Two tired favorites
Almeida may have come into the third week of the Vuelta with tired legs caused by his team’s hunger for stage victories, rather than winning the GC. UAE has won seven stages so far and Almeida may yet win the red jersey, but the Portuguese team leader deserved better. I have stopped counting the stages on which he was left to ride alone on steep summit finishes while his alleged domestiques, weary from trying to win stages or saving themselves for the next stage, abandoned him to his fate.
Fortunately for him, Vingegaard is also not at his best, whether it was from the many mountains he has climbed, the lingering effects of having ridden a very tough Tour de France or suffering from an illness that has affected the peloton and caused several riders to drop out. It could be the latter, for he was caught coughing on camera at the end of Thursday’s time trial, which saw him lose 10 seconds to his rival. But whatever the reason, it was wearisome to see the two favorites ride together again on the tough ascent to the summit of the Alto de El Morredero (8.8km @ 9.5%) on Wednesday’s stage 17 without mounting even the shadow of an attack.
“I didn’t have the very best day for me but I survived,” Vingegaard said. “That’s the days you need to survive – the days you don’t feel 100%. If you can get through those without losing any time, that’s a good day.” So the Dane was in survival mood.
As for Almeida, he didn’t feel great either. “[Vingegaard] was not looking super. But I didn’t as well. I think we’re all a little bit in the same boat,” he said. Because of the final climb, this was yet another supposedly “decisive” stage for the GC that wasn’t. But it was decisive for the 21-year-old Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe prodigy Giulio Pellizzari, who did what Vingegaard and Almeida should have done and attacked. He burst out of the small GC group 3.4km from the finish and rode alone to win the first professional victory of his career. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) finished second, 16 seconds behind, while the Briton’s main rival for the final podium spot, Red Bull’s Jai Hindley, finished third, at 18 seconds. All three were stronger than the two race favorites, who failed to pick up any bonus seconds at the finish.
“I suffered on the hardest section, but I felt that today could be my day and so it was,” Pellizzari said after the stage, as reported by the Italian site sport.quotidiano.net. “This is the best moment of my career, even if it is clearly short so far. Today I had the strange feeling that it could be my day. I have to thank my teammates and of course Jai [Hindley].”
Bernal, at last!
Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) celebrated his first Grand Tour victory in four years and his first WorldTour win since his life-threatening crash in 2022 when he outsprinted Mikel Landa (T-Rex Quick-Step) – another rider returning from a bad injury – at the end of yet another stage shortened by protesters.
The two riders were what remained of a 17-rider breakaway that broke away from the peleton with about 118km left to ride, though the final route distance was unclear after organizers eliminated the final climb and set up the finish line about 8km from the original finish because protesters had blocked the road.
“After I dropped out of the GC I really wanted a win,” Bernal said. “And actually, I wanted to win with the national [Colombian champion’s] jersey, which means a lot for me. To win a stage in the Vuelta is something that I was really looking for after everything that [has] passed in the last few years for me.”.
He went on to say, “Until the end, apart from the last climb, it was a beautiful stage, super hard. The whole day we were going super full gas. Even with Landa, the cooperation was super good. And when we knew that the final would be at 8km to go, we just sprinted.”
I think every rider in the peloton and every cycling fan was delighted for the Colombian, who has been patiently working for something to celebrate again. And credit to the staff at INEOS Grenadiers, who were also patient and so also deserved this reward. And to celebrate the victory as well as Ben Turner’s win on stage 4, two INEOS riders, Brandon Rivera and Michal Kwiatkowski, had their heads shaved by Filippo Ganna.
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) clung to victory by the narrowest of margins in the stage 18 time trial at the Vuelta a España, beating Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) by just 0.9 seconds in Valladolid. © Profimedia
A close shave
Ganna will now have to scalp himself because he won Thursday’s stage 18 time trial, beating UAE’s double-stage winner Jay Vine by 1 second. A very close shave indeed! Almeida finished third, 8 seconds adrift but 10 seconds ahead of Vingegaard, who finished ninth. The UAE leader now trails the Visma leader by only 40 seconds ahead of Saturday’s, yes, decisive stage.
Luckily for the Dane, the stage was shortened by organizers from 27.2 km to 12.2 km because of the threats of yet another protest. Otherwise, he would have lost more time to Almeida. I guess we will have to wait for Saturday’s penultimate stage 20 and the final summit finish on the Bola del Mundo (12.4km @ 8.6%, with the final kilometer averaging about 12%) to finally have a decisive battle in this race.
But all in all, it was an exciting time trial, with Vine losing by the smallest of margins, 0.9 seconds, to the best time trial rider in the world and falling just short of winning his third stage in the race and his team’s eighth. “I went all-in, emptied the tank, and came up less than one second short of the win,” the 29-year-old Australian said on Instagram, as reported by Cyclingnews. “Honestly, I’m absolutely gutted. To prepare for one thing, have it flipped overnight, and then miss by the smallest of margins – it stings badly. Chapeau to Ganna, he was a beast out on the road today.”
The barbering “beast” was of course delighted with his win and also for grabbing INEOS’s third win of the Vuelta. “I struggled to find my rhythm in the first part of the course, so then I just tried to push with everything I had, without thinking about the numbers or anything,” he said. “I’m really happy about today. It’s been a really good Vuelta for the team and we’ll try to do the best for the rest of the race.”
Another rider delighted with his performance was Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock, who padded his advantage over Hindley for the third podium spot by 3 seconds. Not known for his time-trialing, he finished 22nd in the stage, and now leads Hindley by 39 seconds with three stages left to ride.
“I think that was my best-ever time trial, looking at the numbers I was doing,” Pidcock said afterwards. “So I can be pretty happy. We didn’t focus it all on the time-trialing before this, you know. I wanted to improve my climbing, and I did a team time trial session and a team time trial [on stage 5]. So I felt super strong, to be honest.”
If the Vuelta has lacked some decisive GC drama so far, we can at least look forward to a dramatic finale, with the podium standings still in the balance.
Results of Stage 18 of the 2025 Vuelta Ciclista a España
1. Filippo Ganna, INEOS Grenadiers 13:00
2. Jay Vine, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:01
3. João Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:08
4. Bruno Armirail, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale + 0:09
5. Ivo Oliveira, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:10
6. Stefan Küng, Groupama-FDJ +0:11
7. Kelland O’Brien (Aus) Jayco-AlUla + 0:14
8. Alec Segaert, Lotto + 0:15
9. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike + 0:18
10. Daan Hoole, Lidl-Trek + 0:18
General classification after stage 18
1. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 65:07:13
2. João Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:40
3. Tom Pidcock, Q36.5 +2:39
4. Jai Hindley, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +3:18
5. Giulio Pellizzari, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:19
6. Matthew Riccitello, Israel–Premier Tech +5:17
7. Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +5:20
8. Matthew Riccitello, Israel–Premier Tech +7:26
9. Torstein Træen, Bahrain-Victorious +7:42
10. Matteo Jorgenson, Visma–Lease a Bike +10:19