Alberto Contador does not buy the heatwave explanation for what is happening to the peloton at the 2026 Vuelta a España. On Eurosport’s La Montonera analysis program, the retired Spanish rider offered a blunter reading: the Vuelta is the Grand Tour riders find easiest to step off, and the reasons are structural rather than meteorological.
“It’s not a question of heat or anything like that, the season is advanced and many already have their contracts sorted,” Contador told the program.
“I think this is the Grand Tour where it’s easiest to step off.”
By stage 14, close to 35 riders had already abandoned, with the field shrinking so quickly that Alpecin-Premier Tech were down to three men. UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Team Picnic PostNL had been trimmed to four apiece.
Read also: Neuer's message on Musiala: 'He'll return to his best form'
Contract season, not heat
Contador’s argument turns on motivation. The Vuelta closes cycling’s Grand Tour calendar, and by late August the biggest teams are already looking past it.
“There are WorldTour teams that come to the Vuelta a bit, in quotes, obliged,” Contador said.
“The invited teams are much more committed because of how important it is for them.”
“One drops out for one thing, another for another, another, and before you realize it, one year you finish with one, the next year with two, the next with three,” Contador said.
Read also: Russell out of the Mercedes title race: 'I am not even thinking about a comeback'
Worlds around the corner
Fellow Eurosport analyst Sandra Alonso backed the calendar reading. With the road World Championships closing in, some teams and riders arrive at the Vuelta with lower ambition than they carried to the Tour de France or the Giro d’Italia.
“It’s the last Grand Tour of the year, and we have the Worlds very close,” Alonso said.
The withdrawal list itself does not read as pure heat exhaustion. Crashes have accounted for around half the abandons. Tadej Pogačar was the most high-profile casualty, ruled out on stage 8 with a concussion, a fractured clavicle and a C7 fracture. Illness has taken out Mads Pedersen and Alexey Lutsenko. Pavel Sivakov’s exit on stage 13 was among the few formally attributed to extreme heat.
Enric Mas inherited the red jersey after Pogačar’s stage 8 crash and has held it through stage 14, extending his lead over Roglič on the summit finish at Sierra de la Pandera. The Movistar rider carries a lead of around two minutes over Felix Gall, with Primož Roglič third at a similar margin, heading into the final week of racing.
Read also: McIlroy defends his Irish Open title at Trump's Doonbeg, with the president due on Sunday
Read also: Wolff on Anotonelli: 'He walked on water'
