OFFICIAL Stage 19 Results: Stefan Küng ABANDONS!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Vuelta a España Gamers!
STAGE Grade: A-
I rate this stage an A-. A beautiful route, lots of racing going on everywhere, a surprising winner. The only downside was that the general classification didn’t change all that much. I expect an A or A+ on Saturday, though.
Route: 4/5 GC: 2/5 Tactics: 4/5 Sprint: 2/5 Surprises: 4/5
Today we got a glimpse of the race we never see when Tadej Pogačar storms up the mountain and the likes of Enric Mas, Felix Gall, and Primož Roglič chase behind him for second place. We got to see Santiago Buitrago and Eddie Dunbar fight to the death. The absolute death. Buitrago ahead, Dunbar lost, Dunbar countered, Buitrago ahead, Dunbar dropped, Dunbar countered, Dunbar ahead, and Buitrago lost. Lost and destroyed.
This was the absolute best bike race we could wish for. This kind of racing happens all the time behind the leaders, we just never get to see it. I like that Pogačar is gone and Mas doesn’t want to win every stage. We get to see some good racing.
Good racing from the beginning. Why TV coverage doesn’t start when the stage starts is a mystery to me. Some of the best racing happens in the first kilometers. There was a furious fight to be in the breakaway today. Dunbar had made it into what we all thought was the decisive breakaway — but it wasn’t. After 100 kilometers, the peloton caught the breakaway, just as Dunbar had jumped away.
Dunbar was smart. The reason the peloton was catching the breakaway is because Sepp Kuss had bridged to that group. All day Movistar controlled the peloton and they said: these attacks by Kuss and Richard Carapaz, they are too close in the general classification, we’re not having any of that.
Kuss’ appearance, therefore, killed the breakaway. Dunbar knew that, or he was lucky. He was ahead of group when the peloton swallowed them up and captured Kuss. Strangely enough, by the way, it was INEOS Netcompany who led the charge to catch Kuss. They should have let Movistar do that. Eat their lunch first, and then start on your own. But Decathlon CMA CGM was doing the same thing, chasing Carapaz. Nobody wants to lose a single spot just because they want to eat Movistar’s lunch first. There aren’t a lot of lunches left, it’s back against the wall time.
So Dunbar was ahead and the peloton was together and Movistar didn’t care if the likes of Buitrago jumped to Dunbar. That was the genius of Dunbar’s move. Eventually a breakaway of sixteen riders was ahead of the peloton, and fifteen of those had to burn at least one match to reach Dunbar. Add to that: Dunbar had two teammates among those fifteen.
Still, Buitrago is the best climber in this group. No doubt about it. He attacked, dropped everyone, including Dunbar. Somehow though, not sure how, Thomas Gloag managed to catch Buitrago’s wheel. One of Dunbar’s teammates. Gloag of course did nothing to help Buitrago. Eddie Dunbar returned, as did Urko Berrade.
Still, Buitrago is the best climber in this group. No doubt about it. He attacked again, and it looked decisive. Less than two kilometers to go. Gloag tried to follow, couldn’t. Dunbar, dropped once already, seemed cooked. Berrade … is Berrade. But to my surprise, it was Dunbar who launched a counterattack with 1.5 km to go.
Cycling is suffering. Buitrago was suffering. He wanted this stage win so bad. He deserved it so much. But, “when I saw Dunbar’s shadow coming, I was devastated,” he said in the post-race interview.
In real life if you see someone lying on the ground, nearly dying, you help them up. In cycling, you give them an extra kick just to make sure they will die. That is what Dunbar did to Buitrago. It was too cruel. Buitrago, already devastated. Dunbar attacked from Buitrago’s blind side. Never knew what hit him, 400 meters to go, he would lose another 14 seconds.
Cycling is suffering. Physical and mental suffering. Not for Dunbar, not for Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team who celebrated their first win in a grand tour with first, third, and fifth. No suffering for Switzerland — both their small ProTeam teams have won a stage in the 2026 Vuelta a España.
Enric Mas and Movistar, by the way, countered the few meaningless attacks that Mas’ opponents launched. Nobody is stronger than Mas right now. And Movistar continues to race flawlessly. I didn’t even mention that one of the sixteen in the Dunbar breakaway was Pablo Castrillo: Movistar’s satellite rider. If they needed him. They didn’t. During the climb, Castrillo was so far ahead of Mas that I thought they had miscalculated. But in the end Castrillo finished more than three minutes behind Mas. Mas must have overtaken him and said, “I’ll do this myself.” Castrillo saved his legs for Saturday’s race.
