Free-to-air highlights of the Tour de France are to be shown on 5 in the UK this July, it was announced on Wednesday, after an agreement with TNT Sports.

The terrestrial channel, formerly Channel 5, has signed a deal until 2028 to show daily coverage of Tour, as well as highlights of the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, presented by Rebecca Charlton. The station will also show live coverage of the UK Grands Départs of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2027. Highlights will be on 5 at 7pm every evening, starting Saturday 4 July in Barcelona. Daily highlights of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes will also be available on 5.

This season will be the first season in decades that the Tour will not be shown live, in full, on television for free. In 2025, it was revealed that ITV would no longer televise the Tour, the exclusive UK rights having been sold to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT Sports.

Live coverage in the UK will remain on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with contracts costing £30.99 a month, although it can be purchased for £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

Last month, Scott Young, EVP at Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, said: "I think you need to have a free-to-air product. And there will be a free-to-air product."

The announcement followed a "competitive tender process", according to a press release. The deal for Tour and Vuelta highlights lasts until 2028, with the Giro deal going to 2029.

"The Grand Tours are the most prestigious cycling events in the world, watched and adored by millions, and we are delighted that 5 will be their new free-to-air home in the UK," Reemah Sakaan, the president of 5, said. "Our daily highlights show for the Tour de France will be available to everyone at 7pm each evening this July and we’ll also have daily highlights through both the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia for the next three years, plus next year we’ll have live coverage of the Tour de France’s historic return to the UK.

"The Tour de France kicks off an incredible summer of sport on 5, adding to the rapidly expanding range of premium sport we have for people to watch, including the best of the action from the Commonwealth Games this summer. This new deal with TNT Sports reflects our long-term commitment to bringing brilliant coverage of the world’s best sporting events to millions of viewers and providing access to premium audiences for advertisers."

"By combining a strong free-to-air highlights offering with our comprehensive live coverage, we are delivering unprecedented access to the sport across every platform," Young said. "Cycling is one of the most compelling sports in the world, featuring extraordinary athletes and unforgettable moments, and it's important that those stories are shared with the widest possible audience.

"Expanding reach and engaging new audiences across our rights portfolio remains a key strategic priority, and partnerships such as this play an important role in achieving that ambition."

Charlton added: "It’s an absolute dream to have the opportunity to bring the racing to life for all of the cycling fans out there as well as guiding some new viewers along for the ride. We’ll be bringing highlights of all of the action as well as telling the stories around the racing and I for one, cannot wait!"

The 2026 Tour de France begins on Saturday 4 July, running until Sunday 26 July.

Jonas Vingegaard's victory at the 2026 Giro d’Italia sees him join an exclusive group of riders who have won all three Grand Tours. And the cherry on top of this achievement will be the fact that he has beaten his rival Tadej Pogačar to getting his name on that list. If, in fact, the Slovenian ever will.

Sealing the GC in Rome means the Dane becomes the eighth male rider to have won all three Grand Tours in his career. This after winning the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023 and the Vuelta a España in 2025.

The first rider to land all three titles was Jacques Anquetil, the Frenchman who conquered all through the late 50s and early 60s had to wait until 1963 to win the Vuelta - ten years into his pro career. However, comparisons are made more difficult by the fact the Vuelta was a 15-day race at that time.

By the time Felice Gimondi won the Vuelta in 1968 to become the second rider to win all three, the Spanish tour had increased to 18 stages (two of them split stages). Even by the time Bernard Hinault added himself to the list, the Vuelta was just 19 days long. Two short of a now-standard 21-stage Grand Tour.

Spaniard Alberto Contador was the first to win three, 21-stage Grand Tours after winning the 2008 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta, having previously won the Tour in 2007. The only five-time winner of the Tour de France not to appear on the list is Miguel Indurain. The Spaniard won the Tour five times in a row between 1991 and 1995, and in two of those years, won the Giro when it was still possible to use the Italian Grand Tour in preparation for the Tour.

Much to the frustration of the Spanish fans and organisers, Indurain never mounted a serious challenge for the Vuelta, often cutting his season short after the Tour unless there was a world or Olympic title in his sights.

• All the riders who have won the Giro / Tour double

No rider has ever won all three Grand Tours in the same year, although three of them have held all three titles concurrently, split over two calendar years.

Eddy Merckx won the 1972 Giro and Tour, then won the 1973 Vuelta, which started in late April

Bernard Hinault held all three titles, starting with the Giro and Tour double in 1982, and then taking the springtime Vuelta in 1983

Chris Froome achieved the feat across the 2017 and 2018 seasons, first winning the Tour and Vuelta (by now in it’s late summer spot on the calendar) and the Giro in the spring of 2018. That was to be his final Grand Tour win after teammate Geraint Thomas beat him to the 2018 Tour title before a career-defining crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphine put an end to Froome’s time as a GC contender.

Demi Vollering became the second female rider to have won all three Grand Tours with her victory in the 2026 Giro d'Italia Women. Taking advantage of the race's new calendar slot of late May, early June, the Dutch woman sealed the overall victory on the final climb of the final stage, gaining the time needed over Anna van der Breggen.

Annemiek van Vleuten reamins the only rider, male or female, to win all three races i one season. The Dutchwoman did the treble in 2022 starting with victory at the Giro Donne in early July, and followed that up by taking the inaugural Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift at the end of the month.

In September she then won the five-stage Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta. There is debate whether or not this was a genuine Grand Tour due to it’s length. The race is now seven stages long. Female riders have had far few opportunities to win the treble, with the Tour de France Femmes only returning in 2022 after a 13-year hiatus and the Vuelta starting as a one-day race in 2015 and gradually growing from there.

You could hear Wout van Aert coming before you saw him at Visma-Lease a Bike’s team presentation on Tuesday afternoon. He clomped around in a grey protective boot, resting his fractured right ankle on a cushion during the ceremony.

Here we go again, he must have thought after his 2 January crash in Zilvermeercross. It was the latest setback in a misfortune-strewn two years, following a fractured collarbone, rib and sternum at the 2024 Dwars door Vlaanderen and a 2024 Vuelta knee injury which still bears a gruesome scar.

Having been ready and raring to go for the forthcoming season, the shoe is literally on the other foot for Van Aert. It would be understandable for him to be frustrated.

“Sometimes you get really tired of it and it’s also okay to be done with it for a few days,” Van Aert told the media in a round-table chat on Tuesday in La Nucia, Spain. “But there’s still a lot to win and there’s also even moments, just a few weeks [ago], riding between amazing crowds and meeting a lot of your fans: it still motivates you. It’s more natural to look ahead of me and what’s still possible than to get down.”

While Van Aert remarked that he was “not as consistent as he wanted” in 2025, he has had thrills to go with the spills. Last year, he showed his quality and sense of occasion with a barnstorming ride to Giro d’Italia stage victory in Siena and success through the Montmartre fever pitch in the Tour de France's swan song.

“Those wins really helped me to believe, even when not everything is going well. For example, now I’m still one of the best bike riders in the world and there will be moments where I can show it,” he said.

Van Aert’s race against time 

Although the ankle fracture is locked with a screw, Van Aert can ride his bike. However, he cannot build intensity in training until he is pain-free. It leaves him in a race against time to be fully fit and on-form for a busy spring calendar, culminating in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. His debut is expected to be at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28. 

“I’m not fully confident [the ankle won’t be a problem], of course not,” he said. “It’s a complicated injury, a fracture and also ripped-off ligaments. If I was a runner or anything else, I would be out for months. Hopefully as a cyclist, it will still be good enough.”

Calling the injury blow that forced him to curtail his cyclo-cross season “mentally quite significant”, Van Aert was comforted by how quickly he could get back on the bike without losing fitness. The 31-year-old went for a gentle road ride on Monday, a mere ten days after his crash.

2026 brings his eye-catching return to Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo for the first time in five and three years, respectively. “These are really beautiful races that I don’t want to miss for the rest of my career,” the 2020 winner of ‘La Primavera’ said. “Always in my head, even the moment when I was choosing to do differently, I knew it would raise my inspiration again.”

A return to the spring’s Monuments will also bring him head-to-head again with his long-time sparring partner, Mathieu van der Poel. “There’s still a rivalry between us, but the rivalry has always been bigger for you guys, for the outside than for us, for the outside,” Van Aert said, adding moments later: “It’s still there but of course Mathieu’s palmarès is a bit bigger than mine.”

He has won three successive editions of Paris-Roubaix. The race still casts a magic spell on Van Aert, even if he has suffered misfortune there, perhaps no more so than a heartbreaking puncture on the Carrefour de l’Arbre sector in 2023, which saw his Dutch adversary ride away to his first victory there. 

“It’s probably the only race where you wake up the next day feeling completely broken and get up on Tuesday still feeling the same,” Van Aert says. “There’s so much impact on your body going over these cobbles. The last hour of this race is more like survival than a real race. So much can happen, bad luck and stuff like that, it’s a race where you really have your head full. Arguably, it’s the best race in the calendar.”

