2026 Vuelta a España Stage 15 preview | Europe's hottest city will more than live up to its name

The Vuelta a España continues on Sunday with a hot stage—literally and figuratively. We’ll be finishing in Córdoba, the city in Andalusia that’s also known as the hottest city in Europe. Who will keep their cool the most? IDL Pro Cycling breaks down the stage and potential contenders for you.

The fifteenth stage of the Vuelta a España will start—if everything goes according to plan with the temperatures in southern Spain—shortly after lunchtime in Palma del Río. From that starting point, the first twenty kilometers are virtually flat before the day’s first obstacle looms ahead.

The Puerto de Forestal (6.7 kilometers at 4.1%) isn’t a nightmare in and of itself, but it could be tough enough to force a breakaway that ultimately takes the win. After Friday’s successful effort, it seems to us that teams like Visma | Lease a Bike aren’t planning on controlling the race all day, let alone in 40 degrees Celsius.

The heart of this fifteenth stage follows the Spanish philosophy of “flat,” which basically means: not a single meter of flat terrain. At an altitude of about 500 meters, the course constantly goes up and down, but it never gets truly difficult. It’s a classic transition stage in the Vuelta a España, in which many riders will sense their opportunities and go for them.

Toward the final quarter, we’ll see one more climb that could prove decisive: the Puerto Artafi, which features a 5.9-kilometer ascent at a 5.6% gradient. Afterward, the riders will stay on a plateau with a short climb for a while before beginning the descent and covering the final ten kilometers on flat roads toward the finish in Córdoba. The final kilometers there are fairly straightforward, though there is a right turn in the last 500 meters.

That’s where we finished the Vuelta for the last time in 2024, and the winner back then was… Wout van Aert. We also finished in Córdoba in 2021, and a rider who had been active throughout the race—Magnus Cort—managed to take the victory. Incidentally, Van Aert won in 2024 in a sprint finish with a group of about 30 riders.

Times
Start: 12:35 p.m CET
Finish: 5:30 p.m CET

"That's what you can expect when you race in southern Spain at this time of year," Enric Mas had already mentioned. We can’t disagree with him: on Sunday, temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees in the finish city of Córdoba, while at the start in Palma del Río, it’s already well over 30 degrees Celsius. There’s hardly any wind.

This Sunday’s race is basically a carbon copy of the stage won by Wout van Aert on Friday in Loja. A hilly course to make the race tough, followed by a relatively easy finish, where riders can make their move on the flat.

Visma | Lease a Bike proved on Friday that it simply has an edge in terms of quality in scenarios like this. With Matthew Brennan—and thus Van Aert—on the team, anything is possible, while Christophe Laporte and Bruno Amirail also provide the power needed to turn things around during the race.

In each scenario, we then look at the riders who have the punch to sprint for a result in a larger or smaller group. That brings us to the riders who have been in contention throughout the entire stage for the top spots in this type of race. Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) have even managed to turn that into a stage victory.

We also have Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), Magnus Cort (Uno-X), Alessandro Romele ( XDS-Astana), Leo Bisiaux ( Decathlon CMA CGM), Axel Laurance ( Netcompany INEOS), Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché), and Kevin Vermaerke ( UAE Emirates-XRG); all of them are putting in a strong lap.

If it really turns into a tactical battle or a grueling day, we think riders like Andreas Kron, Andreas Leknessund, Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Stefan Küng (Tudor), Xabier Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), and Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL) will be in the mix.

Top Favorites: Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Dark horses: Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), Axel Laurance (Netcompany INEOS), and Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ)
Long shots: Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Magnus Cort, Andreas Kron, Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Alessandro Romele (XDS-Astana), Leo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché), and Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Emirates-XRG)