I’ve already spoiled that Urko Berrade was in the final breakaway of sixteen. I had seen an Equipo Kern Pharma jersey earlier, but not sure who it was and it didn’t matter. They definitely weren’t in the earlier breakaway, so they were happy that Kuss tried to bridge, which led to the whole peloton catching the breakaway and giving our focus team a second chance.
Berrade absolutely wanted to win the stage today. But he’s at the limit of what he can do. Cycling is a team sport, cycling is suffering, yes. That doesn’t mean a rider of Berrade’s caliber can just beat a Buitrago, or a Dunbar. Berrade finished fourth today and that is good enough. Another 80 UCI points.
Watch the final kilometer HERE.
Watch the La Vuelta highlights HERE.
Watch the NBC Extended highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Stefan Küng’s abandon surprised nobody. You could overhear him talking about it yesterday before the podium. “I’m going home,” he said. He would score 0 points the rest of the Vuelta. Team Amalia took advantage of when he was still here, his abandon doesn’t matter.
Spoiler alert: Team Ansel overtook Team Amalia for the lead, everyone else remained where they were.
Team Ansel took their second win in a row: most points from the stage, most points from classifications, most points overall, most riders in the Top-25 (seven). Team Charles were second, and everyone else were pretty close together.Team Amalia in third, Team Tadej in fourth, Team Grace in fifth, Team Hugo in sixth, and Team Joshua in seventh.
Perhaps the toughest stage of the 2026 Vuelta is stage 20, Saturday. A category 3 climb to start with and then the peloton goes into the mountains near Granada. Where they do three loops. The Vuelta always does these loops. They’re fun for the fans in Granada. And for the fans on the roads up the Puerto de el Purche, which the riders do twice. Then they climb the Puerto de el Duque. Three category 1 climbs, and then, wait for it, 8.2 km to the finish at 8.2%. “My grand tour is harder than yours.” What a final climb. It says 8.2% but one kilometer is downhill, five kilometers are above 10%, and three times the gradient reaches 18%.
The winner of stage 19 will be us, watching it on TV. Don’t miss it! But we won’t be on the podium. I’ll be a little disappointed if Enric Mas didn’t win the stage. He absolutely can, but he’s demonstrated he doesn’t care if someone else wins, as long as he keeps the red jersey. That makes me look at Buitrago again. Can he recover enough in one day to succeed on Saturday? I really want it for him, but I think it can’t be done.
It will be an Enric Mas kind of day.
Standings after stage 19:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Ansel* |
2859 |
2 |
1 |
|
2 |
Team Amalia* |
2828 |
1 |
-1 |
|
3 |
Team Hugo* |
2702 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Joshua* |
2554 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Charles* |
2531 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Tadej* |
2298 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Grace* |
2295 |
7 |
0 |
Standings after stage 19 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Jake |
3156 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Kent |
3121 |
1 |
-1 |
|
3 |
Team Andrew |
3026 |
3 |
0 |
|
4 |
Team Sam |
3017 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Charlotte |
2972 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Kurt |
2912 |
7 |
1 |
|
7 |
Team Valerie |
2901 |