A Swiss army knife of a rider, comfortable on cobbles and hors catégorie climbs, Van Aert is not short of goals. The Tour de France’s opening 19.7 km team time trial around Barcelona is another big objective for the Belgian and the squad. “In my head, I’m also dreaming of wearing yellow,” he says.

He is also set to go line up at August’s Vuelta a España as part of a stage-hunting Visma-Lease a Bike line-up, with British super-talent Matthew Brennan expected to make his grand tour debut alongside him. 

Van Aert had kind words for the 20-year-old super-talent while discussing how they will divide their ambitions: “Matthew is for sure faster in the other completely flat sprints. Even when the stage is hard, the sprint is probably more suitable for him. And there is the fact it will be his first grand tour so nobody knows how he will go after ten days. So we should not put pressure on him and let him experience it.”

“The most important thing is we go really well together and we understand each other. I’m even proud that he’s showing that he learns from me, that’s pretty cool.”

Matthew Brennan will take aim at the “big Classics” and make his Grand Tour debut in 2026, he and his Visma-Lease a Bike team have announced.

The 20-year-old, who won a staggering 14 times in his first pro season last year, is down to ride three Monuments this year – Milan San-Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – before starting the Vuelta a España in August.

Brennan was one of the standout talents of 2025, and earned Cycling Weekly’s Male Rider of the Year award. His win tally was bettered by just four other male pros: Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), and the world champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

“I hope to reach the same level as last season, and ideally push even higher,” Brennan said in a Visma-Lease a Bike press release announcing his race calendar. “From there, I hope to make my mark more and more in the bigger races, where I can hopefully play a meaningful role.

“This year I’m focusing on the big classics, such as Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders. I hope to play a significant role in these races and gain experience in such big events.”

Brennan made his WorldTour Classics debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last year, a race that is once again on his calendar in 2026. He was also called up late to ride Paris-Roubaix in his first pro season, and impressed on the cobbles, riding in the company of Mathieu van der Poel and Pogačar at the front of the race.

“It would be nice to go a little bit further than last year, hopefully into the velodrome with the front group,” he said.

The Brit will have to wait until August for his Grand Tour debut, planned for the Vuelta a España. “I’m really looking forward to it and curious to see how I’ll handle it,” he said.

“It’s amazing to start in several major classics, but I’m especially looking forward to La Vuelta. Riding three weeks of stages will be tough, and I don’t yet know how my body will respond, but with good preparation and a strong team, I hope to achieve a lot.”

Visma-Lease a Bike won the Vuelta through Jonas Vingegaard last year. The Dane will not defend his title in 2026, and will turn his attention instead to the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.

Brennan will open his season next week at the Tour Down Under in Australia, the first WorldTour event of the calendar.

When pro-Palestine protestors forced the early abandonment of the Vuelta a España’s final stage in September – the fourth stage of the race to be curtailed – it triggered a chain reaction. In the weeks that followed, Israel-Premier Tech, the focus of the protests, backtracked on earlier assurances and announced a new name and nationality, accepting that their future in the sport was untenable without change. The immediate consequence, however, was the cancellation of the podium ceremony for the GC top-three and the jersey winners.

Race victor Jonas Vingegaard was understandably peeved. “Yeah, it’s shit to end it like this,” he muttered inside a Visma-Lease a Bike car, in footage later shown in the team’s post-race documentary. It seemed as though everyone would simply drift away – an anticlimactic conclusion to 21 tense, turbulent days.

That was until Tom Pidcock’s mum, Sonja, stepped in with other ideas, laying the groundwork for what became the most spontaneous and intimate Grand Tour celebration in history – or, as social media later declared it, the best podium ceremony of all time.

Sonja and her husband Giles were in Madrid ready to celebrate their son’s third-placed finish in the race. When it became apparent that that wouldn’t be happening as planned, Sonja spoke with Q36.5’s billionaire owner Ivan Glasenberg at the team’s hotel. “I said to Ivan, ‘This isn’t fair – these young men have put all this effort in and have been robbed of their glory’,” Sonja, who organises the Otley Cycle Races, recounts to Cycling Weekly. “I told him we should organise a podium.”

Glasenberg nodded along, but wasn’t following what Sonja was suggesting. “Ivan said that they were all going to dinner that night and that everyone was invited including us. I said to him again, ‘But, Ivan, let’s invite all the teams and make a podium together’. Then he got it and said, ‘That’s a great idea!’ I said to him, ‘I’ll organise it for you, but I don’t have a good contact list except [photographer] Russ Ellis’s phone number’.”

The Q36.5 boss now fully on board with Sonja’s plans, he rang Visma’s manager Richard Plugge, who was immediately enthusiastic. Within minutes, Plugge had set up a WhatsApp group comprising all the relevant teams, and convened a hotel car park meeting with his team’s staff who took on responsibility as ceremony organisers. “If it works, it’s a good conclusion for everyone, and a picture for history,” Plugge said, as recorded in the aforementioned documentary. “And if not, then we tried.”

While Plugge was busy organising the guest list, Visma’s chief business officer Jasper Saeijs was put in charge of logistics. “I said, if we do this, we have to do it right,” Saeijs recalls to Cycling Weekly. “We were never going to have the same quality as the real celebration, but everyone who had made the Vuelta special deserved some kind of celebration.” The first thing he had to do was to tell a downcast Vingegaard that he would get the chance to celebrate. “Jonas was already in his normal clothes, and I told him he had to change into his cycling clothing and prepare for a ceremony.”

Phone calls were made to the race organisers, who confirmed that someone was on their way with the trophies, jerseys and podium backdrop – and were promptly snarled up in congestion in the centre of Madrid. “They didn’t know if they’d be able to make it past the protesters and get to us in time,” Saeijs says. Pidcock’s mum came up with a contingency plan. “If the Vuelta organisers couldn’t make it, I suggested we go to the hotel kitchen and make trophies out of tinfoil!”

Thankfully the podium essentials arrived and Saeijs and his team then set about creating the scene. “We needed the backdrop in place, so we attached it to a rental minivan,” Saeijs says. Only one problem: it wasn’t tall enough. “We needed it to be higher, so I asked one of the mechanics what he thought. We were brainstorming a few ideas and then he said, ‘We have some poles that we can put on top of the car.” According to Sonja, these were in fact traffic cones. “They attached the backdrop to traffic cones on top of a van,” she laughs. “It was a bit wonky, but they straightened it out and in the end it looked amazing.”

As for the podium steps, Visma coolboxes of varying heights took on a new function. “We wrote one, two and three on them using a black Sharpie pen,” recounts Saeijs. Those scribbled letters later became the most-talked about aspect of the ceremony on social media.

With the stage set but darkness descending, attention focused on lighting the rushed-together spectacle. “We parked three of our team cars in front of the podium with their headlights on, but too many people were in the way, so we couldn’t see the podium,” Saeijs says.

Sonja, watching on in admiration as her idea took shape in an hour, policed the crowd, which was swelling with riders and staff from other teams. “I put my bossy race organiser head on and was saying to people, ‘Excuse me, stand over there!’” Relief arrived in the form of TV Denmark, whose crew – glued to Vingegaard throughout the race – offered something far better than car headlights. “They follow Jonas everywhere, and they let us use their stage lights,” Saeijs says.

But the atmosphere still needed one final ingredient. “You need music to lighten up any party,” Saeijs insists. Enter Thijs Roelen, Visma press officer turned impromptu DJ. “He decided on Eye of the Tiger for the entrance of the riders,” Saeijs confirms.

There was also the small matter of playing the right anthem for Vingegaard, although even that proved surprisingly complicated. “Denmark has two types of national anthems, and in the morning the race organisers had asked us to help them in choosing the right anthem to play,” Saeijs says. “Thankfully we had researched it before so we already knew which one was the correct one and we downloaded it.”

Everything set, the moment then came for the car park ceremony to begin. Visma sourced some champagne and spectators handed round beer and pizza – but then, yet another delay. “UAE won the team prize but they were apparently reluctant to join in at first,” Sonja says.

“When they found that Mads Pedersen [green jersey] and Matthew Riccitello [white jersey] were coming, they realised they couldn’t turn it down. They still turned up 30 minutes late, mind you.” When UAE finally arrived – their star rider João Almeida had finished second on GC – the party finally got underway.

“Also funny was that the race organiser who’d brought the backdrop, jerseys and trophies didn’t know the protocol of the ceremony, so we had to be creative with how we did it,” Saeijs remembers. “We said that the GC would go first, then the team prize, and then the jerseys. It was really improvised, and in five minutes we’d decided on the order.” Master of ceremonies was selected almost at random, Sonja remembers: “He was a guy who wasn't used to commentating, and he was naming all the riders quietly without any microphone.”

The moment was captured on smartphones by the hundred or so people gathered, a uniquely improvised celebration pulled together at speed and destined to linger in the memory of everyone who witnessed it. At one point, Sonja noticed Vingegaard looking straight at her. “I’d never met Jonas before, but when he got off the Visma bus in his kit, he was looking across the car park smiling at me. I pointed him out to Giles, and I realised that Jonas was probably the only mum-minded person there. Richard must have told him that it was Tom’s mum’s idea and he was saying thank you to me. It was really lovely, really sweet.”

