Three weeks of racing before Tadej Pogačar wears the red jersey on the final podium in Granada. Right?Almost certainly. The Slovenian is the overwhelming favorite to complete his set of Grand Tour victories at the Vuelta a España, and by a wide margin.But the Vuelta always retains an air of unpredictability — and features the hardest parcours of any Grand Tour this season, with seven major summit finishes, plus the expectation of extreme heat.From Monaco to Granada, this is everything you need to know about the 2026 Vuelta a España.Jonas Vingegaard won the Vuelta in 2025 but is not defending his title (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)Who can hope to challenge Pogacar for the red jersey?It was in Spain (well, technically, initially stage four in Andorra) that Pogačar first burst into the elite level at the 2019 Vuelta a España. It marked the emergence of a titan. The then-21-year-old won three stages and finished third overall behind Primoz Roglic and Alejandro Valverde — but has not returned to the race since.Seven years on, the Slovenian has won the last four Grand Tours he entered — having never finished off the podium in his three-week stage racing career — the last two by a combined 11 minutes. This season, Pogačar has won every race he entered but one, Paris-Roubaix, where he took second in a sprint finish.Realistically, there is no coherent argument that any rider at this Vuelta can beat him on form alone. Pogačar is deservedly an overwhelming favourite, and only misfortune, realistically, will deny him red.Tadej Pogačar made his Grand Tour debut at the 2019 Vuelta and won three stages (Ander Gillenea/AFP via Getty Images)With that said, Jonas Vingegaard’s crash at this year’s Tour shows how quickly races can change — while the two favorites at last year’s Giro d’Italia, Roglic and Juan Ayuso, both abandoned with injuries. Cycling carries no guarantees, and three weeks is a long time.Chasing Pogačar, competing for the podium, is a phalanx of riders headlined by Felix Gall. The Decathlon CMA CGM rider, set to join Lidl-Trek next season, impressively finished second behind Vingegaard at the Giro this spring.The Austrian is something of a throwback in this era of cycling; a pure climber whose time trialling would bring out an aerodynamicist in hives, but who is likely to be the second-best in the high mountains.Roglic, a four-time winner of this race, also returns to the Vuelta. This could be the 36-year-old’s final tilt at the race — amid a stacked Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe roster, this is the only Grand Tour he is leading this year — but he enters with uncertain form, having suffered injuries after being hit by the driver of a car three weeks ago.