Jonas Vingegaard to avenge his Tour disappointment at the 2025 Vuelta a España

Even with the hangover from the French round, we set our sights on the third grand tour of the season. The Vuelta a España, which will take place between August 23 and September 14, presents itself as a showdown against Jonas Vingegaard who, given the superiority he and Pogacar showed during the Tour de France compared to the rest of the teams, positions him as the undisputed favorite to win the red jersey.

Favorites for victory in La Vuelta a España 2025

He has shown exceptional form during the Tour de France but the presence of an unbeatable Tadej Pogacar, who was truly only superior on the day of Hautacam, has prevented him from wearing the yellow jersey again. Jonas Vingegaard will try to make amends in La Vuelta, a race in which he arrives as, a priori, the cyclist with the highest level among those who will be competing. In addition, he will have at his disposal a team as powerful as the one that competed in the French round.

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They will face, of course, a UAE Team Emirates-XRG that, after confirming Tadej Pogacar's absence following a demanding Tour de France, will entrust the leadership of the race to the duo Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida. A dual leadership that will be difficult to manage. This situation will be compounded by the fact that they will have a less powerful team than the one that participated in the French round.

It will be interesting to see Richard Carapaz, who was having a great season and was sidelined from the Tour de France at the last minute due to an infection. Surely the Ecuadorian will face La Vuelta a España eager to make up for his absence in the French round and not achieving a victory that he had within reach until almost the end of the Giro d'Italia.

A step below, we find cyclists who aspire to the Top10 in the general classification and who, under the right circumstances, could reach the podium. In this category, we find names like Enric Mas, Felix Gall, Giulio Ciccone, the Soudal-QuickStep duo formed by Mikel Landa and Valentin Paret-Paintre, or even Egan Bernal.

Route of La Vuelta a España 2025

The start in Piedmont, Italy is the first distinguishing feature of the route of La Vuelta a España 2025. The first 3 stages in Italy, where we will experience, already in the second stage, the first mountain finish, although, in the style of La Vuelta, after a flat stage and a final climb. The last of the stages will travel to France crossing the Alps in its initial part, where the Montgenevre and Lautaret passes will be climbed, with the rest of the stage being completely flat, so no major movements are expected.

The return to Spain, specifically to the town of Figueras in Girona, will bring us a 20-kilometer team time trial, a stage where we can see the first differences in the general classification, preceding a new mountain finish at the Andorran ski resort of Pal.

In a particularly mountainous first week, the peloton will travel the next day to Huesca to recover one of the historic finishes of La Vuelta a España, the Cerler ski resort. Only the weekend stages will remain, with a transfer to Zaragoza, a completely flat stage but where the appearance of the Cierzo wind always threatens, turning a sprinter stage into a battle, and a new mountain finish at the former common finish of La Vuelta, the Riojan ski resort of Valdezcaray.

The second week follows the essence of La Vuelta routes with Navarre as the setting and the finish line located at the Belagua pass, that is, the Spanish side of La Piedra de San Martín. From there to Bilbao, where the race will almost identically reproduce the stage that was the opening of the Tour de France two years ago, including the Pike Bidea wall less than 10 kilometers from the finish.

La Vuelta will continue along the Cantabrian coast with a medium mountain stage towards Corrales de Buelna, serving as a prelude to the usual Asturian stages, starting with the arrival at the fearsome Angliru and a mini-stage of just 130 kilometers that will end at La Farrapona. The second week will end with a route through Galician lands, always deceptive due to its medium mountain terrain, although the favorable final part points to a finish controlled by a breakaway or even a sprint.

The Galician stage that will kick off the last week of the race will be more interesting, with a myriad of ascents and, in true La Vuelta style, a new mountain finish at Castro de Herville, above the town of Mos.

This block of stages will end by leaving Galicia and heading towards El Bierzo to face one of the tough climbs of La Vuelta, the El Morredero pass, although once again in a stage almost entirely focused on this climb and of a very short distance.

The individual time trial comes late in the race. 27 kilometers completely flat through the streets of Valladolid, where we will see the biggest differences in the general classification throughout the race. This time trial, placed in the last week, will leave little room for reaction for those who do not achieve the desired performance.

After a completely flat stage between the provinces of Valladolid and Salamanca, only the traditional stage in the Sierra de Guadarrama will remain, where La Vuelta has once again focused on the terrain of the Western Sierra for the initial part, linking with a traditional loop that connects the Puerto del Leon and the Segovian side of the Puerto de Navacerra, the famous Siete Revueltas before descending to the Madrid side to make a new loop that allows them to ascend by the same face they just descended and finish with the inhuman wall of Bola del Mundo.

How to watch La Vuelta a España 2025

Both Eurosport through its conventional channels available on almost all television platforms and the HBO Max platform on one side, and RTVE alternating between its channels Teledeporte, La1, and La2 as well as the online platform RTVE Play will be, as usual, the options available to follow the development of La Vuelta a España.

The schedules of the stages are yet to be confirmed, as well as which stages will be broadcast in their entirety.