Tim Merlier dominated the first sprint finish of this year's Tour of Britain to win stage two in Skegness.
The 33-year-old Merlier, making his debut in this race, had sat on the wheel of his rival Olav Kooij going through the final left-hander and then spotted a gap to launch his sprint early - opening an advantage that nobody could close.
Kooij came in second, just ahead of Irishman Sam Bennett at the end of the largely flat 181km stage from Boston.
Wednesday's stage winner Lewis Askey was in the front group of 37 riders to retain the overall leader's jersey, 12 seconds clear of Tim Wellens in the overall standings.
Filippo Ganna, who began the day second overall, suffered a poorly-timed puncture and could not chase back and he tumbled out of the top 10.
When is 2026 La Vuelta?
La Vuelta runs from August 22 in Monaco to Sept. 13 in Granada.
2026 La Vuelta route, stages, stage winners, rest days
La Vuelta this year is made up of 21 stages and will cover 3,275 kilometers in total. It compromises four hilly stages, a hilly, uphill finale stage, four flat stages, four medium mountains stages, six mountain stages, two individual time trial stages and two rest days.
Aug. 22, individual time trial, Monaco, 9.4km Tadej Podacar won
Aug. 23, hilly, Monaco to Manosque, 214.3km. Matthew Brennan won
medium mountains, Aug. 24, Gruissan-Aude to Font Romeu, 174km
Aug. 25, mountain, Andorra La Vella, 104.8km Tadej Pogacar won
Aug. 26, hilly, Falset Costa Daudara to Roquets Terres De L'Ebre, 173.4km. Matthew Brennan won
Aug. 27, medium mountains, Alcossebre to Castello, 177.4km Tadej Pogacar won
Aug. 28, mountain, Vall D'Alba to Aramon Valdelinares, 149.8km. Andres Leknessund won
Aug. 29, flat, Pucol to Xeraco, 171km. Bryan Coquard won
Aug. 30, mountain, La Vila Joisosa to Alto De Aitana, Costa Blanca, 187.4km Enric Mas won
Sept. 1, hilly, Alcaraz to Elchge De La Sierra, 184.7km Bastien Tronchon won
Sept. 2, flat, Cartagena to Lorca, 151.3km Matthew Brennan won
Sept. 3, mountain, Vera to Calar Alto, 166.6km Tim Merlier won
Sept. 4, medium mountains, Almunecar to Loja, 192.8km
Sept. 5, mountain, Jaen to Sierra de La Pandera, 154.5km
Sept. 6, medium mountains, Palma del Río to Córdoba, 189.7km
Sept. 8, hilly, Cortegana to La Rabida, Palos de la Frontera, 181.1km
Sept. 9, flat, Dos Hermanas to Sevilla, 185km
Sept. 10, individual time trial, El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez de la Frontera, 32km
Sept. 11, hilly, uphill arrival, Velez-Malaga to Penas Blancas, Estepona, 210k
Sept. 12, mountain, La Calahorra to Collado del Alguacil, 186.8km
Sept. 13, flat, Carrefour Granada to Granada, 112km
Rest days: Aug. 31, Sept. 7.
2026 La Vuelta rider start list
Alpecin-Premier Tech
-- Kaden Groves
-- Sente Sentjens
-- Gal Glivar
-- Hugo Houle
-- Michael Gogl
-- Lindsay De Vylder
-- Francesco Busatto
Bahrain Victorious
-- Santiago Buitrago
-- Pello Bilbao
-- Matevž Govekar
-- Pau Miquel
-- Jakob Omrzel
-- Attila Valter
-- Roman Ermakov
-- Mathijs Paasschens
Decathlon CMA CGM Team
-- Léo Bisiaux
-- Oscar Chamberlain
-- Felix Gall
-- Jordan Labrosse
-- Gregor Mühlberger
-- Sander De Pestel
-- Matthew Riccitello
-- Callum Scotson
Netcompany INEOS
-- Oscar Onley
-- Embret Svestad-Bardseng
-- Ben Turner
-- Carlos Rodríguez
-- Josh Tarling
-- Jack Haig
-- Lucas Hamilton
-- Axel Laurance
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
