodriguez 187 Alessandro Romele 188 Darren van Bekkum Burgos-BH 191 Jesus Herrada 192 Clement Alleno 193 Mario Aparicio Muñoz 194 Sergio Geovani Chumil (DNF Stage 2, crash) 195 Jose Manuel Diaz 196 Jose Luis Faura Asensio 197 Sinuhe Fernandez Rodriguez 198 Cesar Macias Lotto-Intermarché 201 Jarno Widar 202 Vito Braet 203 Lars Craps 204 Steffen De Schuyteneer 205 Lorenzo Rota 206 Reuben Thompson 207 Luca van Boven 208 Roel van Sintmaartensdijk Picnic PostNL 211 Christopher Hamilton 212 Timo de Jong 213 Mattia Gaffuri 214 Gijs Leemreize 215 Guillermo Juan Martinez 216 Oliver Peace 217 Henri François Renard Haquin 218 Timo Roosen Equipo Kern Pharma 221 Urko Berrade 222 Marc Brustenga 223 Ivan Cobo 224 Iñigo Elosegui 225 Ibon Ruiz 226 Ivan Sosa 227 Diego Uriarte 228 Mats Wenzel