Vuelta a España 2026: Wout van Aert wins heat-shortened stage 15 in Córdoba from a five-man sprint, Mas keeps his two-minute lead

46°C forces an emergency measure: 80 kilometres cut

Forecasters had been warning of extreme heat in the Guadalquivir valley for days, and when the predicted 46°C was confirmed on Sunday morning, the organisers acted: the route from Palma del Río to Córdoba was trimmed from 189.7 to 110.2 kilometres. Only the early Villaviciosa climb fell victim to the cuts — the Puerto de la Forestal, the Puerto Artafi, the intermediate sprint at Santa María de Trassierra and the finish in Córdoba all survived, guaranteeing the stage would still be a genuine race rather than a neutralised procession.

It's the second time this Vuelta that the heat has genuinely reshaped a stage, after the scorching run to the Sierra de la Pandera just a day earlier — and it happened on the very last day before the second rest day, giving the riders at least the prospect of twenty-four hours to recover.

Van Aert bridges across and wins the five-man sprint

A group of eleven had gone clear early, and the peloton kept the gap under control at around 45 seconds with 50 kilometres to go. On the Puerto Artafi, Visma-Lease a Bike lifted the pace, whittling the bunch down to roughly forty riders — Bryan Coquard among those who couldn't hold on. Out of what remained of the early break, Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) carved out a small gap.

Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech) bridged across from the shrinking peloton to reach Leknessund and won the intermediate sprint at Santa María de Trassierra, taking maximum points and six bonus seconds. Wout van Aert, fourth over that sprint line, didn't sit up afterwards but kept driving, riding himself across to the two leaders. Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) latched straight onto the Belgian's wheel, and the resulting quintet stayed together all the way to the line. In Córdoba, Van Aert took control of the closing kilometres and beat Romele and Nys in the sprint — his second win in three days, and Visma-Lease a Bike's fifth stage victory of this Vuelta.

The stage 15 result

1. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike); 2. Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana), same time; 3. Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), same time; 4. Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech), same time; 5. Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), same time; 6. Alessandro Covi (Jayco AlUla), at 58 seconds. The peloton, carrying all the GC favourites with Enric Mas among them, rolled in together at 2 minutes 30 seconds — with no consequences for the general classification.

The general classification after fifteen stages

With the favourites all crossing the line together, nothing changes at the top of the general classification. Enric Mas remains the leader, 2:06 clear of Félix Gall and 2:10 clear of Primož Roglič. Richard Carapaz is fourth at 4:24, ahead of Oscar Onley (+5:44), Jakob Omržel (+6:14), Mattias Skjelmose (+6:49), Cristián Rodríguez (+7:01), Clément Berthet (+7:19) and Sepp Kuss, who rounds out the top ten at 8:55.

Between the intermediate sprint bonus and the stage win itself, Van Aert extends his lead in the points classification even further: he heads into the rest day 108 points clear of second-placed Matthew Brennan, while Romele's stage podium lifts him up to third. Santiago Buitrago keeps the mountains jersey, and in the young rider competition Oscar Onley's lead over Jakob Omržel stays exactly where it was, at 30 seconds, since both stayed in the peloton.

Looking ahead: the second rest day and stage 16 to La Rábida

Monday 7 September brings this Vuelta's second and final rest day, before the peloton resumes on Tuesday with stage 16, a flat 186-kilometre run to the monastery of La Rábida. Check the route on our stage 16 page.

Want to catch up on the rest of this Vuelta? Read our stage 14 report from the Sierra de la Pandera, our week 2 preview, or the complete guide to the 2026 Vuelta a España.