6 |
-1 |
|
8 |
Team Laurens |
2894 |
9 |
1 |
|
9 |
Team Amelia Katanski |
2868 |
8 |
-1 |
|
10 |
Team Ansel* |
2859 |
11 |
1 |
|
11 |
Team Amalia* |
2828 |
10 |
-1 |
|
12 |
Team Hugo* |
2702 |
12 |
0 |
|
13 |
Team Cameron |
2689 |
14 |
1 |
|
14 |
Team Corsa |
2655 |
13 |
-1 |
|
15 |
Team Jonwaine |
2594 |
15 |
0 |
|
16 |
Team Joshua* |
2554 |
16 |
0 |
|
17 |
Team Charles* |
2531 |
17 |
0 |
|
18 |
Team Rob |
2508 |
19 |
1 |
|
19 |
Team Roberto |
2496 |
18 |
-1 |
|
20 |
Team Adam |
2485 |
20 |
0 |
|
21 |
Team Melanie |
2389 |
21 |
0 |
|
22 |
Team Tadej* |
2298 |
23 |
1 |
|
23 |
Team Doug |
2297 |
22 |
-1 |
|
24 |
Team Grace* |
2295 |
24 |
0 |
|
25 |
Team Craig |
1975 |
25 |
0 |
|
26 |
Team Julie |
1961 |
26 |
0 |
|
27 |
Team Amelia Bondie |
1626 |
27 |
0 |
|
28 |
Team Suzanne |
1564 |
28 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 19:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
YELLOW JERSEY |
GREEN JERSEY |
POLKA DOT JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
67 |
42 |
5 |
2 |
5 |
54 |
121 |
2707 |
2828 |
|
Team Ansel* |
97 |
42 |
5 |
12 |
5 |
64 |
161 |
2698 |
2859 |
|
Team Charles* |
92 |
32 |
9 |
4 |
5 |
52 |
144 |
2387 |
2531 |
|
Team Grace* |
75 |
23 |
5 |
9 |
5 |
42 |
117 |
2178 |
2295 |
|
Team Hugo* |
61 |
32 |
9 |
4 |
8 |
53 |
114 |
2588 |
2702 |
|
Team Joshua* |
52 |
32 |
10 |
4 |
7 |
53 |
105 |
2449 |
2554 |
|
Team Tadej* |
75 |
25 |
9 |
9 |
0 |
43 |
118 |
2180 |
2298 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 19 (including adults):
|
114 |
36 |
5 |
11 |
0 |
54 |
168 |
2317 |
2485 |
|
|
Team Amalia* |
67 |
42 |
5 |
2 |
5 |
54 |
121 |
2707 |
2828 |
|
Team Amelia Bondie |
26 |
11 |
8 |
4 |
0 |
23 |
49 |
1577 |
1626 |
|
Team Amelia Katanski |
69 |
42 |
9 |
7 |
7 |
65 |
134 |
2734 |
2868 |
|
Team Andrew |
69 |
42 |
10 |
6 |
7 |
65 |
134 |
2892 |
3026 |
|
Team Ansel* |
97 |
42 |
5 |
12 |
5 |
64 |
161 |
2698 |
2859 |
|
Team Cameron |
99 |
42 |
5 |
11 |
7 |
65 |
164 |
2525 |
2689 |
|
Team Charles* |
92 |
32 |
9 |
4 |
5 |
52 |
144 |
2387 |
2531 |
|
Team Charlotte |
69 |
42 |
9 |
6 |
7 |
64 |
133 |
2839 |
2972 |
|
Team Corsa |
79 |
26 |
11 |
9 |
2 |
48 |
127 |
2528 |
2655 |
|
Team Craig |
52 |
30 |
4 |
0 |
7 |
41 |
93 |
1882 |
1975 |
|
Team Doug |
44 |
27 |
7 |
6 |
0 |
40 |
84 |
2213 |
2297 |
|
Team Grace* |
75 |
23 |
5 |
9 |
5 |
42 |
117 |
2178 |
2295 |
|
Team Hugo* |
61 |
32 |
9 |
4 |
8 |
53 |
114 |
2588 |
2702 |
|
Team Jake |
99 |
42 |
10 |
11 |
7 |
70 |
169 |
2987 |
3156 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
67 |
42 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
58 |
125 |
2469 |
2594 |
|
Team Joshua* |
52 |
32 |
10 |
4 |
7 |
53 |
105 |
2449 |
2554 |
|
Team Julie |
65 |
24 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
34 |
99 |
1862 |
1961 |
|
Team Kent |
69 |
42 |
10 |
6 |
7 |
65 |
134 |
2987 |
3121 |
|
Team Kurt |
89 |
42 |
9 |
9 |
7 |
67 |
156 |
2756 |
2912 |
|
Team Laurens |
105 |
43 |
6 |
11 |
7 |
67 |
172 |
2722 |
2894 |
|
Team Melanie |
47 |
23 |
9 |
5 |
7 |
44 |
91 |
2298 |
2389 |
|
Team Rob |
87 |
33 |
5 |
11 |
7 |
56 |
143 |
2365 |
2508 |
|
Team Roberto |
69 |
42 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
56 |
125 |
2371 |
2496 |
|
Team Sam |
67 |
42 |
9 |
6 |
5 |
62 |
129 |
2888 |
3017 |
|
Team Suzanne |
60 |
11 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
20 |
80 |
1484 |
1564 |
|
Team Tadej* |
75 |
25 |
9 |
9 |
0 |
43 |
118 |
2180 |
2298 |
|
Team Valerie |
62 |
42 |
9 |
6 |
7 |
64 |
126 |
2775 |
2901 |
-Laurens.