The mighty – but anti-climactic – Angliru

So much was expected of  Friday’s stage 13, which ended on what is likely the hardest climb in the sport, the Angliru (12.4 km @ 8.8%, with gradients of up to 23.5%!). But in the end, it turned into a sprint finish, with Almeida beating Vingegaard to the finish line and taking 10 bonus seconds to the Dane’s 6. The resurgent Jai Hindley (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) finished third, only 28 seconds behind, and moved up to fourth in the GC standings, 3:00 behind Vingegaard, with the impressive Tom Pidcock still in third, at 2:18.

There were a few noteworthy aspects of this stage, one being the déjà vu I had when watching the finale. Almeida took charge of the lead group of four riders about halfway up the Angliru, just before the steepest part of the climb, and quickly dropped Vingegaard’s teammate Sepp Kuss and, shortly thereafter, Hindley. So the two main rivals for the GC win were alone with about 4.5 km of the steepest ramps in all cycling ahead of them.

That’s where I had my déjà vu experience. There was Almeida going as hard as he could, and Vingegaard sitting on his wheel, unable or unwilling to attack him. How often did we see that in this year’s Tour de France, with the Dane sitting on Tadej Pogačar’s rear all the way to the finish? Often. It was a remarkable ride by the Portuguese, who left everything on the road to take his first win of this Vuelta and his team’s third in succession, after Jay Vine on stage 10 and Juan Ayuso on stage 12 (no winner was declared on stage 11 due to protests).

“Jonas was always on my wheel, the last kilometre I was on the limit; I guess we were both on the limit,” Almeida said afterwards. “I was waiting for his attack at any time. I thought he was going to pass me at the finish line. It was an amazing day. I think it’s the hardest climb in the world. It’s crazy.” And then he spoke for every rider who rode up that mountain: “Oof, I’m very sore.”

Vingegaard rued his inability to pass his rival on the climb. “I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t win because my team worked really hard all day, and also for my family,” he said. “But I could also follow João, and a lot of the other guys are now at a bigger distance, so that makes it easier for the coming days. João was super-strong, though. I did what I could, but he deserved to win, so I’m a bit disappointed.”

The other noteworthy feature of this stage was Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) making it over the category 1 Alto La Mosqueta (6.4 km @ 8.2%) to take the maximum 20 points at the intermediate sprint at the bottom of the ascent. And finally, there was another pro-Palestinian protest at the foot of the Angliru, which briefly held up the lead breakaway group.

Vingegaard gets some revenge as UAE strikes again

Vingegaard got some of his mojo back on Saturday’s stage 14 by beating Almeida to the line atop the category 1 Farrapona (16.8 km @ 6%), gaining two of the four bonus seconds he’d lost on the Angliru. But he finished second behind another Almeida teammate, the apparently indefatigable Marc Soler.

That made it four straight stage wins for UAE, seven for the race and 80 for the year. That is five short of the all-time record, set in 2009 by HTC-Colombia. Will they reach or even break the record in this Vuelta? Don’t bet against them.

Soler was part of a 24-rider breakaway (there have been some enormous breakaway groups in this Vuelta, including one of 51 riders; when can we call a breakaway the peloton?) that began to break up on the penultimate climb, to the Puertu de San Llaurienzu (9.9 km @ 8.6%). He broke away from the group with 18.7 km left to ride, was briefly accompanied by Johannes Staune-Mittet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), soon dropped him too and took a remarkable solo win, 39 seconds ahead of Vingegaard and Almeida. Hindley finished third, losing 10 seconds to Vingegaard, but gaining time on Pidcock for the final podium place.

“An unexpected day, but I’m very happy,” Soler said. “The idea was not to be in the break, but once Victor Campenaerts [Visma–Lease a Bike] got across, I went in there too and followed him. And once I was there, I played the game. I knew the valley road afterwards up to Farrapona was a very hard one; if you get a gap there, then you can keep it. I was worried about the wind, but it turned out OK.”