-- Will Barta
-- Marco Brenner
-- Arthur Kluckers
-- Stefan Küng
-- Roland Thalmann
-- Larry Warbasse
-- Fabian Weiss
-- Hannes Wilksch
Uno-X Mobility
-- Magnus Cort
-- Simon Dalby
-- Fredrik Dversnes
-- Tobias Johannessen
-- Andreas Kron
-- Andreas Leknessund
-- Rasmus Tiller
-- Martin Tjøtta
NSN Cycling Team
-- George Bennett
-- Jan Hirt
-- Hugo Hofstetter
-- Moritz Kretschy
-- Alexey Lutsenko
-- Pau Martí
-- Nick Schultz
-- Floris Van Tricht
Pinarello - Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
-- Walter Calzoni
-- Marcel Camprubí
-- David De La Cruz
-- Milan Vader
-- Xabier Mikel Azparren
-- Eddie Dunbar
-- Tom Gloag
-- David Gonzalez
-- Milan Vader
Lidl - Trek
-- Julien Bernard
-- Lennard Kämna
-- Patrick Konrad
-- Jacopo Mosca
-- Mathias Norsgaard
-- Thibau Nys
-- Mads Pedersen
-- Mattias Skjelmose
Team Jayco AlUla
-- Koen Bouwman
-- Alessandro Covi
-- Paul Double
-- Asbjørn Hellemose
-- Hamish McKenzie
-- Finlay Pickering
-- Rudy Porter
-- Jasha Sütterlin
Burgos Burpellet BH
-- Clément Alleno
-- Mario Aparicio
-- Sergio Chumil
-- José Manuel Diaz
-- José Luis Faura
-- Sinuhé Fernández
-- Jesús Herrada
-- César Macías
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
-- Finn Fisher-Black
-- Jordi Meeus
-- Gianni Moscon
-- Primož Roglič
-- Callum Thornley
-- Luke Tuckwell
-- Gianni Vermeersch
-- Frederik Wandahl
XDS Astana Team
-- Darren van Bekkum
-- Yevgeniy Fedorov
-- Lorenzo Fortunato
-- Victor Langellotti
-- Henok Mulubrhan
-- Cristian Rodríguez
-- Alessandro Romele
-- Harold Tejada
EF Education - EasyPost
-- Vincenzo Albanese
-- Markel Beloki
-- Richard Carapaz
-- Alastair Mackellar
-- Darren Rafferty
-- Juan Felipe Rodriguez
-- James Shaw
-- Georg Steinhauser
Team Picnic PostNL
-- Mattia Gaffuri
-- Chris Hamilton
-- Henri-François Haquin
-- Timo de Jong
-- Gijs Leemreize
-- Juan Guillermo Martinez
-- Oliver Peace
-- Timo Roosen
Lotto - Intermarché
-- Luca Van Boven
-- Vito Braet
-- Lars Craps
-- Lorenzo Rota
-- Steffen De Schuyteneer
-- Roel van Sintmaartensdijk
-- Reuben Thompson
-- Jarno Widar
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
-- Wout van Aert
-- Bruno Armirail
-- Matthew Brennan
-- Steven Kruijswijk
-- Sepp Kuss
-- Christophe Laporte
-- Jørgen Nordhagen
-- Ben Tulett
Soudal - Quick-Step
-- Fabio Van den Bossche
-- Steff Cras
-- Alberto Dainese
-- Gianmarco Garofoli
-- Ethan Hayter
-- Mikel Landa
-- Valentin Paret-Peintre
-- Filippo Zana
UAE Team Emirates XRG
-- João Almeida
-- Domen Novak
-- Ivo Oliveira
-- Tadej Pogacar
-- Pavel Sivakov
-- Pablo Torres
-- Kevin Vermaerke
-- Jay Vine
Groupama - FDJ United
-- Clément Berthet
-- Olivier Le Gac
-- Valentin Madouas
-- Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet
-- Rudy Molard
-- Enzo Paleni
-- Rémy Rochas
-- Bastien Tronchon
Cofidis
-- Emanuel Buchmann
-- Bryan Coquard
-- Alex Kirsch
-- Sylvain Moniquet
-- Paul Ourselin
-- Alexis Renard
-- Louis Rouland
-- Sergio Samitier
Movistar Team
-- Jorge Arcas
-- Orluis Aular
-- Carlos Canal
-- Pablo Castrillo
-- Raúl García
-- Enric Mas
-- Iván Romeo
-- Cian Uijtdebroeks
Equipo Kern Pharma
-- Urko Berrade
-- Marc Brustenga
-- Iván Cobo
-- Iñigo Elosegui
-- Ibon Ruiz
-- Ivan Sosa
-- Diego Uriarte -
- Mats Wenzel
How to watch 2026 La Vuelta in the UK
Every stage of La Vuelta, from start to finish, will be live in the UK on TNT Sports and its streaming partner HBO Max.