The Wout van Aert Vengeance Tour and 5 Hot Takes for the 2026 Vuelta a España

Tadej this, Tadej that … it’s like Mr. Pogačar is the only rider scheduled to start the 2026 Vuelta a España.

The Slovenian attention-sucker is stealing all the headlines ahead of this year’s race.

And rightly so. The five-time Tour de France winner is so GOATed he could probably win 10 stages and three classification jerseys if he wants to.

But there’s plenty more to watch out for at this Vuelta than the world No. 1.

Here are five storylines and hot takes we’re hyped to see playing out in the next month.

1. Wout van Aert vs. Mads Pedersen will be the best bit of the race

Bike races are always better when Wout van Aert is there. If he’s fit, the Belgian baller always leaves his mark.

The only thing better than a bike race with Wout? A bike race with Wout and his blueprint rider, Mads Pedersen.

Wout vs. Mads will be the rivalry of the race. The reigning Paris-Roubaix champion vs. the reigning Vuelta a España and Tour de France green jersey?

I’ll certainly take that over Pogačar vs. a gang of climbers who are already resigned to second-place.

Van Aert and Pedersen will light up the seven tough-guy sprint stages scattered through the Vuelta. Given the state of the race’s sprint field, they’ll likely be in the mix for the few mass finals and overall green jersey, too.

On the sporting side, it’s a match-up to salivate over.

And better still, you can be sure that a little spice will flavor their inevitable rivalry. Van Aert and Pedersen are two of the big characters in a peloton that’s been brainwashed by media training.

And for Van Aert, this Vuelta a España is extra significant. Being forced to the sidelines ahead of the Tour de France this summer has made the man ravenous. Plus, Wout has unfinished business with La Vuelta — the horrific knee injury he sustained when he crashed out of his last go at the race haunted him all through the following spring.

2. All hail ‘The Next Seixas’?

Keep a close eye on the kindergarten class of this year’s Vuelta a España.

This year’s race is loaded with riders we’ll be talking about through the 2030s.

The Vuelta’s 20-year-old rookie trio of Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain-Victorious), Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché) and Pablo Torres (UAE Emirates XRG) would be the talk of the transfer market if 19-year-old phenom Paul Seixas wasn’t hogging all the attention.

Omrezel won last year’s Baby Giro and backed it up in 2026 with top-10s overall at the Tour of the Alps, Tour de Hongrie, and Tour of Slovenia. Of course, being Slovenian, he’s already been labeled “the next Pogačar” — no pressure.

Meanwhile, Widar dominated the junior and U23 ranks so hard he’s been made the leader of Lotto-Intermarché’s hopes at the 2026 Vuelta. OK, so the beleaguered Belgian team isn’t exactly the biggest bunch of ballers in the race, but you get the point. Widar is very good. In fact, only Seixas could stop the Belgian from winning the Tour de l’Avenir last summer.

And Torres? He’s one of the purest climbers in the peloton. UAE Emirates-XRG has so much faith in the 2024 Tour de l’Avenir runner-up it signed him at age 19 and pinned him down through 2030.

Any or all of these three could win a stage, hit the overall top-10, or both.

Also familiarize yourselves with 21-year-old Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike), 22-year-old Rhône-Alpes revelation Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and that Brit sprinter kid, Matthew Brennan (also Visma). We’ll be talking about them for the next decade, we bet.

Speaking of Brennan … more on him later.

3. Stages will be canceled, rerouted, or protested due to extreme heat

The Vuelta a España was playing with fire when it designed its 2026 parcours. Literally, and metaphorically.

The race is being touted as “the hardest Vuelta in history” given its insane 58,000m of altitude gain. It’s also likely to be the hottest.

More than half the race plays out in the deep south of one of the hottest countries in western Europe. The final week is almost entirely on the Andalucian coast, just a metaphorical stone’s throw away from Africa.

After a summer of unprecedented heat, this Vuelta will be hellish. Long-range forecasts in the region are calling for a clean streak of 30-35°C heat and wall-to-wall sun.

Is this the most ridiculously designed Vuelta ever? Sort of.

But after the race packed itself into northern Spain in 2025, officials no doubt felt indebted to the neglected south.

Of course, race organizer Javier Guillén insisted he’s not heading south as a token gesture, or to escape the pro-Palestine protest groups that crippled last year’s race.

However, Guillén might have inadvertently pointed himself toward a different type of protest by heading south. One from within.

It would be no surprise if several stages are canceled, re-routed, or hit by rider protests due to extreme heat. In fact, it would be more of a shock if the race runs 100 percent smooth.

4. Matthew Brennan will go bunch sprint beast mode

Don’t laugh, but a bunch sprinter might actually bring some extra stoke to this Vuelta a España.

Matthew Brennan — the boyish Brit once hailed “the next Cav or Wout” — makes his long-awaited grand tour debut this month.

And the 21-year-old is not going to be collecting bottles for his Visma-Lease a Bike superteam.

Brennan has been assigned a royal leadout train in Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte, and he’s got the watts to crush the “easier” sprint stages of La Vuelta.

Jordi Meeus — the only established speedster on the start list — will have his work cut out following one of the most explosive fast finishes of the 2020s.

It’s rare to get excited about sprinters in a modern peloton dominated by Pogi and MVDP.

But Brennan is from a different breed. When he wins, there’s a chance he’s done something ridiculous to make it happen.

Just scroll through the replays splattered all over social media of his incredible victories last year in Catalunya and Poland. Brennan can make it look like he’s playing bike racing on easy mode.

Brennan’s grand tour debut has felt a long time coming. He raked in 19 wins in less than two years but never saw his chances in a Visma-Lease a Bike team obsessed with GC — until now.

That means Brennan will want to impress this summer. Given his track record, it’s hard to see him doing anything less.

5. Primož Roglič will leave the Vuelta in a blaze of glory

King Rogla returns to his kingdom this weekend. The four-time Vuelta a España champion Primož Roglič is back at the race that built his career for the first time since 2024.

But this won’t be a Vuelta that Roglič is used to.

The 36-year-old is uncertain of his form and of his future as he rides into the 2026 Vuelta a España. He’s certainly not a top-tier favorite like he was the last five times he started the race.

Who knows, this Vuelta could even be the last grand tour of Roglič’s blockbuster career unless Lotto-Intermarché comes good on the rumors and hands him a rescue package.

Rogla is hedging his bets over how things will play out for him in the next month. His Vuelta preparation was whacked when a motorist struck him while he was out training, which doesn’t bode well given his lack of consistency all season.

Our take?

Roglič will evaporate out of the GC fight, early. This is Rog. Disaster is only ever a heartbeat away.

But he won’t go down quietly. “No risk, no glory,” remember?

Just look at what Roglič did last year at the Tour de France after he slid out of contention.

His baffling “Hail Mary” attack on stage 19 in the Alps was aura-farming at its finest. He broke away early, left his teammate Florian Lipowitz stranded, and then bonked out the back.

“It was all or nothing for me today … At least I was on TV,” Roglič said after the stage.

More of this, please, Primož. If you cannot win, then entertain.