With 10 mountaintop finishes, the Vuelta had seemed primed for lots of climbing drama, but illness and pro-Palestinian protests took some spark out of the race up to the very end, for the final stage was canceled mid-race because thousands of protestors had massed on the route in Madrid. But Saturday’s breathtaking stage 20, the final completed stage, more than made up for all of it.
The real Vingegaard at last!
At the end of stage 20, on the beyond category (HC) Bola del Mundo (12.4km @ 8.6%), Vingegaard was part a small group of GC leaders tackling the final 3.1km of the climb (average of 12.2% with gradients of up to 23%). He burst out of that group on a 19% ramp, 1.2km from the finish line, and quickly opened a gap on his main rival, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates–XRG). He increased his lead with every pedal stroke as the slope grew even steeper in the last 200m and came to the line 11 seconds ahead of teammate Sepp Kuss. Almeida finished fifth, at 22 seconds.
Vingegaard won the Vuelta by 1:16 over the Portuguese rider, with Tom Pidcock, who finished fourth on the stage, completing the podium, at 3:11. In addition to the gradients, what made that final 3km stretch so formidable was the pitted and cracked road surface, which, as Kuss explained, made it “really hard to go out of the saddle at times.”
After receiving criticism for his passive racing on other potentially decisive stages, Vingegaard finally showed what we all knew, that he is the second-best rider in the world. As we had speculated here, the explanation for his lack of explosiveness on earlier stages was that he’d been ill. Kuss, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Saturday, explained that Vingegaard “was sick, coughing a lot, struggling to breathe properly. To finish a Grand Tour, you need to be at 100%, and he was suffering every day. But in the third week, he turned it around, and today you saw the result.”
It was Vingegaard’s third stage win of this Vuelta and the third Grand Tour victory of his career, after winning the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023. “I wouldn’t say that I was feeling comfortable in the pace that João and then Jai [Hindley] were doing, but at least I felt like that I was not on my limit,” he said. “So I felt that I had a good chance of winning the stage.
“At one point I just decided that I was going to try. Then I immediately got a gap. The last few hundred meters were incredibly hard, and I almost went into the barrier – a small mistake on my part. I’m super happy with how things went for me today and how the team has done in the last three weeks. The team has been so amazing. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
It was a very good race for Visma–Lease a Bike as well. The team won its second Grand Tour of the year, after the victory of Simon Yates in the Giro d’Italia, and had three riders in the top 10 of the GC standings: Vingegaard, Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson. And they accomplished it with only six riders, after losing Alex Zingle in a crash early on and the invaluable Victor Campenaerts due to illness late in the race.
A thought for Almeida
I have always liked João Almeida. He always leaves everything on the road, is loyal to leader and team, is one of the best climbers in the world and never complains. But he had a lot to complain about in this race. First of all, he too was ill, and you could see the effects on him after stage 20. He was clearly suffering, near tears and needed help to slip on his jacket. He would not have beaten Vingegaard on that final push, but he would certainly have finished much closer to him if he’d been healthy.
He was also left on his own by his team during the race, usually riding without support on the summit finishes [see more below], which must have taken a toll on him. His reaction was always a shrug and saying, “It is what it is.” And then there was the sprint on Friday’s stage 18, where Vingegaard. led out by Matteo Jorgenson, took 4 bonus seconds, while UAE riders were out of position. But perhaps Almeida was simply not well enough to ride for the points.
He had more support on this stage, with all domestiques riding hard and Jay Vine leading him until that final stretch. But he clearly struggled in the end. Almeida was clearly disappointed but, as always, gracious and classy, even in defeat. “We had to try today, we had nothing to lose,” he said of the effort finally made by his UAE teammates. “The idea was to make it as fast as we could, to make the stage as hard as we could. Unfortunately, I’ve been sick this week, so the feeling was not the best. But we still tried and I think that’s what matters. Congrats to Jonas. He was super strong, and I think it’s not too bad being behind him.”
You just have to like the guy.
