There are plenty of tight competitions and all to race for as the Vuelta heads into its final week starting on Tuesday.

Jonas Vingegaard holds 48 seconds over João Almeida with one week to go. They were locked together on the Angliru and La Farrapona summit finishes.

The Big Two on the Angliru.

Although the GC after two weeks isn’t as tight as this May’s Giro d’Italia, it’s the closest margin between the Vuelta’s first and second since Richard Carapaz took 10 seconds over Primož Roglič into the final stages of the 2020 edition. Roglič would go on to prevail. Last September Ben O’Connor led Roglič by 1:03 going into the last week—again the Slovenian would wear the final red.

The podium battle is a fascinating one between Tom Pidcock, Jai Hindley and Felix Gall. Only 52 seconds seperate the trio. Hindley has a Giro pink jersey and runner-up spot on his palmares. Gall was already fifth in this year’s Tour de France.

Although Mads Pedersen enjoys a big lead in the green jersey competition and Jay Vine has a 22-point buffer in the polka dot jersey standings, the white jersey contest is as close as sixth place Guilio Pellizzari at +4:21 and seventh place Matthew Riccitello at +4:53. Both are racing their third Grand Tour. Pellizzari came sixth in this year’s Giro GC, where he finished runner-up in the young rider competition to Isaac del Toro.

Pellizzari has had a fine first season with Red Bull. Photo: Sirotti

Tuesday finishes on a long climb that’s half categorized and half uncategorized. Wednesday’s even longer summit finish flips the script and is half uncategorized and half categorized. Vingegaard is expected to get the better of Almeida on Thursday’s Valladolid time trial. Don’t let Friday’s lack of categorized climbs lull you into believing it’s one for the sprinters. Saturday’s Bola del Mundo summit finish is almost as taxing as the Angliru. Sunday is the procession into Madrid.

Bola del Mundo is the final GC battlefield. Image by La FlammeRouge

The breakaway action should be fierce in the final week as only six teams have scored wins in the first 15 stages, although Stage 11 had no winner.