Tobias Johannessen won a dramatic and attacking final stage of the Vuelta a España in Granada as Enric mas was crowned Vuelta Champion.
The Norwegian was among a group that went clear on the final climb of the race and he marked attacks within the final few kilometres of the race to be in a position to contest the sprint.
In the end it was a two-up affair and the Uno-X Mobility rider bested Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana).
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Johannessen, who was narrowly beaten into second atop Collado del Alguacil yesterday, was overjoyed at the finish. He told TNT: “In the last lap I heard I was in the front group and I tried to not pull in case [Magnus] Cort came back but I saw we had a gap and I was so focused on trying to get that win because it was over three years since the last time.”
“We had talked about how we wanted to do it with Cort, which was to deliver him into the last corner in first and I remembered that from the meeting. I told myself that I’m not going to do anything before trying to be first in the last corner and just go full gas from there.
“I just can’t believe that I can do it today, it feels so good.”
The Norwegian’s win capped a very successful first appearance for Uno-X Mobility at the Vuelta. The team has won two stages through Johannessen today and Andreas Leknessund on stage seven and been an animating force throughout the race.
Johannessen said: “I feel that we’ve been such a strong team. We had some ups and downs but we’ve solved every day as best as we could.
“The win up Aramón Valdelinares was really special and of course yesterday was a really special day for the team and we really got some confidence from that.”
Johannessen’s win came after a chaotic couple of laps of the race’s finishing circuit, which was a stark contrast to the day’s opening kilometres.
Before the stage even started Mas’s GC victory was given a boost by the decision to neutralise the GC at the start of the final lap of the day’s finishing circuit.
Dry weather had resulted in the tight city streets being slippery and the riders’ union the CPA agreed with the organisers that the GC times would be taken 10km from the finish.
Given the celebrations, the general ceremonial nature of the day and perhaps also the stage neutralisation, well over half the stage had passed, mostly with Movistar in special red kit on the front, before there was anything approaching racing.
There was 30km to go as the peloton crossed the finish-line for the second time, the fifth being the end of the stage, and the race opened up as Groupama FDJ United came to the front to set the pace. They had appeared to be working for their sprinter Bastien Tronchon and as the race went up the steep city centre climb he instigated a split with eight riders joining him off the front of the peloton.
Alongside Tronchon was the winner of five stages at this year’s Vuelta, Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) as they built a gap of 11 seconds. Understandably, the Brit was the rider everyone in the group was keen to get rid of.
However, that became a moot point when the break was caught the penultimate time up the climb. By now the GC contenders had all intentionally dropped themselves and they would play no part in the finale.
Despite several efforts no one could break clear and they entered the final climb all together. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), who is set to retire at the end of the season, was the first to mount an attack and got himself a gap. Soon it began to yawn out but Laurens de Plus (Netcompany Ineos) bridged across and went over the top of Bilbao to go it alone.
But as the raced descended back towards the finish a select group of 11 riders, including Brennan and Bilbao, formed at the head of the race.
At the bottom of the decent there was only 4km to go and one rider after another attacked. With 2km to it was a group of four riders that went free made of Axel Laurance (Netcompany Ineos), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Johannessen and Romele. Behind everyone looked at Brennan to close the gap but he couldn’t.
Laurance and Debruyne were dropped in the final few hundred metres leaving the other two to fight it out for the win. Johannessen led out the sprint and despite Romele’s best effort he couldn’t quite come around the Norwegian.
Results
Vuelta a España 2026, stage 21: Carrefour Granada > Granada (112km)
1. Tobias Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility in 2:54:08
2. Alessandro Romele (Ita) XDS Astan
3. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Premier Tech
4. Matthew Brennan (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike
5. Bastien Tronchon (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious
7. Finn Fisher-Black (NZl) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
8. Axel Laurance (Fra) Netcompany Ineos
9. Pau Martí (Esp) NSN Cycling Team
10. Marco Brenner (Ger) Tudor Pro Cycling, all at same time
General classification after stage 21
1. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, in 73:52:55
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:15
3. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +2:44
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +6:54
5. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +8:45
6. Oscar Onley (GBr) Netcompany Ineos, +9:28
7. Jakob Omrzel (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, +10:38
8. Clément Berthet (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +11:41
9. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) XDS Astana, +11:59
10. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS Astana, +12:51
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