{"id":69206,"date":"2026-09-16T16:38:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/more-than-second-place-extraordinaryvuelta\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T16:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T15:38:33","slug":"more-than-second-place-extraordinaryvuelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/more-than-second-place-extraordinaryvuelta\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than Second Place: Primo\u017e\u2019s Extraordinary 2026 Vuelta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Primo\u017e finished the 2026 Vuelta in second place, adding a sixth podium finish to his remarkable record at the Spanish Grand Tour. This time, however, the number two tells only part of the story. \nLess than a month before the start of the race, Primo\u017e was hit by a car during training. A major haematoma and severe pain forced him to replace the most important part of his preparation with rehabilitation. Just weeks before the start, he was still unable to train normally, and even his participation in Monaco was uncertain. \nPrimo\u017e therefore arrived at the Vuelta without ideal preparation or bold predictions. He came with the intention of taking the race day by day and doing the best he could at every stage. \n \nFrom Monaco towards Spain \nThe Vuelta began with a 9.4-kilometre individual time trial through the streets of Monaco. The opening days immediately presented an extremely demanding challenge: Stage 3 was cancelled due to dangerous weather conditions, while Stage 4 took the peloton into the mountains of Andorra. \nOn the first true mountain stage, Primo\u017e showed that he could still compete for the top positions despite his disrupted preparation. The race took another dramatic turn on Stage 8, when Poga\u010dar was forced to abandon following a crash. Enric Mas took the red jersey, while Primo\u017e moved into second place overall, one minute behind the Spaniard. \nOne of the toughest stages of the entire race followed the very next day. On the way to Alto de Aitana, the riders tackled more than 5,000 metres of elevation gain, with Primo\u017e finishing the stage in third place. Mas extended his advantage with the stage victory, but Primo\u017e remained in contention for the overall win. \n \nThree weeks of perseverance \nThe demanding mountain stages continued throughout the second week. Mas gained another 27 seconds on Calar Alto and also extended his advantage on Sierra de la Pandera. \nPrimo\u017e, however, refused to give up. Despite the effects of his injury and a lack of training, he remained among the best and kept his hopes of a final podium alive. \nA crucial moment came on Stage 18, a 32.1-kilometre individual time trial between El Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda and Jerez de la Frontera. Primo\u017e finished fourth, gained 33 seconds on Mas and moved back into second place overall. With two mountain stages remaining, he was one minute and 37 seconds behind the red jersey. \nOn the climb to Pe\u00f1as Blancas, he attacked inside the final two kilometres, but Mas and the other contenders responded. The final major opportunity came on the queen stage: almost 187 kilometres, five demanding climbs and approximately 5,000 metres of elevation gain before the brutal finish on Collado del Alguacil. \nPrimo\u017e and his team tried everything, but Mas was stronger on this occasion. He extended his advantage to two minutes and 15 seconds and secured the overall victory. \n \nA result that means more than a number \nPrimo\u017e arrived in Granada as the runner-up of the 2026 Vuelta. Enric Mas won the race, while Felix Gall completed the podium. \n \n\u201cLooking back at where I was a few weeks ago, finishing second was difficult to imagine, so in this case it feels like a victory.\u201d \n \nSecond place does not mean that the\u00a0Una m\u00e1s\u00a0story ended differently from the way we had hoped. It means that Primo\u017e once again showed why a result sometimes tells only part of the story. \nFor three weeks, he improved, persevered and fought alongside the best. He went from wondering whether he would even be able to start to finishing second in one of the toughest races in the world. \n \nSome results mean more than a number. \nFour victories. One third place and one extraordinary second place.<\/p>\n\n

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Primo\u017e finished the 2026 Vuelta in second place, adding a sixth podium finish to his remarkable record at the Spanish Grand Tour. This time, however, the number two tells only part of the story. Less than a month before the start of the race, Primo\u017e was hit by a car during training. A major haematoma […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69207,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69206\/revisions\/69207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primozroglic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}