Almeida wins on the Angliru but cannot break Jonas Vingegaard's resistance

As predicted, the climb to the fearsome Angliru once again put everyone in their place, demonstrating that the two strongest cyclists in the general classification are, as was already evident, Joao Almeida and Jonas Vingegaar. Tom Pidcock, who excited with his attacks in Bilbao, was not able to keep up with the pace and even fell a bit short of his aspirations for the podium in La Vuelta.

Almeida wins on the Angliru but cannot break Jonas Vingegaard's resistance

Joao Almeida bet on winning at the mythical summit of the Angliru. Stage number 13 of La Vuelta 2025, which connected Cabezón de la Sal with the iconic finish at the Asturian colossus in a route that exceeded 200 kilometers but with the difficulty concentrated in the final 50, which included the ascents to La Mozqueta, Cordal, and the Angliru itself.

At the beginning of the stage, a large breakaway group was formed where, once again, Mads Pedersen ventured with the goal of reaching the intermediate sprint in the lead, located in the transition section between Mozqueta and Cordal, a tough challenge given the difficulty of the first ascent. In total, 25 cyclists, including riders like Bob Jungels, Jefferson Cepeda, Antonio Tiberi, and Ivo Oliveira. However, the peloton kept them at a distance, so their hopes of triumphing at the finish line were minimal.

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Despite the toughness and the movements among the escapees on the ascent to La Mozqueta, with Bob Jungels resurging from his ashes, Mads Pedersen once again displayed his class and, after suffering at his own pace, managed to reintegrate at the summit, allowing him to achieve his goal of obtaining the maximum number of points in the La Vega sprint.

Meanwhile, in the peloton, Q36.5 tried to increase the pace a bit but with not many consequences. More significant was the descent, which, as is usual in the Asturian mountains, claimed a victim in the form of Pablo Castrillo, who fractured his collarbone after an unfortunate fall.

On the Cordal, Bob Jungels tried to stretch his options to the maximum and went ahead in the company of Cepeda, Nicolas Vinokourov, and Garofolli, although the Italian would soon be dropped. They managed to reach the foot of the Angliru with a little over 40 seconds of advantage, making it practically impossible for them to aspire to victory. To make matters worse, they were forced to briefly stop after some protesters against the Israeli invasion of Gaza appeared on the road.

Meanwhile, from the bottom of the climb, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG began to push hard thanks to Ivo Oliveira, who had come from the breakaway. The pace started to take its toll, decimating the group and even dropping some illustrious names like Egan Bernal. As the tough section began, the last 6 inhuman kilometers, Felix Grosschartner gave the final push to Almeida who, after overtaking the Austrian, took the lead of the group and never let go, knowing that it is a climb where attacks cannot be launched and that his extremely high pace is his best weapon.

The relentless pace of the Portuguese rider decimated the leading group, eliminating riders like Ciccone, Pellizari, Jorgenson, and Felix Gall, until one of the podium contenders, Tom Pidcock, fell behind, leaving a quartet at the front consisting of Almeida, Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, and a Jai Hindley who has been showing a form not seen since he won the Giro d'Italia in 2022.

Almeida gradually increased his effort level, which also began to affect the American and Australian, leaving both the stage and the battle for the general classification in a mano a mano between him and Jonas Vingegaard. Despite the inhuman effort of the Portuguese rider, he could not drop Jonas Vingegaard, whose face showed no signs of weakness but also lacked the capacity to launch a counterattack.

 

 

 

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In fact, after cresting a kilometer from the finish, the Dane also had no margin to try to catch Almeida on the fast descent towards the finish line, allowing Joao Almeida to claim the 6th victory of this edition for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Stage 13 Classification

1. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 4h54'15''
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
3. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +28''
4. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +30''
5. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +52''
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'11''
7. Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5) +1'16''
8. Matthew Riccitello (Israel-PremierTech) +1'16''
9. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +2'15''
10. Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-SegurosRGA) +3'06''

General Classification

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 49h30'54''
2. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +46''
3. Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5) +2'18''
4. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +3'00''
5. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +3'15''
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'01''
7. Matthew Riccitello (Israel-PremierTech) +4'33''
8. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +4'54''
9. Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious) +5'21''
10. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5'26''