The 202-kilometre stage from Monaco to the town in Provence began with a minor surprise when Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step), who had missed out on the opening time trial victory by nine hundredths of a second, joined the breakaway group. At one point, it looked as though he might actually take the red jersey, but his breakaway had evidently sapped too much of his energy for him to cross the line at the same time as the race leader. Otherwise, the bonus seconds he picked up at the intermediate sprint would have been enough.

But that was not to be. Pogacar defended the red jersey by getting involved in the final sprint himself and picking up time bonuses there as well. He now leads by nine seconds ahead of the new runner-up, Wout van Aert, and his victorious team-mate Brennan, who has one more bonus second to his name. At the finish, Brennan explained that the original plan had actually been to get the Belgian into the red jersey. “It all started with the aim of Wout going for the red jersey,” he said. “We knew there’d be a good opportunity to attack in the final stretch. We had this plan, and I stayed a bit further back, preparing my sprint in case the front group didn’t go all the way. And that’s exactly how it turned out. I’m very pleased that I was able to finish it off like that.”

It was the 21-year-old’s 20th professional victory. As an added bonus, he is riding in the best young rider’s jersey on Stage 3. Pogacar also leads the points classification. The first mountains jersey of the tour was secured by breakaway rider Koen Bouwman (Team Jayco AlUla).

2026 Vuelta a España – Stage 2 results

Here’s how the second stage of the 2026 Tour of Spain unfolded

On the way to the first mountain classification (3rd category), the day’s four-man leading group formed in several stages. Bouwman and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma) were joined by Hayter and Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH).

However, after a brief surge to three minutes, the lead quickly shrank again. With 90 kilometres to go, it stood at about one and a half minutes. The day’s two mountain climbs had been completed by then – both won by Bouwman, who then considered his task for the day done and gradually dropped back.

Hayter fights for every second at first, only to fail in the end

The rest of the breakaway continued. However, Hayter shook off his two Spanish companions around 50 kilometres from the finish to ensure he secured the seconds at the bonus sprint 35 kilometres from the finish, which put him virtually in the red jersey. He then eased off as well, so that the peloton was soon back together and rolled towards the small final climb.

Visma really went all out there. First, van Aert attacked, which was enough to create gaps in the peloton. Next, Christophe Laporte picked up the pace. Neither Pedersen nor Pogacar were shaken off, but the lead-out for Brennan was strong enough to allow the Briton to ultimately ride to victory quite comfortably. Pedersen was on course for second place for a long time, but then eased off when he realised he wouldn’t make it to the very front. As a result, Miquel and Pogacar managed to overtake him.

The Slovenian, however, would not have needed the bonus seconds to defend the red jersey at all, as Hayter did not finish in the first section of the field and only crossed the line in the third section, 31 seconds behind.