Vingegaard and his team are clearly waiting for the stage 18 ITT and, especially, the final summit finish on yet another monster climb on stage 20, the Bola del Mundo (12.4 km @ 8.6%, the final 3 km @ 12.2%). UAE has used its domestiques a lot so far, while Sepp Kuss and the other Visma support riders (except the valiant Victor Campenaerts) have been relatively spared. Will that make the difference?

And speaking of domestiques, it was good to see Juan Ayuso leading Almeida up half of the final climb, his appetite for victories apparently sated.

Pedersen wins much-deserved stage victory

When Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was asked by TNT Sports before the start of Sunday’s stage 15 if he would be happy to win the race’s green jersey without registering a stage win, he had a short, clear answer: “No!” Well, mission accomplished. And with only one bunch sprint left in the race, he has a good chance of having his cake and eating it too. Because he now leads the points classification with 237 points, well ahead of Vingegaard, who has 139, and teammate Giulio Ciccone, at 115.

There was another huge breakaway, of 47 riders at one point, on this hilly 167.8 km course from Vegadeo to Monforte de Lemos. With about 100 km left to ride, two of them, UAE’s Jay Vine and Louis Vervaeke (T-Rex Quick-Step), broke away. At 90 km they had a lead of 1:30 on the group, with the peloton another 10:00 behind. While Lidl-Trek led the chase after Vine and Vervaeke, it was not until 70 km to go, when Movistar’s Carlos Canal and Javier Romo started supporting them, that they made some progress. But Romo crashed when a pro-Palestine protestor stumbled onto the road. Fortunately, he was able to continue, and the gap between chasers and chased continued to tick down.

The big group broke up on an uncategorised climb with about 30 km left to ride, as a seven-rider group formed that included Pedersen, going for the elusive win, and Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), trying to move up in the GC standings. They caught Vine and Vervaeke with 6.8 km left to ride. The now nine-rider group entered the final kilometre together.

About 500 meters from the finish, Marco Frigo (Israel–Premier Tech) made a break for the line, but he was soon caught by Pedersen and Orluis Aular (Movistar). And when the 29-year-old Dane sprinted for the line, it was no contest. He beat Aular by two bike lengths with Frigo a similar distance behind in third.  The peloton and all the GC contenders crossed the line 13:31 later. Heading into the final week, Vingegaard leads Almeida by 48 seconds, with Pidcock still in third, but now 2:38 adrift.

Pedersen was clearly delighted to finally bag the win. “I really wanted to have a win, and today we succeeded, so it’s amazing,” he said. “The way the team worked the whole day, five guys in the first group. When the two guys went away on the second [climb], they got a lot of time, and the boys were working so hard to make it possible. In the end, it makes it even nicer to win when everyone is looking at us, everyone knew our plan, and still we succeeded. Absolutely incredible.”

The Dane has been the most active rider in this Vuelta, sprinting, climbing, chasing and helping teammates. If anyone deserved a stage victory in this Vuelta, it was Pedersen.

Results of Stage 15 of the 2025 Vuelta Ciclista a España

Mads Pedersen, Lidl-Trek 04:02:13
Orluis Aular, Movistar “
Marco Frigo, Israel–Premier Tech “
Santiago Buitrago, Bahrain-Victorious “
Edward Dunbar, Jayco AlUla “
Egan Bernal, INEOS Grenadiers “
Louis Vervaeke, T-Rex Quick-Step “
Jay Vine, UAE Team Emirates–XRG “
Magnus Sheffield, INEOS Grenadiers “
Alex Segaert, Lotto  + 0:23

General Classification after Stage 15 of the Vuelta Ciclista a España

Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 57:35:33
João Almeida, UAE Team Emirates–XRG + 0:48
Tom Pidcock, Q36.5 +2:38
Jai Hindley, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe + 3:10
Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +3:30
Giulio Pellizzari, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:21
Matthew Riccitello, Israel–Premier Tech +4:53
Sepp Kuss, Visma–Lease a Bike +5:46
Junior Lecerf, T-Rex Quick-Step +5:49
Torstein Træen, Bahrain Victorious +6:33