The route is an arcing sweep through Spain\u2019s beautiful northern provinces \u2014 via a four-day opening sojourn to Turin and the Franco-Italian border \u2014 climbing through the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa, and Sistema Central.<\/p>\n
Twenty-three teams, twenty-one days, four jerseys \u2014 this is The Athletic\u2019s guide to the 2025 Vuelta.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big race for\u2026<\/p>\n
Jacob Whitehead: Ayuso. Three months ago, the 22-year-old faced a big race at the Giro d\u2019Italia and it was a test the Spaniard failed, though he wasn\u2019t helped by the bad luck of a crash on Stage 9 before withdrawing in the race\u2019s final week.<\/p>\n
But with teammate Poga\u010dar the obvious general classification priority, and with Isaac del Toro and Almeida competing for leadership as well, Ayuso\u2019s opportunities are becoming increasingly slim.<\/p>\n
This August, he is only slated to share leadership duties with Almeida, with whom he has quarrelled in the past<\/a>. It demonstrates how a teenager once held up as cycling\u2019s greatest general classification (GC) prospect has somewhat stagnated over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n Having podiumed on debut as a 19-year-old in 2022, and facing a weaker field this time around, Ayuso may need to improve on that result to reestablish his reputation \u2014 and receive future opportunities either at UAE or elsewhere in the peloton.<\/p>\n Jessica Hopkins: This could be the last time Jai Hindley lines up as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe\u2019s leader in a stage race, let alone a Grand Tour.<\/p>\n The team does not have a shortage of stars. Florian Lipowitz, 24, finished on the podium of this year\u2019s Tour de France, surpassing 2024 Vuelta winner and multi-Grand Tour winner Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d who finished eighth. Red Bull is also home to 21-year-old Giulio Pellizzari, who finished sixth in the 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n So while Hindley is GC proven in his own right, having won the 2022 Giro, he is unlikely to be the team\u2019s leading man in these races again. This is a great opportunity to ride his own race.<\/p>\n Who will win the most stages?<\/p>\n Whitehead: There aren\u2019t many pure sprinters at the Vuelta. Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) and Jake Stewart (Israel-PremierTech) have both had impressive seasons, but the most dominant sprinter in the race is Lidl-Trek\u2019s Mads Pedersen.<\/p>\n The Dane opted to skip the Tour to allow teammate Jonathan Milan to chase the green jersey, instead concentrating on both the Giro and Vuelta. Pedersen dominated the Giro, taking four stages and the ciclamino sprinters\u2019 jersey, and will be expected to achieve similar results over the next month.<\/p>\n Traditionally, the Vuelta is often slightly less optimized for sprinters, but, nevertheless, there are opportunities for him on stages one, three, four and eight in the first half of the race alone.<\/p>\n Mads Pedersen celebrates after winning Stage 13 of the 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia. (Luca Bettini \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Hopkins: Unless a certain Slovenian is involved, the rider with the most stage wins in the Tour de France or Giro d\u2019Italia will often go to the sprinters.<\/p>\n In the Vuelta, however, the stage profile is more heavily weighted towards the GC contenders and climbers, and this year is no different.<\/p>\n With 10 summit finishes \u2014 vastly outnumbering the four flat stages that could see sprints (although one has an uphill finish) \u2014 and five high mountain stages, Vingegaard will look to capitalize.<\/p>\n Not only is he by far the best GC man in the race, but he will want to show it after limited racing this season. After crashing in Paris-Nice, Vingegaard only raced in June\u2019s Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 to prepare for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n The Dane is in fine form, however, and will be the favourite to collect many of the stage wins in his search for his first Vuelta title.<\/p>\n Someone to look out for\u2026<\/p>\n Whitehead: Pellizzari is another talented climber on Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe\u2019s books. The 21-year-old is the least experienced on the roster, but looked sensational at his home Giro in spring, finishing sixth overall \u2014 though he likely would have been significantly higher had he not lost time while working in service for Rogli\u010d during the first two weeks of the race.<\/p>\n His raw climbing ability is among the best in the race, his form is strong coming in, and his willingness to attack early and aggressively makes the Italian easy to root for. With 10 uphill finishes, expect a debut Grand Tour stage win.<\/p>\n Egan Bernal (C) smiles ahead of the fourth stage of the 2023 La Vuelta. (Pau Barrena\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Hopkins: He might not be the favourite for the overall win, but INEOS Grenadiers\u2019<\/a> Egan Bernal is finally looking like his old self after a life-threatening crash in 2022.<\/p>\n The two-time Grand Tour winner had a solid start to his summer with a seventh place in the Giro, and showed glimpses of his previous form with attacks and tenacious riding. Having skipped the Tour, the question is can his form continue to improve?<\/p>\n Another rider with a high ceiling is former INEOS rider Tom Pidcock. The Brit doesn\u2019t have the same firepower around him after his transfer to ProTeam Q36.5 and didn\u2019t compete for the general classification in this year\u2019s Giro, finishing 16th without a stage win.<\/p>\n He has said multiple times, however, that the move has revitalized him and a second-placed Strade Bianche finish earlier in the season has proved he\u2019s one to look out for in this Vuelta.<\/p>\n The stage I\u2019m most looking forward to is\u2026<\/p>\n Whitehead: There are no apologies here for being unoriginal. It\u2019s the Alto de l\u2019Angliru \u2014 arguably the most difficult climb regularly used at any Grand Tour.<\/p>\n Rogli\u010d (L) crosses the finish line followed by Vingegaard during Stage 17 of 2023\u2019s Vuelta, a 124.4 km race between Ribadesella and Alto de l\u2019Angliru. (Miguel Rropa \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Over 12km long, averaging 10.1 percent, and with slopes of 24 percent at its steepest, the beast of the Asturias on Stage 13 could be the decisive moment of the general classification. Coming at the end of the race\u2019s longest stage, after two category one climbs, the time gaps could be massive.<\/p>\n This will all take place in Spain\u2019s most beautiful region.<\/p>\n Hopkins: The return of the team time trial on Stage 5 is also one to note. It\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve seen one in a Grand Tour.<\/p>\n The Giro d\u2019Italia and the Tour de France haven\u2019t seen a TTT since 2019, and the last one in a Grand Tour was the opening stage of the Vuelta in 2023, one that race organizers might prefer to forget. Thunder and lightning caused delays to the race, leaving the final few teams racing in both rain and darkness.<\/p>\n This year, the Vuelta is shooting for redemption.<\/p>\n What\u2019s so good about the Vuelta?<\/p>\n Whitehead: Do you remember the Vuelta stage that began in a supermarket? That\u2019s not the start of a bad joke, but a genuine potential answer to this question.<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 #LaVuelta24<\/a><\/p>\n Always nice when you can combine a @lavuelta<\/a> stage start with a morning grocery run, hey @rogla<\/a>? \ud83d\uded2 pic.twitter.com\/TvjThPb42W<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2215932966-scaled.jpg\")
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