Pogacar storms into red jersey with 50km solo raid on Andorra

Tadej Pogacar won stage four of the 2026 Vuelta a España solo in Andorra la Vella on Tuesday, riding clear with almost 50 kilometres remaining and never being seen again. The UAE Team Emirates rider crossed the line in 2 hours 40 minutes 35 seconds, 2 minutes 39 seconds ahead of second-placed Jarno Widar, with Felix Gall third The Guardian.

It was the longest solo attack Pogacar has launched for a Grand Tour stage victory. The Slovenian, who won his fifth Tour de France title in July, is now racing his second Grand Tour of the summer — and looking every bit as dominant.

Stage four was a short, brutal mountain test: 104.8 kilometres starting and finishing in Andorra la Vella, packing 3,024 metres of climbing into less than two-and-a-half hours of racing. The peloton — the main pack of riders — rolled out at 14:49 CEST, and the road pointed upward almost immediately Cyclingnews.

Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS Astana nabbed the maximum mountain points over the summit of the Port d'Envalira, the day's highest pass. But the real damage came later. By the time Pogacar crested the Collada de Beixalis — the final climb before the plunge into Andorra's capital — he already led a chase group containing Enric Mas, Primoz Roglic, Gall, Richard Carapaz and Oscar Onley by 1 minute 30 seconds. That gap had been 3 minutes 12 seconds at the foot of the climb The Guardian.

The chasers clawed back seconds on the descent but never got close. Pogacar, riding alone through the final kilometres, had time to sit up and savour the finish.

The win put him in the red jersey — the Vuelta's leader's bib — with an overall lead of 3 minutes 21 seconds over Roglic. Mas sits third, 11 seconds behind Roglic The Guardian.

For context on how large that gap is: after four stages of a three-week race, leading by more than three minutes is a cushion most riders build over a week, not a long weekend.

What makes this performance startling is the sheer audacity of the distance. Attacking 50 kilometres from the finish on mountain roads leaves a rider exposed — no teammates, no shelter, no margin for a mechanical or a bad descent. Pogacar backed himself against the entire field and made it stick. Whether the Vuelta's remaining 17 stages offer any reply from Roglic, Mas and the rest is the question now hanging over the race.