A closer look at the favorites for the season’s final Grand Tour.
Cor Vos, Kristof Ramon
With the 2025 Vuelta a España just days away, the start list is mostly finalized, which makes it a great time to take a closer look at the cast of characters set to star over the next few weeks. Fortunately for those of us that can’t get enough of Grand Tour racing, plenty of big names will be lining up in Turin, Italy, when the final three-week race of the year kicks off on Saturday.
We’ve already done a deep dive on the route. Now it’s time to go deep on both the favorites to succeed Primož Roglič as the overall champ and the stagehunters too at this year’s race.
Preview: Your stage-by-stage guide to the 2025 Vuelta a España
Everything you need to know about the route of the season’s final Grand Tour.
The GC favorites
We’ll break down the contenders more thoroughly below, but as a sneak peek, here are our top favorites for the red leader’s jersey.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Jonas Vingegaard
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Juan Ayuso, João Almeida
⭐⭐⭐: Antonio Tiberi, Matteo Jorgenson
⭐⭐: Giulio Ciccone, Egan Bernal, Ben O’Connor, Felix Gall, Sepp Kuss
⭐: Tom Pidcock, Giulio Pellizzari, Jai Hindley, Mikel Landa
The stars and storylines
As the Vuelta looms, all eyes will be on the team that won two years ago and the two-time Tour de France winner who headlines the squad.
Vingegaard and Visma vs. the world
Seeing as Tadej Pogačar has decided to take a bit of a break from racing, we are turning back the clocks for the 2025 Vuelta to a time when Jonas Vingegaard was the rider to beat in the Grand Tours. His Tour de France performance this year, even if it ended with him settling for runner-up honors, made it clear that he is head and shoulders above all but one of the rest of the GC contenders in the world. At the same time, he heads into the Vuelta with a bit of a point to prove, being now two years removed from his last three-week win.
Jonas Vingegaard is the outright leader at Visma, but Matteo Jorgenson (middle) is well-positioned for opportunities that might fall his way.
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