Balanced on an upturned coolbox, Vingegaard beamed with amused delight. “At first I was disappointed not to get the celebration in Madrid, but fortunately we could make our own celebration and it was a really nice moment, really special,” he said in his team’s documentary. “It shows how, in cycling, even though we’re competitors, we can still get everyone together and celebrate in a nice way.”

The Vuelta’s organisers hope the whole episode remains a one-off, with a return next year to a full-scale finale of spotlights and fireworks in front of thousands of fans. If not, Sonja Pidcock stands ready to help again. “I’d like to do it again for my own benefit but I’m not sure it’ll wash,” she laughs.

“All I wanted to do was to applaud and give my son a hug, but in the end everyone created a fabulous moment. If it was in Madrid, it would have been immense, but they would have celebrated in front of thousands of strangers, and we wouldn’t have got a look-in. As it happened, the riders got to celebrate with the people most important to them, and you could tell by the smiles on their faces that they were so delighted.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

No racing season retrospective would be complete without pausing to contemplate the doings and undoings of our overlords at the Union Cyclists Internationale. From their lofty perch in Switzerland they have issued edicts ranging from the ingenious to the hilarious.

Ruling over races big and small, from the Tour de France to your local crit, they have made decisions that explored the boundaries of ethics, logic and even physics. It’s time to cast an eye over a few highlights of the UCI’s year.

MISS: Wider bars to slow us down

On the assumption that one of the things making road racing progressively more dangerous is speed, the UCI has decided it’s time to make everyone a bit less quick. From January 2027, bars will need to be at least 40cm wide, with limits on the amount of flare between the tops and the drops and for the turn-in of the brake hoods.

The idea is that if they make everyone less aerodynamic with a wider arm position, they’ll be slower – which is not in itself a daft idea. In recent years, many pros have moved to narrower bars, typically 36-38cm. Shifting to 40cm, a pretty wide bar by modern standards, is a little difficult, especially if you’re a smaller female rider.

It’s also going to slow down small riders more than big riders (think about the body proportions), although maybe anything we can do to keep a lid on Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel is welcome. The other problem with it is that it’s not going to slow things down very much.

MISS: GPS trackers for rider safety

Another safety initiative is the introduction of GPS trackers on bikes so that officials are better able to keep track of where riders are, and above all, ensure there’s never a repeat of the fatal incident at the 2024 Worlds where Swiss rider Muriel Furrer crashed unnoticed and wasn’t found for more than 45 minutes.

Unfortunately an attempt to trial the technology at the Tour de Romandie Féminin turned to farce. Five of the teams said they hadn’t been consulted about the trackers, and pointed out that despite trackers being fitted by the UCI, any incidents or injuries they might cause would be deemed the fault of the team, and refused to nominate a rider for the trial.

The UCI retaliated by rather sulkily saying the teams were only reacting like that because they had commercial interests in a different GPS tracking solution.

The upshot? A standoff culminated in the five teams being thrown off the race, a solution that pleased no one. (Except weirdly obsessed UCI-watchers, obviously.)

MISS: Losing track of time in Spain

At the Spanish time trial championships, the timing went seriously awry. Forty minutes after the race finished, riders were still standing around at the line trying to find out the results. Eventually the commissaires issued some times, then changed some of them, then declared Caja Rural-Seguros’s Abel Balderstone the winner with a time that may, or may not, have been firmly rooted in reality.

On the upside, at least it gave Spain’s least Spanish-sounding pro rider the biggest win of his career to date.

MISS: Miscounted Madison points

If you’ve ever watched a Madison race and wondered how on Earth the commissaires keep track of the chaos, well, they don’t always. At the World Championships in October, the German pair of Roger Kluge and Moritz Augenstein let the Danish team escape to take 10 points at the final sprint, on the basis that, as the Germans could clearly see on the stadium scoreboard, they were comfortably ahead of the Danes for the bronze medal.

Except that the Danes had taken a lap mid race, collecting 20 points that somehow the commissaires didn’t get round to adding to the scoreboard until after the finish, putting the Danes on the podium and the Germans in a state of high dudgeon.

MISS: Gear restrictions to slow us down

Another safety initiative dreamed up in 2025 was a maximum gear size for road races. The idea being that if the biggest gear a rider could use was limited to 54x11, it would prevent some of the higher speeds seen in sprints and on descents.

There were a number of problems with this idea. The first was the possibility that the sneaky, sneaky bike riders would circumvent the restriction by pedalling a little faster. The second was the already very limited amount of time riders spend using their highest gear. The third was that the laws of physics mean that even if you ignore all of that, the reduction in speed is still very small.

The fourth problem was a predictable restraint-of-trade lawsuit from SRAM, whose top-tier groupset has been effectively outlawed by the proposed regulation. This saw the rule overturned by a Belgian court before we even got the chance to see it in action and say, “We told you so.”

MISS: Managing protests

The situation in Gaza produced numerous protests around bike races all season, mainly focussed on the presence of the Israel-Premier Tech team. The protests were most prominent at the Vuelta a España in August and September.

With officials unwilling or unable to change the race route or provide increased security, and equally unwilling to eject Israel-Premier Tech from the event as demanded by both the protesters and Spanish politicians, the result was a badly compromised race of abandoned stages, neutralised racing, and risks to riders of all teams from protesters on the course.

The race did at least culminate with a strangely wonderful podium ceremony. After the official finish of the final stage was abandoned, Tom Pidcock’s mum suggested building a podium in a hotel carpark using some team drinks-coolers and a hastily strung-up backdrop. It was probably the most memorable prize presentation in the race’s history.

MISS: Ambiguity over ketones

Ketone esters are made by the human liver when the body is starved of glycogen, and is used as an alternative fuel source. For some time now there’s been a debate about whether taking ketones in a drink would make you faster. The anecdotal reports from bike riders who’ve tried it range from “No difference at all” to “Even better than doping”. Scientific studies have tended very much towards the former.

The UCI took its time to weigh in. After several seasons of deliberation, it finally announced that it wasn’t planning to propose a ban on ketones on the basis that firstly they’re not dangerous, and secondly there’s no evidence they work anyway.

Strangely it then went on to say, “The UCI does not recommend the inclusion of such supplements in riders’ nutritional plans.” You might like to think of ketones as the first item on the “slightly looked down upon” list. You can use them if you want, but the UCI will judge you for it.

MISS: The DQ of Jan-Willem van Schip

The UCI has a history of taking innovations badly, and doubly so with matters of riding positions. When serial UCI penalty-magnet Jan-Willem van Schip of the Park Hotel Valkenberg team clipped off the front of the bunch on stage one of the Tour of Holland, his radical bike attracted a lot of attention. With a very long, upward sloping stem and minimum width bars, he was able to drop into almost a time-trial position with his head tucked behind his hands.

Van Schip had been using the bike and position for some time, and the commissaires at the race didn’t even blink. But word came from UCI officials in Switzerland who’d been watching the coverage, and they didn’t like it. Van Schip was disqualified from the race.

Strangely, it took nearly 24 hours for anyone to clearly explain why. When they did, it had nothing to do with the riding position, which was unconventional but it turned out didn’t actually break any rules. (We’re guessing they looked very, very closely.) It was because his bike’s seat post hadn’t been correctly registered with the UCI technical committee. Which, from the UCI’s point of view, was possibly a bit lucky.

MISS: Tardy bike-checking

Commissaires carry out dimension checks on time trial bikes immediately before every race. At the Vuelta Femenina, when Movistar arrived a few minutes late at the pre-start check for the team time trial, the whole system descended into chaos.

As the sole official on duty tried to get seven Movistar bike through the check before their start time, other teams started to queue up. Movistar just about beat the start clock to get down the ramp on time, with a couple of riders starting late and chasing on.

All of Uno-X Mobility started seven seconds late after waiting to get their bikes returned. Visma-Lease a Bike only just made it to the start with five riders, with two late starters including Imogen Wolff, who joined the course from the barriers before time trialling through the race vehicles as she attempted (and failed) to catch her teammates.

The UCI acknowledged that “mistakes had been made”, fined Movistar €1,600, and declined to offer any respite to the affected teams and riders. Wolff lost over a minute, but maybe the commissaires felt she wasn’t going to win the Vuelta anyway.

Hits of the year

Sadly there isn’t space to cover the UCI’s (no doubt numerous) hits of the year, nor the various race motos that caused crashes, nor the non-race vehicles that blundered onto the course, nor the unpredictable delights of the new yellow-card system, nor time trial helmets in road races, nor indeed the stage of Itzula Basque where Romain Gregoire was awarded second place, then first, then second again.

But rest assured there’ll be plenty more of the same sort of thing in 2026. It’s perhaps the only thing about the coming season that we can be sure of.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

You might have noticed something missing from the Vuelta a España route presentation on Wednesday. A few things, actually.

