![\"Stage](\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234692761.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJoao Almeida and Jonas Vingegaard both falter on penultimate summit finish of race in energy shift.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a saw tiring GC contenders and a slight time loss by Jonas Vingegaard and Jo\u00e3o Almeida (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Updated September 10, 2025 10:30PM<\/p>\n
There are three key stages to go in this year\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> but while Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> and Jo\u00e3o Almeida<\/a> are comfortably ahead of the other challengers, both riders may be running out of steam.<\/p>\n Race leader Vingegaard and the rider in second overall, Almeida, were both by their own admission a little below par on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) soloed to victory after springing clear and the other GC contenders looked at each other. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Pellizzari\u2019s teammate Jai Hindley sprinted in 16 and 18 seconds back respectively, taking the remaining time bonuses.<\/p>\n Vingegaard was at 20 seconds, Almeida at 22.<\/p>\n The gap were not huge by any means. But there was a shift in energy, with third-placed Pidcock and fourth-place Hindley clearly on the up and, on Wednesday at least, Vingegaard and Almeida lacking the previous edge they had on everyone else in the race.<\/p>\n Either rider would need a meltdown to let another challenger in to the top two slots, but Almeida\u2019s mission to win the race took an additional blow on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n Citing safety, the race organizers announced that they were cutting the route of Thursday\u2019s individual TT by 15 kilometers.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the aim of ensuring greater protection for the stage, the organizers of La Vuelta, in coordination with Valladolid City Council and following consultation with the College of Commissaires, have decided that tomorrow\u2019s time trial will be contested over a 12.2 kilometer route, with the start and finish remaining as originally planned.\u201d<\/p>\n Good news for Vingegaard? Certainly reducing the TT by more than half means any gains by Almeida will be limited if the Portuguese rider is on a better day.<\/p>\n But still, with a short uphill to come on Friday and then a hors categorie summit finish on Saturday, faltering legs by either rider could add up.<\/p>\n \u2018I didn\u2019t have the best day, but I survived\u2019 Vingegaard\u2019s team did a considerable amount of work before and during the final climb, paving the way for a big move by the team leader. Matteo Jorgenson and Ben Tulett drove the pace and thinned the group right out, with Jorgenson quite clear afterwards what the objective was.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan was to go for the stage. We don\u2019t know how many more mountain stages there will be, so we wanted to make sure at least the GC group could have the chance to go for the stage win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Vingegaard looked poised to move, sitting back as Hindley, Pellizzari, Pidcock and Matthew Riccitello (IPT) did all the work, but ultimately he never kicked clear.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest I think the five, six of us were really equal today,\u201d he admitted afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have the very best day for me, but I survived. I guess they are the days you need to survive, the days you don\u2019t feel 100 percent. If you can get through those without losing any time, that is a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n Almeida needed to try to gain time and to reduce his deficit heading towards the final weekend. In the end he drifted off the back when the attacks first began, although he said afterwards that he sensed the other riders wouldn\u2019t be able to maintain their initial pace.<\/p>\n Even if that initial gap was down to tactics rather than strength, he never looked to be close to the form he showed earlier in the race.<\/p>\n \u201cJonas was not looking super, but I didn\u2019t as well,\u201d he told Eurosport afterwards. \u201cI think we were all a little bit in the same boat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s a bit of a shame, really\u2019 Pellizzari was clearly strong and made the most of the cautious racing when he surged clear. Pidcock was best of the rest and put in a very impressive acceleration close to the line, dropping the rest.<\/p>\n He\u2019s looking increasingly like a podium finisher in the race, which would be his best-ever grand tour result, but admitted to mixed feelings about missing a stage win.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that is the sacrifice when you are riding for the podium,\u201d he said. \u201cI sacrificed the stage, it could have been really nice. It\u2019s a bit of a shame really.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are racing for the podium, that\u2019s the main goal. So we have to make decisions, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n The Olympic MTB champion is now sitting 2:28 off the race lead. While it\u2019s hard to see him taking enough time out of either Vingegaard or Almeida, he\u2019ll certainly go all in to take a stage win before Sunday. He\u2019ll also go all out on Thursday in the TT to defend his 36 second advantage over Hindley.<\/p>\n \u2018It was an awful TT for me\u2019 As for Vingegaard, he is hoping for a better showing in the TT than he had two years ago. The race was also held then in Valladolid, the venue for stage 18 of this year\u2019s race, but the Dane was way back in tenth place. He lost 1:18 to the winner Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) over 25.8km, and surrendered 1:02 to runner-up Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).<\/p>\n Almeida was fourth, beating him by 28 seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, that was an awful time trial for me back then,\u201d Vingegaard said. \u201cSo hopefully I can make it right this time. It is a flat time trial, we will see. Hopefully I can do well tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Almeida will hope for the same, and also for the same legs that he had on the Angliru on stage 13 for Saturday\u2019s big showdown on the Bola del Mundo climb.<\/p>\n Wednesday will be concerning; there is scope yet for things to turn around.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was quite steep for the first part. It was really hard,\u201d he said of the summit finish on stage 17. \u201cAnd then the second part was super windy so nobody really wanted to spend more. So it was a tricky climb in the end.<\/p>\n \u201cWe almost arrive all together, just some guys had a big better sprint than the others.\u201d<\/p>\n Saturday is a much harder climb and shouldn\u2019t come down to a group sprinting to the line.<\/p>\n Will he have enough in the tank to make a difference? It\u2019s an intriguing question, particularly if he can repeat his Valladolid TT of two years ago and narrow the gap before then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joao Almeida and Jonas Vingegaard both falter on penultimate summit finish of race in energy shift. Stage 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,73156,73157,62507,57421,62999,54267],"class_list":{"0":"post-136206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-parent_category-road","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tag-giulio-pellizzari","14":"tag-tag-jai-hindley","15":"tag-tag-joao-almeida","16":"tag-tag-jonas-vingegaard","17":"tag-tag-tom-pidcock","18":"tag-type-article"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Jonas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234687664.jpg\")
Vingegaard gained two seconds on Almeida but lost time himself to other riders. While that has no major effect on his GC\u00a0 lead, tiring legs for himself and Almeida may prompt concern within their teams. (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234687639.jpg\")
Once Giulio Pellizzari got clear, Tom Pidcock was best of the rest. (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Jai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234689859.jpg\")
The GC contenders on the final climb on Wednesday. (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n