Pogacar Has Won Three of the First Six Vuelta Stages and Leads Enric Mas by Three Minutes Thirty-Four
Stage 6 into Castello ended with a 1.9km gravel climb and a technical descent that Pogacar overshot without crashing. He still won it, and he leads the points and mountains classifications as well.
Tadej Pogacar has won three of the first six stages of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana and holds the red jersey by three minutes thirty-four seconds. The race started in Monaco on 22 August and finishes in Granada on 13 September.
The general classification after stage 6
| Position | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tadej Pogacar | 15:38:27 |
| 2 | Enric Mas | +3:34 |
| 3 | Primoz Roglic | +4:21 |
Pogacar also leads the points classification and the mountains classification. Oscar Onley leads the youth classification and UAE Team Emirates-XRG lead the teams classification.
How the stage wins came
Pogacar won the opening individual time trial in Monaco on 22 August, the stage into Andorra la Vella on 25 August, and stage 6 into Castello on 27 August in 4:12:40. Matthew Brennan won stage 2 into Manosque and stage 5. Stage 3 was partially neutralised because of severe weather.
Stage 6 finished over a 1.9km gravel climb into a technical descent. Pogacar overshot a corner on the way down and went off-road without crashing, rejoined, and won anyway. He said afterwards he had not expected the late charge behind him: "I was not expecting it because I heard on the radio that I was leading by, I don't know, 40 seconds to the chasers, and there was no mention of Enric."
The next three days
| Stage | Date | Route |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | 28 Aug | Vall d'Alba to Valdelinares |
| 8 | 29 Aug | Pucol to Xeraco |
| 9 | 30 Aug | La Vila Joiosa to Alto de Aitana |
| 10 | 1 Sep | Alcaraz to Elche de la Sierra |
Stage 9 to the Alto de Aitana is the summit finish of the three and the one most likely to move the gap to Mas either way.
Following it on Playdash
Playdash prices the three Grand Tours with stage winner, general classification outright, points and mountains classification, top ten finish and head-to-head rider matchups, plus in-play pricing through the closing kilometres of mountain stages. Stage starts run in European afternoon hours, which puts the finishes in the Asian evening.
Stage results, classification times and route details as published by ProCyclingStats, Cyclingnews and CyclingStage. The stage 3 winner is not recorded consistently across those sources and is therefore not stated here. Correct at the time of writing on 28 August 2026.