As the course unravelled on the big screen, the stage lines made their way from Monaco, down Spain’s east coast, and into the country’s south – where they stayed. There will be no Madrid finish, it was announced, and no stages in the north.

I wasn’t in Madrid for the presentation, although I imagine there were a lot of perplexed faces in the room. What about the Angliru? Lagos de Covadonga? These climbs have become staples of the Vuelta over the years, and now the mountains of Asturias have been snubbed altogether? Surely something’s up.

Something is, indeed, up: innovation. 2026 will mark the first time in five years the race has finished outside of Madrid, opting instead for Granada. Even more momentously, it will be the first edition in 17 years in which the peloton hasn’t visited the country’s verdant north. Seventeen years. When that happened in 2009, the race’s latest champion, Jonas Vingegaard, was barely 11 years old.

So why do I think this is a good thing? I should probably start by declaring a bias.

When I was studying Spanish at university, I spent six months living in Andalucía, Spain’s southernmost region. In my view, the region is the country’s cultural heart; it’s home to flamenco, Moorish heritage, and so much sun you only ever eat al fresco, mostly beside a beach.

Granada, where next year’s Vuelta will finish, is perhaps Spain’s most stunning city. The Alhambra fortress that dominates the skyline is touted as the eighth wonder of the world. The local beer is also excellent.

Still, you didn’t come here to hear me canvass for the tourist board. What I like about the Vuelta route is the organisers’ brave decision to do something different, ditch the tried and tested mountains of the north, and head south.

In recent editions, they’ve been quick to palm off Andalucía. Since 2009, the last time the north was snubbed, Spain’s south has been absent from the route five times (2012, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2025). In fact, three of those five editions didn’t even venture below Madrid. It’s time the south got some love again.

Does this mean that there won’t be any of those gruelling climbs we’ve come to love watching at the Vuelta? Don’t fret: the organisers have still plotted seven major summit finishes. They've also thrown in a hilly final-day circuit in Granada to keep the fun going right until the end. That stage starts at an enormous, out-of-town Carrefour supermarket – what more could you want?

I’ll admit, I do have one concern about this Vuelta route. Being so far south, Andalucía is Spain’s hottest region – you can get a ferry to Morocco in around an hour. In cities like Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada, all of which the Vuelta will visit, temperatures can reach 40°C in September.

It’s why I, a Brit accustomed to grey skies and single digits on the thermometer, timed my stay in Andalucía to end before the summer. I’m sure the teams at the Vuelta will be better prepared – they’re in for a scenic, trend-bucking route.

The 2026 Vuelta a España will feature seven summit finishes, two individual time trials, and many climbing days, starting on 22 August.

The Spanish Grand Tour begins in Monaco, with a start against the clock in the city state, before heading into France, then Andorra, before entering Spain on stage five.

The 81st edition ends on 13 September in Granada, after a tough race with very few flat days. Yet again, it appears tailor made for climbers, like 2025, when Jonas Vingegaard won. There will be a maximum of five bunch finishes.

Notably, it spends most of the race in southern Spain, with no visit to traditional Vuelta hotspots like the Basque Country, Galicia and Asturias.

The key climbs in the 2026 race are likely to be Font Romeu in the Pyrenees on stage three, Alto de Aitana in Valencia on stage nine, and then Calar Alto, Sierra de la Pandera, and the Collado del Alguacil in Andalusia in the final two weeks. The Algaucil comes on the penultimate day.

Vuelta a España 2026 stage table

Vuelta a España 2026 full route map

Vuelta a España 2026 race guide

The race begins with a 9km individual time trial in Monaco, followed by a hilly day to Manosque in France on stage two, before the first summit finish, at Font Romeu on the third day. The final climb is only a category-two climb, but it follows the Col de Mont-Louis, a first category peak.

There then follows a day in Andorra, complete with three first category climbs: the Port d’Envalira, the Collada de Beixalís and the Coll de Ordino, before the third cat La Comella. Stage four should sort out the general classification.

Stage five should provide the first bunch sprint, but nothing is definite, before the following day sees a return to the mountains. The category-one climb of Bartolo has 3km of dirt roads to add to the excitement.

However, that is nothing compared to stage seven, with the second-highest altitude finish of the 2026 race after the climb up to Aramón Valdelinare. Stage eight should be the second bunch sprint of the race.

It's another summit finish on stage nine, to bring the first week to a close, after over 5,000 metres of altitude. There are six categorised climbs, including the toughest of Alto de Aitana.

The second week begins with a hilly day that finishes in Castile-La Mancha, but it is nothing compared to the tougher tests to come. Mark this down as one for the breakaway. Stage 11 could be the third bunch sprint of the day, but the organisers have again not made it easy for the fast men, with a climb 30km out.

A return to the mountains comes on stage 12, as the race enters Andalusia. Calar Alto will be the next summit finish, after the Velefique is also tackled. The next day, stage 13, is one for punchy riders, before another summit finish on stage 14. This time, Sierra de la Pandera is summited. This race does not let up. The second week ends with a breakaway day on stage 15 to Córdoba.

The final six days begins with the a sprint opportunity, on stage 16, before the last flat road race on stage 17. That is a maximum of five bunch sprints across the three weeks. Simple.

There is the return of the time trial on stage 18, a fairly flat 32km effort, but one where the wind could play an important role. The mountains come into view again the next day, with three categorised climbs before the final ascent to Peñas Blancas.

It is the penultimate day, however, that should be kept in mind throughout, with over 5,000m of climbing again. The Alto de Hazallanas is summited twice, with the Puerto de El Purche in between, before Collado del Aguacil (8.3km at 9.8%). It won't be the final test, though.

Rather than Madrid, the 2026 Vuelta will end in Granada, with a punchy stage around the Andalusian gem. Five ascents of the Alhambra does not necessarily mean a GC shootout, but it is unlikely to be a bunch sprint.

Chris Froome teased his plans for 2026 at the Vuelta a España route presentation on Thursday night, but has confirmed that they will be released “in the coming months.”

The 40-year-old two-time Vuelta champion is currently without a team for the upcoming season, after his contract ended with Israel-Premier Tech this year. However, the Brit is yet to confirm whether he will retire, or seek another squad for 2026.

Speaking after the Vuelta presentation, Froome said that he was still recovering after suffering a collapsed lung, broken ribs and fractured spine in a training crash in August.

“Thankfully I'm on my feet again, but it’s been a tricky few months,” he told TNT. “I just got out of hospital from my third surgery yesterday, but I'm grateful to be standing on my feet again and put this last injury behind me.”

“Life as a pro cyclist, you’re going to crash at some point, it’s how you deal with it, how you get on with it that really matters.”

On the topic of future plans, the four-time Tour de France winner was more guarded.

“The last few months, I’ve just been focussed on my recovery and getting to this point so that I can be with you here today, but… I’ve got some plans in the pipeline, but I’ll share that with everyone in the coming months.”

Froome’s success in the Spanish race saw him brought onto the presentation stage to watch a film honouring his 2011 - his first professional win - and 2017 victories.

"It was like watching a race from back in the 1980s or 1990s, it feels so long ago, but that really was where it started for me, in terms of believing in my own GC potential and what I could achieve as a professional rider,” Froome told Cyclingnews.

"The Vuelta really has been such a special part of my career, as a rider, it's given me so many special memories, and a lot of suffering in between. But it's the race I've always looked forward to the most."

Pushed for an answer on what 2026 might have in store for him, Froome remained tight-lipped: “People will know soon enough.”

It was only five months ago that Primož Roglič was wearing ankle socks at the Tour de France and allegedly telling the rest of the peloton that he didn’t care.

In that same race, his much younger Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz outperformed him to secure the final spot on the podium, and a week after the race ended it was announced that Roglič’s long-time rival Remco Evenepoel would be joining Red Bull for the 2026 season.

Roglič’s days as a Tour de France contender appear to be over – and next season the only Grand Tour he is set to ride will be the Vuelta a España.

It has led to many assuming that Roglič, who turned 36 in October, is preparing for his final year in the peloton. But the Slovenian has insisted that despite his blasé comments and his incredibly relaxed demeanour, he has no plans to retire in a year’s time.

Speaking at Red Bull’s 2026 launch event in Mallorca, Roglič quipped that he was hoping that the team boss Ralph Denk would announce a new contract extension for him on stage, as he did with Lipowitz, Giulio Pellizzari, and Lorenzo Finn.

“I was not mentioned before by Ralph with the extensions – I was maybe hoping a bit that he would but he didn’t say my name,” Roglič chuckled.

“I want to race at this moment for 10 more years. As long as I will feel that hunger, or as long as it will make me happy at the end – because I have to be happy and I have to enjoy it – I will continue.

“Do you want it or not? It’s somehow connected with the results that you are achieving, but it’s not everything. We will see. I have to go day by day, and year by year.

“[Hunger] is the thing that probably all winners have inside them. It’s hard to say that you are born with it, but somehow you grow up and you have it. When you’re 10-years-old or whatever, competitiveness and drive are all the things you need [to succeed], and it’s still inside me. You wake up and you want to do everything to be the best.”

