Vuelta a España stage 2 LIVE: A difficult first road stage to call with likely sprint into Manosque on the cards
The race leaves Monaco and heads to Provence and Manosque with a 214.3 km stage that takes on well over 3000 metres of climbing
The neutralised section of today's stage is a massive 21km long as they leave Monaco and head into France. Through Èze, top of the famous Col dÈze that recently saw the end of the Tour de France Femmes and into Nice before starting the race at the other side of the frequently visited city.
Its a happy birthday to Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility). The former Tour de l'Avenir winner turns 27 today.
Neutral start
The riders have rolled out of the start in Monaco. Hayter starts the race in the green skinsuit but on the same time as Pogačar. Could the British rider maybe take bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint?
There are 6, 4 and 2 bonus seconds available in Gréoux-les-Bains with just under 50km of the stage remaining. It would take a lot of managing by his Soudal-Quickstep team.
Full red but no custom bike just yet as he continues to ride the super lightweight Colnago that has almost no paint on the frame.
Red-hot ❤️ Al Rojo vivo📸 @cxcling | #LaVuelta26 | @TeamEmiratesUAE pic.twitter.com/BXojfh1kcWAugust 23, 2026
It feels like it is wrong but this is Tadej Pogačar's first time in the red jersey at La Vuelta and he has gone full red, as you would. The last rider to lead a Grand Tour from stage 1 all the way through to the end was Gianni Bugno in 1990 at the Giro d'Italia. Can Pogačar pull off the achievement? Or will he try and give it away early to save his team?
The neutral start comes at midday local time, so the riders will be rolling out of Monaco in around 30 minutes time.
The riders are busy signing on and being presented to the crowd with local hero and Monégasque national champion, Victory Langellotti (XDS-Astana) after his switch from Netcompany-Ineos at the start of the month.
The opening road stage of this year's Vuelta is an intriguing one. Over 3000 metres of climbing on the menu but only two categorised climbs, it is a tricky one to call. Likely suiting the likes of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Kaden groves (Alpecin-Premier Tech) but also brings in riders like Tadej Pogačar himself into the mix and a possible second stage win in as many days.
Josh Tarling (Netcompany-Ineos) put in a superb ride after eight horrendous days for him and his family.
It wasn't a huge surprise to anyone last night that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took the win, but the margin of victory was incredible. Just 0.09 of a second split the five time Tour de France victor and the British TT champion Ethan Hayter (Soudal-Quickstep) on the line in the principality famed for tight margins in Formula 1.
Hola! Welcome to live updates on stage 2 of La Vuelta a España here on Cyclingnews.
