Cycling Project
Back to feed
Take2 weeks ago
Tadej Pogačar attacks his rivals uphill on the Monte Sante Marie gravel sector at the 2024 Strade Bianche to begin his 81km solo ride to victory
Dani Ostanek
Pogačar attacked with 50 km to go on stage 4 of the Vuelta a España 2026 and won by 2:39 — his longest Grand Tour solo ever, in the same Andorran mountains where he won his first Grand Tour stage as a 20-year-old in 2019. The location is not coincidence; it is a precise measure of how far he has traveled.
The 50 km solo surpassed his previous Grand Tour record of 43 km set on stage 6 of the Tour de France 2026, which itself had eclipsed his Vuelta a España 2019 debut ride of 39 km to Plataforma de Gredos. Seven years ago Andorra was where his Grand Tour story began; now it is where he comes back to rewrite his own ceiling. What makes the number striking is not the distance but the moment — stage 4, week one, 2:39 on the clock — the kind of margin that signals he is not racing the same peloton everyone else is.

Related