Though Red Bull rarely announce the length of a rider’s contract, it is widely believed that Roglič’s deal with the team will expire at the end of the 2026 season. Would he drop to a lower-ranked team in order to continue his career?

“I don’t want to think about that,” he said. “I need the hunger and the will to still compete with the best ones to be the best. So in this case you shouldn’t look down but up.”

With Lipowitz and Evenepoel preparing to lead Red Bull’s two-pronged attack at next year’s Tour, there is no space for Roglič. Instead, he will head to the Vuelta to attempt to win a record-breaking fifth title.

“You can suggest that [he was surprised not be in the Tour squad],” he said. “If I could choose one race to win, I would sign for the Tour de France. It’s not a secret. But the reality is different.

“The level that I was finishing [last year’s Tour] was different. The first point to consider about myself is that you know how to find the way to be competitive, to compete for the victory.

“If I’m second in the GC of the Tour or winning the Vuelta, I know what I choose. I win the Vuelta. It’s simple. It’s easy to so say it, but to do it… even trying to win a stage in [February’s Volta a] Valencia is hard.”

That all said, Roglič isn’t ruling out the possibility of him making an appearance in either the Tour or the Giro d’Italia next season. “If I’ve learned something over the years, it’s that there are always some chances.

“The fact is you need to put something in the plan. You need to have some planning because there are a lot of people around and we cannot all be freelancers.

“But if you are capable of achieving good results, it’s normally not a problem to go to the race, But it’s more the first one to get to the level [required] that can achieve that.”

Tadej Pogačar is unlikely to ride the Vuelta a España in 2026 and attempt to complete the set of Grand Tours, his team's sports manager has said.

Speaking to Italian outlet SpazioCiclismo, Joxean Fernández Matxin said that the Vuelta was "not the most feasible option, considering the athlete's physiology, in relation to the objectives".

Instead, everything is centred around a fifth Tour de France victory, which would put Pogačar on the same level as Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Induráin and Jacques Anquetil. Pogačar has already won a Giro d'Italia, so the Vuelta remains as one of the biggest races he is yet to claim.

"Next year, Tadej could win the fifth Tour de France of his career, making history in that respect," Matxin said. "We're moving in that direction. We're analysing the rest of the calendar. I'm currently choosing which races we'll do as a team. Then we'll appoint the captains for the various races and ensure equal distribution among the riders.

"We have an idea in mind, but we need to integrate it with the calendar and put it into practice. But it's clear that the Tour de France is the most important race in the world, I'm not denying that."

Therefore, with the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal in mind too – with Pogačar looking to defend his world title for a second time – a tilt at the Vuelta seems unlikely.

"It's a goal we'd like to achieve, sooner or later, without a doubt," Matxin explained. "But with the current calendar, if you want to race the Tour, the Vuelta, and then the World Championships, you have to spend four months away from home and be at your peak for a very long time. Right now, it's not the most feasible option, considering the athlete's physiology, in relation to the objectives.

"If you're interested in the World Championships, it means doing a period of preparation at altitude before the Tour, between the months of May and June, but that would mean missing out on Liège[-Bastogne-Liège] and other races."

While Pogačar has won so much, including 20 races this year, there remain historic events yet to claim; along with the Vuelta, there is Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie, and Itzulia Basque Country.

"You can't think of starting a season, in terms of races, with the Tour de France," Matxin added. "So, Tadej would have to race in April, May, June, July, August, September, and October. That's too long to maintain the right condition. We'll have to study a few things in the coming days.

"It's more feasible to do the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double, because there's an interim period of almost five weeks between the two races."

Israel-Premier Tech will not be racing Italy’s Giro dell'Emilia on Saturday 4 October due to safety concerns, race organisers have said.

"Unfortunately, Israel-Premier Tech will not be at the start of our race. We had to make this decision for reasons of public safety," race organiser Adriano Amici told AFP, on their decision to withdraw the team's invitation to the race.

The decision to exclude the team comes after disruption to the Vuelta a España earlier this month, where pro-Palestine supporters protested Israel-Premier Tech’s presence at race. Due to safety concerns, several stages were shortened, with the final stage of the race cancelled altogether.

"The atmosphere is very tense; there was too much danger for the Israel-Premier Tech riders and the other riders," Amici explained, concluding that the race would be unlikely to finish were IPT in the peloton.

"With our local circuit, which has to be completed five times, there are numerous opportunities to disrupt the race. It's a decision I regret from a sporting perspective, but from a public safety perspective, I had no other choice."

Tensions have been growing in Italy in response to Israel’s continued war on Gaza. Italian dockworkers in Genoa and Livorno blocked ports suspected to be used for the transfer of arms to Israel, as mass pro-Palestine protests spread across the country last week. Dockworkers have further threatened Israel with a total block on tradeshould the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international convoy of 50 boats heading to Gaza to deliver aid, be attacked by Israeli drones. Nationwide strikes were also carried out on Monday, causing the closure of schools and disruption to transport.

The race, set to take place in Bologna on 4 October, has a winding course from Mirandola towards the mountainous Apennines, before tackling four lapped climbs of the San Luca circuit in Bologna. The arrival city's local government had called for Israel-Premier Tech’s exclusion from the race, due to Israel’s “serious crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza strip”.

Although the team has no official links to the Israeli government, its co-owner Sylvan Adams has previously called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at-large for Israel".

In response to the removal of the team form the Italian race, Bologna’s sport councillor, Roberta Li Calzi, said: “Given what is happening in Gaza it would have been hypocritical to consider the presence of a team linked to this [Israeli] government as insignificant.”

The Giro dell'Emilia is not alone in its decision to exclude Israel Premier Tech from its start-line, with the O Gran Camiño stage race in Spain having already revoked the team’s invitation to the race next year,

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, has made clear that it will not sanction Israeli teams, or bar them from racing. However, sponsor pressure could end in Israel-Premier Tech changing its name and registration base next year.

"We find it extremely regrettable that threats of violence have disrupted our sport," a spokesperson for Israel-Premier Tech told Reuters.

"We wish the organisers a successful race."

Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza, since the Hamas-led attack against Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed more than 1,200 people.

The improvised Vuelta a España podium after this year's race was inspired by Tom Pidcock's mum, Jonas Vingegaard revealed this week.

Speaking at a presentation at Visma-Lease a Bike's headquarters, the Dane said that the moment was one of the "best moments of his career", according to Dutch outlet Wielerflits.

Protests cancelled the final stage of the Vuelta in Madrid on Sunday, with the official podium ceremony also cut as a result. However, thanks to an idea from Pidcock's mum, and the help of Visma-Lease a Bike, an impromptu presentation took place on top of some cool boxes in a hotel car park.

It was a special moment, the first Vuelta win of two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard's career, and the first Grand Tour podium for Pidcock.

"I think the idea came from Tom Pidcock’s mum," Vingegaard said, according to Domestique. “And then they grabbed it and said: 'Okay, then we arrange it.' They were in different hotels, and then they all came to our hotel, like schoolboys. We had to keep it a bit of a secret, otherwise the protestors would come. And also Matthew [Riccitello from Israel-Premier Tech] had to get the white jersey, of course, so I guess we had to keep it a bit of a secret.

"I was just very disappointed that we couldn’t go to Madrid and do the celebration there," he continued. "But actually it was a super nice way of celebrating it. It was way smaller and way more intimate in some kind of ways. So it was really a nice celebration. Actually it was a lot nicer than I thought it would be.

"It shows that in cycling we can actually stand together and get something like: 'Okay, we want to do something together.' And maybe not only there, but actually in the whole race with all these protests, for once as riders and teams we were standing more together, which we haven’t been able to do in recent years."

Vingegaard also expressed hope that protests wouldn't disrupt races as much in the future, but it also put a new perspective on cycling. Stage 11 in Bilbao was shortened, with no result, before stages 16 and 18 were also changed, and then the final stage was cancelled.

"It’s very easy to do a protest and stand on the road there," he said. "This is not the first time it has happened, though. But now it seemed like they realised, especially after the Bilbao stage, how vulnerable cycling is. They can really get into the media when they stop the race. I just hope the UCI or the organisers can do something about it, and that it won’t be a major problem in the future.

"I guess I just realised that cycling is not everything. Even if I don’t win, the world is still turning and there’s still a day tomorrow. Before this, I thought about it too much. I got really nervous a lot, but then I just worked my way through it. Now I’m even more relaxed than I’ve ever been. Before the Bola del Mundo [on stage 20, which he won] I realised if I do my best, I cannot do any more than that."

As for what is next, one thing looms above all, despite speculation of Vingegaard tackling the Giro d'Italia next year.

"Of course there’s still the Tour de France," he said. "The Tour is the Tour. It’s a very special race. I still dream of winning the Tour again. I would be lying if I said otherwise. And all these one-week stage races on the WorldTour, like the ones I haven’t won yet, those are also races that I kind of dream of winning."