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A word for Tom Pidcock
That word is Bravo! I was one of the many commentators who doubted the Q36.5’s leaders ability to climb well enough to have an impact on the GC. But he proved us all very wrong. Good for him. He climbed with the best throughout the race, and even on that final stretch he was never dropped, and secured his first Grand Tour podium finish, in third, 30 seconds ahead of 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe).
The 26-year-old Briton had every right to say at the end of stage 20, “I really don’t know what to say now, except that I’m pretty proud of myself.” He should be because he has joined a very exclusive club. He is the only male rider to have won a cyclo-cross world championship, a world championship and two Olympic gold medals in MTB and have a Grand Tour podium finish. His Palmares are matched only by Mathieu van der Poel and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. And bravo to the Pro-level team Q36.5; they took a gamble on Pidcock and he has taken them into the big time: a podium finish on a Grand Tour.
Congratulations, you lost!
Congratulations, UAE Team Emirates–XRG, with seven stage wins in this Vuelta and a certain team record for wins in a year, you certainly won the battles this year. (In Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal Brandon McNulty won the team’s 85th victory of the year, tying the record.) But you lost the war. With two Grand Tour victories to your one and three riders in the Vuelta top 10 to your one, Visma-Lease a Bike won the war. You gravely mishandled the Juan Ayuso–Isaac del Toro situation and the final stage tactics in the Giro, helping Yates win the race, and you mishandled Almeida in this Vuelta. So enjoy the kudos for breaking the wins record when you break it, but . . .
Some shoutouts
To the 23-year-old American Matthew Riccitello (Israel–Premier Tech), who ignored all the protests aimed at his team throughout the race – including on Saturday and Sunday – and climbed all the mountains to finish fifth in the GC and take the white jersey for the best young rider.
To Egan Bernal, for completing his comeback from a 2022 life-threatening crash by winning Tuesday’s stage 16, his first Grand Tour victory in four years and his first WorldTour win since the crash. Chapeau for persisting on the rough road back and being able to celebrate success again.
Last but certainly not least, Mads Pedersen for being Mads Pedersen and winning the green jersey in a race not kind to sprinters. But he climbed some serious mountains to take vital points at intermediate sprints and also won a stage. Not only that, he also supported his Lidl-Trek teammates whenever and wherever he could and was a dynamic presence in the race. He is a superstar in bloke’s clothing and the race would have been poorer without him.
Final stage annulled by protests
Inevitably, Sunday’s final, ceremonial stage of the Vuelta was annulled mid-stage by thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters in Madrid. Without going into anything else, I worry about future Grand Tours being targeted by political actions because these races are so vulnerable as they are accessible to the public and conducted over thousands of kilometers of open road. There doesn’t seem to be a solution to the problem short of stationing thousand of police officers along the route and keeping the public out. And that’s not an option.
The Tour de France has so far been spared disruption of this magnitude, but France is currently in the midst of a political crisis. Having seen the attention these protesters have received, it’s not inconceivable that French groups trying to protect their social benefits may resort to the same strategy. Thumbs crossed.
Final General Classifications Standings of the 2025 Vuelta Ciclista a España
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 72:53:57
- João Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 1:16
- Tom Pidcock, Q36.5 +3:11
- Jai Hindley, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +3:41
- Matthew Riccitello, Israel–Premier Tech +5:551
- Giulio Pellizzari, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +7:23
- Sepp Kuss, Visma–Lease a Bike +7:45
- Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +7:50
- Torstein Træen, Bahrain-Victorious +9:48
- Matteo Jorgenson, Visma–Lease a Bike +12:16
Results of Stage 20 of the 2025 Vuelta Ciclista a España
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 3:56:23
- Sepp Kuss, Sepp Kuss, Visma–Lease a Bike + 0:11
- Jai Hindley, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe + 0:13
- Tom Pidcock, Q36.5 + 0:18
- João Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:22
- Matthew Riccitello, Israel–Premier Tech + 0:24
- Jay Vine, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:47
- Giulio Ciccone, Lidl-Trek +1:11
- Junior Lecerf, T-Rex Quick-Step +1:22
- Finlay Pickering, Bahrain-Victorious +1:30
