The 2026 Vuelta a España saved its toughest stage for the penultimate day of the race, and it more than delivered, serving up an incredibly popular winner in the form of Mikel Landa, while his fellow Spaniard, Enric Mas, all but sealed a first overall victory for the home nation since Alberto Contador won in 2014.Landa is one of the sport’s most popular riders, a classy operator despite a lack of wins (today was his first Grand Tour stage win since 2017), and after he pulled clear of his breakaway companions on the final, torturous climb of Collado del Alguacil, his army of fans was able to savor a famous victory.Behind them, the peloton was decimated by the terrain from early on in the day, with Richard Carapaz making repeated attacks before Sepp Kuss gained several minutes and leapt from to 11th to fifth in the general classification. Third-placed Felix Gall made a brave attempt to leapfrog Primož Roglič on the podium, going clear of both him and Mas on the Collado del Alguacil, but ultimately pulled back only 55 seconds on the Slovenian.Everyone who crossed the line looked broken by a brutal day of racing; everyone who watched it was energised by what they had witnessed.Chris Marshall-Bell breaks down a sensational day of racing.‘Landismo’ is aliveIf you had told any Spanish fan at the start of the Vuelta a España that, on the day Enric Mas was all but confirmed as the race winner, Mikel Landa would win the queen stage, they’d have told you to stop dreaming, stop hallucinating, and stop talking nonsense.Such fantasies simply don’t come true.Yet Landa had to have his say on the final weekend of what has been a gloriously triumphant Vuelta for the home nation. Attacking on the final climb, he deservedly – and comfortably — won the hardest stage of the race, claiming his second Vuelta stage win, 11 years after the first.