It would be news to the tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protestors that were such a feature of the recent Vuelta a España that sport isn’t political. It would come as a surprise to Russian, Belarusian riders and their teams that cycling is not political. Those taking the knee for anti-racism and Black Lives Matter, or those obeying a minute’s silence around Remembrance Day might not realise it, but they are taking part in a political act at a sporting event. Countries host events, or fund their national teams for soft power gains; political wins, from London 2012 to the Qatar World Cup.

It would be news, too, to the owners or sponsors of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Bahrain Victorious, XDS Astana, Jayco AlUla and more, that there aren’t political gains to be made from sponsoring a cycling team. Israel-Premier Tech does not have the overt connection to the state in its name that others do, but it still represents it. Its co-owner, Sylvan Adams, has previously said: “These guys ride for Israel, so they need to know the country. This is not a state project. I am, by far, the largest single contributor from the team, and we do receive a small amount from the tourism board. There is no other government funding. The home country is unambiguously Israel. We don’t have a commercial sponsor – this is our identity.”

According to cycling’s governing body, the UCI, sport isn’t political. In a statement released late on Monday, a spokesperson condemned the protests at the Vuelta, which disrupted the race, forcing stages 11 and 21 to end with no result, and shortening two others. The peaceful elements of the protests had the support of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez, which drew ire from the UCI.

They said: “The UCI strongly condemns the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government. Sport must remain autonomous to fulfil its role as a tool for peace. It is unacceptable and counterproductive for our sport to be diverted from its universal mission. Moreover, there are dedicated platforms where countries can discuss their differences.”

Sport has always, and remains, exploited for political purposes. The UCI granted licences to the above teams, allowing countries or individuals to boost their aims, to promote themselves on the world stage. When Tadej Pogačar wins another race for UAE, it helps to foster a positive image for the country, it’s that simple.

The UCI has taken licences away, too, in the knowledge that sport is political. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russian and Belarusian teams and their sponsors lost their licences and were banned from UCI events to avoid “damaging the image of the UCI and cycling in general”, while riders were forced to be neutral, and still are.

Sport is clearly political, and to say that it isn’t is hypocritical, ignorant, or both. This is relevant now, in the week that a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as Israel launched a major ground offensive into Gaza City.

Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza, since the Hamas-led attack against Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed more than 1,200 people.

The protests against the participation of Israel-Premier Tech in the Vuelta were valid, although not when they put riders in danger. The UCI is fully justified in condemning protesters for putting riders at risk.

The team might not have a direct connection to the country in its name, but it is registered there, and represents it. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, praised the team for “not giving in to hate and intimidation” last week, adding that it had made Israel proud.

The protests also worked. They might not have succeeded in forcing the team out of the race, but they brought the concept to the attention of the cycling world, and kept the issue in the headlines as much as Jonas Vingegaard’s victory.

The UCI looks to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its cues; the IOC acted quickly on Russia and Belarus, but has not yet made a move on Israel. However, the UCI is responsible for Israel-Premier Tech’s licence, with the team potentially moving up to the WorldTour next season. It should not be seen as outrageous for this ruling to take into account Israel’s current actions.

The UCI’s press release is outrageous, to suggest that current events can’t be discussed in the world of cycling. Some things are more important than a bike race.

The Spanish government’s reply to the UCI quoted Kant: “Peace without justice is the peace of cemeteries.”

“With the deepest admiration and respect for our athletes and, as we have always done, expressing our rejection of any type of violent behavior, we believe that sport cannot remain indifferent to what is happening in the world, much less remain oblivious to serious human rights violations,” the Spanish government’s reply read.

“There is no peace without justice, and using sport to ‘whitewash’ a genocide like the one being committed in Gaza, with thousands of deaths, innocent children, and a famine already declared by the United Nations, is a political position that contravenes the Olympic Charter and the most basic values of sport.”

Sport is political. Everything is political. Hiding behind the idea that sport is neutral is not good enough, not at this critical juncture. If sport really is for peace, then difficult decisions need to be made.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.

The UCI has said the recent Vuelta a España protests, and the support they received from Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez, “call into question Spain’s ability to host major international sporting events”.

Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators attended the race’s final stage in Madrid on Sunday, which was abandoned due to the disruption. Speaking the following day, Sánchez expressed his “deep admiration” for those who protested peacefully, although two people were arrested as protestors and police officers clashed.

Since the opening week of the Vuelta, activists campaigned at the race against the inclusion of Israel-Premier Tech – a team registered in Israel, but with no official links to the state – while Israel’s invasion of Gaza continues. Sánchez has previously described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

In a statement shared on Monday evening addressing the Vuelta's finale, the UCI, cycling’s governing body, said it “regret[s] the fact that the Spanish Prime Minister and his government have supported actions that could hinder the smooth running of a sporting competition and, in some cases, expressed their admiration for the demonstrators.”

“This position is contradictory to the Olympic values of unity, mutual respect, and peace. It also calls into question Spain's ability to host major international sporting events, ensuring that they take place in safe conditions and in accordance with the principles of the Olympic Charter,” the UCI continued.

The statement comes less than 10 months before the Spanish city of Barcelona is set to host the Grand Départ of the 2026 Tour de France. Sánchez’s term as prime minister runs until 2027.

The latest edition of the Vuelta, won by Visma-Lease a Bike's Jonas Vingegaard, was marred throughout by protests; on stage five, demonstrators with Palestine flags stopped Israel-Premier Tech’s riders during their team time trial; no stage result was declared on stages 11 and 21; and the race route was shortened on stages 16 and 18.

The UCI on Monday expressed its “total disapproval” and “deep concern” regarding the incidents that impacted the race. It went on to commend both the Vuelta organisers in their decision-making to adjust stages, and the Spanish law enforcement agencies for their “exemplary work” in policing the race.

Spanish prime minister Sánchez has previously spoken of a “double standard” in the international community’s response to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. In cycling, the UCI revoked the licences of Russian and Belarusian teams in March 2022, one week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. No bans have been put in place against Israeli teams.

“We’ve seen how European governments are saying that as long as the barbarism continues, Israel can’t use any international platform to whitewash its presence,” Sánchez said on Monday. “And I think that sports organisations need to ask themselves whether it’s ethical for Israel to keep taking part in international competitions.”

The UCI, however, said it strongly condemns “the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government”.

“Sport must remain autonomous to fulfil its role as a tool for peace,” cycling’s governing body continued. “It is unacceptable and counterproductive for our sport to be diverted from its universal mission. Moreover, there are dedicated platforms where countries can discuss their differences.”

The UCI will host its annual congress next week, where it says representatives from the Palestinian, Israeli, Russian, and Ukrainian federations will be present.

"We reaffirm our constant call for dialogue and peace," the UCI said. "Sport must unite, never divide."

The UCI's full statement regarding the Vuelta can be found on its website.

More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, in response to the Hamas-led October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

It wasn't the Grand Tour podium that Tom Pidcock would have envisaged. There was no ticker tape, or crowds, or curated celebrations, but instead a hastily-assembled podium of cool boxes outside Visma-Lease a Bike's team hotel in Madrid.

Protests might have cut short stage 21 of the Vuelta a España, but they could not dampen Pidcock's achievements, as he finished third. He became the first male Olympic MTB champion to finish on the podium of a Grand Tour, and with Q36.5 Pro Cycling, the first rider from a second-division team to be on the podium since 2010.

Just eight British male riders had finished on the podium of a Grand Tour in history, so Pidcock is now part of an elite club. It is a huge jump for the 26-year-old too, as he had never previously finished above 13th at a Grand Tour, or even in the top five of any WorldTour stage race. He is now rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world.

It is hard to overstate the performance. This was Pidcock, after a brutally hard three weeks, finishing third behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and ahead of more established general classification riders like former Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), 2023 Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team).

Eyebrows were raised when general classification was so loudly the aim for Pidcock and Q36.5 Pro Cycling pre-race, given his past form and that this was his team's second-ever Grand Tour. The team were, in fact, only invited to the Vuelta thanks to the number of invited teams being boosted to 23 this season.

"I think there's been so much talk around what I can do in Grand Tours and expectation – not really coming from myself to be honest, more from other people – this is a big deal, that I've shown that I can perform,” he explained to Cyclingnews after stage 20.

"OK, I'm a way off winning, but that doesn't mean I won't be closer in the future. I think in such a short time period, what we've achieved as a team is evident now I'm on the podium. So I can only be happy and positive and look forward to what I will do in the future."

The 26-year-old finished over three minutes behind Vingegaard, but was consistent throughout the race, only really looking a bit out of sorts on the vertiginous Alto de l’Angliru, where he still placed seventh. On stage 20 to the Bola del Mundo, Pidcock only lost seconds, securing his historic result.

It’s a new experience for Pidcock, who is learning all the time about being a GC rider.

"Before, I didn't enjoy Grand Tours, it was not so much fun,” he said. “So it [third in Madrid] is definitely something that has changed that perspective and showed me I can achieve what people closest to me believe I can and my team believes I can. It's a relief, almost – a weight off my shoulders.

"I wouldn't say boring, but it can be tedious, yeah, and monotonous. You have to play safe, and do the boring option, kind of. It's not as spontaneous and erratic, which is a more enjoyable way to race, so it's kind of [about] racing safe."

