Stage 16: Cortegana → La Rabida: Brennan does it again, the contest wakes up

Over the 186 flat km between Cortegana and La Rabida, Matthew Brennan controlled the massive sprint ahead of Bryan Coquard and Vito Braet. No drama, no change of red: Enric Mas keeps his jersey, the peloton orderly and the Englishman raising his arms, it's the most straightforward scenario of the Vuelta.

And indeed, 651 players out of 811 had ticked "massive sprint": the best success of the day on the type of finish. The breakaway coming back and the red jersey staying put convinced 610 and 671 forecasters respectively. On the other hand, finding the winner was another matter: 272 out of 811 had Brennan's name, among them Theodurand, CORNER, MarcoTifosi, Loic D., Thibault D., troubadour_prinses, CHEF, Fabrice, hugo herm, Theo C., SenneDemi, comet3, toulousain10 and Ruben P: a band of fine connoisseurs who had noted that Brennan, already a two-time winner on this Vuelta, likes finishes like this one. The best Frenchman or Belgian caught more than one out: Bryan Coquard second, that was the right answer, but only 219 players out of 811 had seen it. 26 players leave this stage empty-handed.

On today's performances, WerDam and Yvette share the best stage with 76 points each, closely followed by Alexandre, AlexCol, Comet and corsaire at 72 pts. And while Yvette is crushing it on the stage, it's GOGO who still wears the symbolic red of the contest: 482 points overall, with only 6 lengths ahead of Yvette (476 pts, 2nd). The battle at the top remains tight.

corsaire pulls off the evening's best move: +4 places to climb to 3rd (452 pts), while Florentgirard drops 3 positions to 6th. Further down, jonp gains 5 places (8th, 423 pts), Wout96 picks up 9 to point to 10th, and maxime patin and troubadour_prinses each progress 7 ranks (15th and 17th). But the performance of the day goes to WerDam: +208 places in one go, which propels this player to 330th: the best comeback of the stage, remarkable in a contest of 834 participants.

Final note: Olivier Chaprier has not made a forecast since September 2, Stéph2 since August 24, lecoq since August 22, and lolodu80520 has never participated.