Van Aert wins Vuelta stage 13, Mas keeps red jersey

Here is what the Spanish press is reporting today, and why "ciclismo" is climbing on Google Trends across Spain. According to Infobae and El Espanol, Wout Van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) won stage 13 of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana on Friday 4 September, a hilly run from Almunecar to Loja in the province of Granada, beating France's Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) in a sprint with both riders credited with the same time of 4h34. Prensa Latina adds a detail that explains part of the buzz: this was already Van Aert's fourth stage win of this edition. Cross-checks across Spanish news aggregators note that Britain's Matthew Brennan, also of Visma Lease a Bike, led the chasers home 24 seconds behind the leading duo.

On the overall standings, the outlets line up closely. Infobae, El Nacional and Ciclismo al Dia all report that Enric Mas (Movistar) kept the leader's red jersey after the stage. Ciclismo al Dia goes further with the exact gaps: Mas leads Slovenia's Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora) by 1 minute 45 seconds and Austria's Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) by 2 minutes 06 seconds. A home rider defending the red jersey is a strong driver of interest, which helps explain the search spike.

One angle other outlets play down, MARCA puts front and centre: its headline of the day focuses on a "growing list of injured riders" (crece la lista de heridos) on what it calls an accidented stage. At this stage MARCA does not give an exact number or name every rider affected, and we could not open the full article directly, so the real extent of the injuries still needs confirmation from the teams' medical reports. Olympics.com and Ciclismo Internacional add the context that makes the crashes less surprising: the route packed in three climbs and more than 3,410 metres of cumulative elevation.

A couple of figures remain unsettled, and we are not going to paper over them. On the stage distance, Infobae gives 192.8 km while Ciclismo Internacional lists 193.2 km, a small discrepancy the sources have not reconciled. And the primary reports from AS.com on Van Aert's ride could not be opened directly during our research, so those specific claims were only confirmed by cross-checking other Spanish media covering the same race.

Sources : Infobae, El Espanol, Prensa Latina, Ciclismo al Dia, MARCA, Olympics.com, Recoupement WebSearch, Google Trends.