Now, there will be hope and expectation for Pidcock to return to the Tour de France next year, with his new team, but first, his achievement should be feted. This is the new, safe Pidcock, standing on a cool box, declaring his status as a Grand Tour contender.

So that’s it - the 2025 Grand Tour season is officially over.

I think it’s fair to say that this year, even with Tadej Pogačar’s absurdly dominant Tour de France performance, has been one to remember when it comes to three-week stage races for a whole host of reasons. Redemption arcs from Yates and Vingegaard, breakthrough rides from the likes of Onley and Del Toro, and of course, the large-scale protests in Spain which ultimately brought the Vuelta’s final stage to a premature halt. Yesterday, though, despite the disruption, belonged to Jonas Vingegaard and Team Visma Lease-a-Bike.

After a stellar performance on the final mountain stage on Saturday, Vingegaard rolled out for Sunday's final stage aboard his Cervélo, which was now a vibrant gloss red.

For most of the 2025 Vuelta, Vingegaard rode his team-issue Cervélo S5. This was a change from previous years, when Visma Lease-a-Bike frequently alternated between the lightweight Cervélo R5 and the more aerodynamic S5. In all likelihood, that’s because with Cervélo’s new frameset, the team no longer has to compromise between weight and aerodynamics. A 124-gram saving over the outgoing model might not sound dramatic, but combined with Vingegaard’s relatively small 51cm frame, it allows him to spend more time on an aero bike without hauling unnecessary weight uphill. It was only on Sunday that he switched out the team colours for this striking red frameset, once overall victory had been secured. As well as the usual team issue decals, there was a nice touch at the seat stay junction, reading ‘Uno Jonas Uno’.

As has been the case for some time, Vingegaard’s machine was kitted out with SRAM’s range topping RED AXS groupset. For what should have been a celebratory ride into Madrid, his bike was set up with a single chainring, with subtle red SRAM detailing on the crank arm and brake levers tying the look together.

Reserve also played its part in the customisation. Vingegaard was given a special edition of the brand’s 57/64 Turbulent Aero wheels, finished with bold red decals on the rims.

Modern bike racing is often compared to Formula One - whether in terms of aero frame design or the ever-advancing race communications technology. But Vingegaard’s Sunday special really did echo an F1 car, especially with the red-walled tyres provided by Vittoria. Are they a touch over the top? Absolutely. Do I love them for it? Even more so.

The final red accents came courtesy of Prologo’s finishing kit. Up front, Vingegaard opted for the traditional victory-red bar tape, while on top sat a custom red Prologo saddle - a fitting detail to round off both the bike and the Grand Tour season.

The Vuelta a España ended in a mild farce on Sunday, as stage 21 of the Spanish Grand Tour was cancelled amid overwhelming pro-Palestine protests in Madrid.

It meant not only no winner of stage 21, the second time there was no stage result at this year's race after Bilbao, but no official podium presentation too. There was, however, a makeshift podium presentation later.

The Vuelta was dogged by protest throughout, with Israel-Premier Tech's involvement the main point of contention, while Israel's invasion of Gaza continues; Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has previously called Israel's actions genocide. More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, in response to the Hamas-led October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

The protests came to a head in Madrid, with thousands of activists disrupting the race after invading the circuit in the Spanish capital, despite extra police resources being called on in an attempt to secure the viability of the final stage.

"It’s a pity that such a moment of eternity was taken from us," race winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) said after the stage was abandoned. "I was looking forward to celebrating this overall win with my team and the fans. Everyone has the right to protest, but it’s a shame that it has to happen here and prevents us from finishing the race."

His team boss, Richard Plugge, stressed that the riders must be protected; there were multiple incidents of protestors putting themselves and athletes in danger, with high-speed near misses and a couple of crashes.

"Nowadays, sport is increasingly being used as a platform to address social issues," Plugge said. “We must realise that sport is essentially about connection. It can build bridges and foster mutual understanding. But the participants must be protected: they cannot become victims of this societal debate.

"That debate must always remain outside the athletes’ arena. Athletes should be free to fight their battles on the field of play, in our case, on the road. Otherwise, the very essence of sport as a unifying force is at risk."

Ineos Grenadiers rider Michał Kwiatkowski warned that the protests had set a dangerous precedent, after multiple stages were shortened, changed, or cancelled due to direct action. Cycling is a vulnerable sport when it comes to interruption – not every metre of road can be policed.

"If the UCI and the responsible bodies couldn’t make the right decisions early enough, then long-term it’s very bad for cycling that the protesters managed to get what they wanted," he wrote on social media. "You can’t just pretend nothing is happening."

"From now on, it’s clear for everyone that a cycling race can be used as an effective stage for protests and next time it will only get worse, because someone allowed it to happen and looked the other way. It’s a shame for the fans who came here to watch a great event. Personally, I would have preferred to know in advance that the race was cancelled rather than being led to believe everything was going to be fine."

There had been calls for Israel-Premier Tech to leave the race. The team continued, but in a changed kit with the word 'Israel' removed.

Protestors had support from Spain's prime minister. "Today the Vuelta a España finishes and we show our absolute respect and recognition for the athletes," Sánchez told a crowd in Málaga on Sunday. “But [we also show] our admiration for the Spanish people who mobilise for just causes such as Palestine. Today Spain shines as an example and as a source of pride. It’s [giving] an example to the international community by taking a step forward in defence of human rights."

While Israel-Premier Tech finished the race, and their young American Matthew Riccitello finished fifth overall and best young rider, the protests clearly impacted the race, and might influence the future branding of the team, and how big cycling events are planned in the future. The 2026 Tour de France begins in Barcelona, a race Israel-Premier Tech will aim to start.

Away from the protests, the 2025 race ended with no stage winner, but there was an impromptu podium ceremony in a car park, with Vingegaard crowned next to second-placed João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and third-placed Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) on Visma-Lease a Bike cool boxes.

Jonas Vingegaard has been confirmed as the winner of the 2025 Vuelta a España after major protests forced the stoppage of the final stage of the race in Madrid.

It had been feared that activists would seek to disrupt the race on the final day of a race that has been impacted by several days of demonstrations against the inclusion of the Israel-Premier Tech team as Israel's military action in Gaza continues.

An official statement from the race organisers said: "For security reasons, stage 21 of La Vuelta has been ended early. There will be no podium ceremony."

Organisers had cut out 5km from the stage following information that a protest was planned in the suburb of Aravaca.

Previously, riders had agreed that they would force the neutralisation of a stage with an incident of protest, prioritising their safety.

Close to 2,000 police and Guardia Civil officers were reported to have been drafted into the Spanish capital for the finale, in what’s the biggest security operation seen in Madrid since it hosted a NATO summit in 2022.

With 58km to go, around 20 protesters blocked the road as the peloton entered the final circuit, disturbing the back-half of the peloton. The whole peloton then stopped with the commissaire’s car to discuss the situation.

The riders then rode neutralised behind the commissaire’s car a kilometre further on before stopping again with shakes of heads and an impassioned discussion between the organisers and Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek) who is one the the riders representing the peloton at La Vuelta.

Images were shown on TV of protesters clashing verbally with police behind the barriers 200 metres before the finish line and another of hundreds of protesters on the course at the 8km sign. Protesters had also entirely blocked off the road at the flamme rouge with 1km to go.

Spanish TV reported that there had been violent confrontations between police and protesters with object thrown at police. It was reported that there were around 3,000 demonstrators in total.

Shortly after, Vingegaard was seen shaking the hands of his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates, a signal which could be interpreted as the conclusion of the Vuelta, not at the finish in the centre of Madrid, but on a non-descript piece of road on the approach to the circuit.

The peloton were ushered into their team cars and driven away from the scene.

The day had started in traditional fashion for the final day of a GrandTour with the customary photo opportunities, with each team having their moment at the front of the peloton after Vingegaard was flanked by his five remaining Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates, all decked out in a special black kit with red highlights to mark the occasion.

The protests follow a string of similar demonstrations, which forced changes in two other stages, with finish-lines being moved forward on stage 11 into Bilbao and stage 16, while the time trial in Valladolid on stage 18 was also shortened due to safety concerns.

There were calls from several quarters for Israel-Premier Tech to leave the race. The team vowed to race on, but raced in a changed kit with the word 'Israel' removed.

24 hours earlier, the Dane had rubber-stamped his Vuelta win with a commanding performance on the violent slopes of the Bola del Mundo to all but seal the overall win. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was second overall, with Brit Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) securing his first Grand Tour podium in third.

Results

General Classification after stage 21

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 72:53:57
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +1:16
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +3:11
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:41
5. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +5:551
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +7:23
7. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +7:45
8. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +7:50
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +9:48
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +12:16

Tom Pidcock is on the verge of a career-best Grand Tour finish after a battling performance on Saturday’s Bola del Mundo mountain stage confirmed the Q36.5 Pro Cycling leader’s third place on GC.

