We already know the route of La Vuelta a España 2025

Second of the three major tours that presents its route after the announcement of the Tour de France 2025 at the end of October. Just like the French race, which has presented a route that adheres to classic standards in this event, La Vuelta 2025 does nothing but exploit to exhaustion the formulas it has been applying in recent times in a race that will start on August 23 from the Italian region of Piedmont.

Italian start and overdose of mountain finishes mark the route of La Vuelta a España 2025

No less than 10 mountain finishes will have to be faced by the cyclists participating in La Vuelta a España 2025, we have not found the data, but it is surely a record for a grand tour, many in stages with contained kilometers and with little difficulty before them in what in recent times many have come to call "YouTube cycling" for limiting the action to the end of the stage.

An aspect that has sparked mixed opinions among fans after the route of La Vuelta a España 2025 was announced, but what cannot be denied is that Unipublic, the race organizer, continues year after year with this formula because it works for them and generates good TV audiences in the only one of the three major tours that does not broadcast all stages in their entirety like the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

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Two more aspects mark the route. The first is the well-known start in the Italian region of Piedmont with the city of Turin as the starting point of the race and four stages to be disputed in this start, the last of them, entering French territory through the Alps although in a completely decaffeinated way. The other, that La Vuelta a España 2025 will only pass through the northern half of Spain after the tremendous criticism that the first week of the last edition raised due to the tremendous temperatures at the end of August that the cyclists had to endure and that conditioned the spectacle of the first stages.

As we were saying, the race starts in Turin, passing through Novara in what will be the second longest stage of La Vuelta a España 2025 with a completely flat route and, the next day, the cyclists will face the first mountain finish in Limone Piedmont after a also flat day. For the third stage, the organization has chosen a route with rolling terrain to give opportunities to breakaways, and the next day, they will leave Italy for neighboring France with a stage that crosses the Alps through the Montgenevre and Lautaret passes, but does so in its initial part as a mere formality since the rest of the day will be flat and downhill, completely wasting the passage through the area.

From there, La Vuelta a España 2025 will move to Spain to face, in the 5th stage, a team time trial in the town of Figueras, just 20 kilometers long but which will serve to create the first differences before the next day when La Vuelta will travel to Andorra with the first stage where the favorites will have to show themselves. It is not a tremendously mountainous stage, marked by the ascent to Tosses midway through the stage and the Andorran finish with the usual climb of La Comella before the ascent to Pal, a tough climb.

The action does not stop in the 7th stage, which recovers a route typical of the 80s reaching the ski resort of Cerler, in the heart of the Benasque valley. A stage with a good combination of climbs where the Cantó, Creu de Perves, Coll de l'Espina will be ascended, and the finish in Ampriu, the highest part reached by the road to the Cerler ski resort. An interesting stage although conditioned by the excessive separation between climbs, so, as it used to happen when it was a regular finish, the outcome will be limited to the last climb.

And speaking of classic stages, what to say about the arrival in Zaragoza, a city that has been used regularly in La Vuelta routes, along with Albacete, to seek stages where the wind can provide a spectacle, in fact, the arrival in the Aragonese capital from the north means that, if the Cierzo wind shows up, hitting the peloton sideways, the ideal condition for echelons to form.

The first week of the race closes with a third nod to those races of the 80s with the arrival at the Valdezcaray ski resort, unfortunately, in another single-climb stage, which, if we add that it is a very gentle ascent, it would not be surprising to see a dozen cyclists fighting for the stage win in a sprint.

After the first rest day, La Vuelta a España 2025 will continue in the same vein. In the 10th stage, traveling to the Roncal valley to offer another single-climb stage with a finish in Belagua, that is, the Spanish side of the Piedra de San Martín which, as we said about Valdezcaray, is a quite gentle climb that should not create differences beyond a bad day for some cyclists.

In the 11th stage, La Vuelta borrows the route of the stage that opened the Tour de France 2023, that is, Bilbao will offer an interesting medium mountain stage, also with the ascent to Pike Bidea before the final descent towards the finish line located in the Basque capital. And the journey along the coast will continue the next day towards Cantabrian lands, specifically towards Corrales de Buelna with a stage of curious route, mostly flat except for the ascent to Alisas in the first third and the tough Collada de Brenes which is crowned just over 20 kilometers from the finish.

Thus, we arrive at the end of the second week with a decisive weekend in Asturias, concentrating the two most selective stages of the race. The first of them, the longest of this edition of La Vuelta a España 2025, will take the peloton to the Angliru through a completely flat route, with the difficulty concentrated in the last 50 kilometers where the Alto de la Mozqueta, the essential Cordal, and the final climb to the Angliru are linked.

The second Asturian stage offers an express route that La Vuelta also likes so much. Just 135 kilometers that recover the arrival at La Farrapona, sticking to the typical route when La Vuelta has arrived in these parts instead of trying to take advantage of the newly asphalted Leonese side that would offer tremendous possibilities for other options. A climb that, to stay on script, will be preceded by the tough San Lorenzo climb. Only one stage remains to close the week, a rolling stage that will take the peloton to Galician lands to finish in Monforte de Lemos.

The third week of La Vuelta a España 2025 will continue in the same line as the rest of the race, starting with an interesting medium mountain stage full of small climbs between Poio and Mos, of course, with a mountain finish. The Galician trilogy will close the next day with the arrival at El Morredero, again a stage with reduced mileage, and no difficulties beyond the final climb.

On stage 18, one of the important days of the race arrives with the individual time trial in Valladolid, 26 kilometers that should leave the classification almost decided if there is anything left to decide at this point in the race, which is likely due to the deliberate search for stages that do not create excessive differences.

After the time trial, only the traditional stage of the Sierra de Guadarrama will remain, combining the western part of the mountain range that was covered last year with the return of the finish at Bola del Mundo preceded by a first pass through the Navacerrada pass from its Segovian side. Undoubtedly, an attractive route although conditioned by the tremendous difficulty of the last 4 kilometers which, as we know, usually only serves to block the race until that moment.

Unipublic continues to bet on making La Vuelta a España more focused on the general public who only tune in, taking advantage of the post-lunch time, to watch the final part of the stages instead of satisfying the loyal fan of this sport. Obviously, numbers rule and enjoying the highest TV audiences, even in a very specific time slot, and filling the roadsides at the stage finishes, even if there is not a soul in the rest of the route, is the formula that has been working for them in recent times, which, after all, is what organizing a great race is all about.