“I really don’t know what to say now, except that I’m pretty proud of myself,” Pidcock said after a stage when he managed to rebuff the efforts made by Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) to eject him from third place on the Vuelta podium on the race’s final day in the mountains.

Pidcock lost just nine seconds to the Australian at the line and will go into Sunday’s stage with a buffer of 30 seconds on Hindley. Barring an unprecedented change of fortunes, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman looks set to finish behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the general classification on Sunday evening in Madrid.

Speaking to Eurosport after finishing fourth at Bola del Mundo, 18 seconds behind solo winner Vingegaard, Pidcock said that he felt confident going into this decisive test. “This morning I was super up for it, ready for the stage.

“We’d had two relatively easy days – well, the TT wasn’t easy, but it was short and yesterday was relatively easy compared to days we’ve been having. So today felt like a one-day race and that’s what I’m good at.”

Although Hindley did appear to be going away from the Briton at a couple of points in the closing two kilometres, Pidcock said that he never felt that he was going to lose much ground and that the biggest challenge was maintaining his tempo on Bola del Mundo’s savage ramps.

“It’s so hard to find a rhythm on these gradients and this rough surface. I still felt in control on the steepest climbs. But I didn’t want to go over my limit. All I had to do was stay within that and not blow,” he explained, adding: “I think it’s definitely the biggest performance of my career.”

While the Q36.5 leader still has to negotiate the final stage in Madrid, he admitted that he can now relax to some extent. “Day after day, you’re so focused on everything, on making sure you’re switched on for the race every day. But now I’m enjoying the fact that I can just sit here and don’t need to put this bloody jacket on and drink cherry juice and have a disgusting recovery shake,” he said in true Yorkshire fashion.

Jonas Vingegaard cleared the last major hurdle in his quest to win a first Vuelta a España title when he won the critical mountain stage to the Bola del Mundo summit. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider finished 11 seconds clear of teammate Sepp Kuss to extend his overall advantage on main rival João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to a minute and 16 seconds ahead of Sunday's final stage into Madrid.

Having first tracked rival João Almeida on the early pitches of the super steep concrete road that rose sharply towards the TV masts at the finish, Vingegaard then followed an attack by Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe). With 1,200 very acute metres remaining, Vingegaard made his move, accelerating past the Australian and immediately getting a gap on the other GC favorites.

Although fatigue was evident as the Dane almost collided with the barriers approaching the line, he maintained a clear advantage, the victory also giving him a useful 10-second bonus, boosting his GC cushion a little more.

Hindley took third, but was only just ahead of Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who retained third and second place on GC, respectively.

Vingegaard said post-stage that he'd been hoping to take victory at Bola del Mundo after missing out on prestigious successes in recent days. "I wanted to win in Bilbao and I wanted to win on Angliru, but Bola del Mundo is also very special one," the Dane said.

"I wouldn't say that I was feeling comfortable in the pace that João and then Jai were doing, but at least I felt like that I was not on my limit," he added. "So I felt that I had a good chance of winning the stage.

"At one point I just decided that I was going to try. Then I immediately got a gap. The last few hundred metres were incredibly hard, and I almost went into the barrier – a small mistake on my part," he said.

"I'm super happy with how things went for me today and how the team has done in the last three weeks. The team has been so amazing. I couldn't have done it without them."

While Vingegaard admitted that the sickness that had hampered him in recent days had eased, Almeida confessed that he hadn't been at his best and wasn't in the condition that he needed to be in order to unseat Vingegaard from top spot.

"We had to try today, we had nothing to lose," he said of the huge effort made by his UAE team. "The idea was to make it as fast as we could, to make the stage as hard as we could. Unfortunately, I've been sick this week, so the feeling was not the best. But we still tried and I think that's what matters. Congrats to Jonas. He was super strong, and I think it’s not too bad being behind him."

In addition to Vingegaard and the other podium finishers, the day's other big winner was American Matthew Riccitello (Israel-PremierTech), who took the white jersey of best young rider after its previous holder Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was dropped early on the final climb.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The inevitable flurry of attacks from the start saw the Ineos Grenadiers in the thick of the action, with the British team’s riders determined to launch Egan Bernal into the breakaway. They managed this on the early slopes of the opening third-category climb, but the attacks kept coming from behind and the Colombian was soon reeled in.

Santi Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) led over that climb and was joined by an increasing number of riders beyond it, including Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Having missed that move, Bernal attacked out of the peloton and joined the leaders on the second third-cat climb, the Puerto de la Paradilla.

Eventually, 35 riders came together at the front, although UAE weren’t keen to allow them much of a lead. Lidl-Trek had a quartet up front, and Carlos Verona, Mads Pedersen and Julien Bernard set about doing all they could to provide their climber Ciccone with a potential stage-winning advantage.

On the third climb, the second-category Alto del León, the break’s lead reached a maximum of one minute 30 seconds, as Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe pitched in to help UAE with the pace-making in the bunch. Next up was the first passage over the Alto de Navacerrada, a first-category test for this initial ascent of the climb that's also the launch pad for the super-category Bola del Mundo.

As Lidl-Trek continued to press, the break splintered quickly. There were only a dozen riders at the front cresting the Navacerrada, where the gap to the peloton had been reduced to 1-05. On the descent, Ciccone, Landa, Bernal, Bruno Amirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Jardi van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) went clear.

After the race had previously been diverted to avoid pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in the town of Cerdedilla, demonstrators almost brought the race to a half with 19km remaining by blocking the road just ahead of the break. The five riders managed to swerve around the demonstrators and soon after the red jersey group picked its way along the side of the road too, with shelter provided by race organisation and team cars, although two Movistar riders appeared to be halted briefly.

Landa had just attacked from the lead group when the protest occurred, and the Spanish climber managed to hold his lead until Ciccone and Bernal bridged back up to him. With 11km remaining, Ciccone accelerated away from his two rivals, with the peloton still 1-10 back.

Landa was done yet, though, and eventually clawed his way back up to the Italian, the pair then collaborating in an attempt to keep the peloton at bay the second time up the Navacerrada pass.

Back in the red jersey group, the pace set by UAE proved too much for fifth-placed and best young rider Pellizzari, who dropped back with 7km to the finish. Seventh-placed Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was the next victim moments later.

With 5km to the line, Ciccone and Landa had a cushion of just 25 seconds on the UAE-led red jersey group. They were caught as they swung right onto the final 3km of steep concrete road up to the finish, where Almeida came out of the slipstream of his teammates to make a final attempt to wrest the red jersey from the shoulders of Vingegaard.

Two kilometres from the top, Hindley went to the front, his acceleration troubling Pidcock and Riccitello. The Australian briefly went clear, with Vingegaard tracking him closely, but Almeida dieseled his way back up to the pair, with Pidcock and Kuss on his wheel.

With 1,200 metres left, Vingegaard made his move, surging past Hindley, creating a gap that quickly put the stage win and his first Vuelta title in his sights.

RESULTS

VUELTA A ESPAÑA STAGE 20: ROBLEDO DE CHAVELA > BOLA DEL MUNDO (159KM)

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 3:56:23
2. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +11s
3. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +13s
4. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +18s
5. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +22s
6. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +24s
7. Jay Vine (Aus) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +47s
8. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +1:11
9. Junior Lecerf (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:22
10. Finlay Pickering (GBr) Bahrain Victorious, +1:30

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 20

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 72:53:57
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +1:16
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +3:11
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:41
5. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +5:551
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +7:23
7. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +7:45
8. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +7:50
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +9:48
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +12:16

The Vuelta a España organisers have cut 5km from the route of the race’s final stage into Madrid on Sunday, reducing its length to 103.6km by removing a section through the suburb of Aravaca.

Contacted by Spanish daily El País, the organisers said that the route change had been made as a result of the loss of a race sponsor. However, the same newspaper reported on Thursday that a major pro-Palestinian protest was being planned in Aravaca for the final stage, with demand for Palestinian flags said to be so high that supplies had been exhausted and locals were adapting the similar-looking flag of the Spanish province of Extremadura for Sunday’s demonstration of support.

Close to 2,000 police and Guardia Civil officers are being drafted into the Spanish capital for Sunday’s Vuelta finale, in what’s the biggest security operation seen in Madrid since it hosted a NATO summit in 2022.

This follows a string of incidents instigated by Palestinian supporters during the race that have targeted the Israel-PremierTech team. These began on stage five when protesters blocked the team’s riders during the team time trial and subsequently resulted in several stages being shortened in order to ensure the safety of riders. In recent days, the team has dropped the word Israel from its jerseys and is now riding in monogram-branded kit in an effort to protect its riders.

To further complicate the security situation, Saturday’s mountain stage to the Bola del Mundo summit north of Madrid was under threat from two sets of protesters. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators were set to gather at three locations, including the very steep climb to the finish. Environmental groups were also planning to target this same key section of the route to protest against the race’s impact in what is a protected area of the Guadarrama National Park.

In the face of these protests, which have resulted in racers not only being hampered but in some cases being knocked from their bikes, the riders’ union, the CPA, polled its members at the Vuelta and subsequently announced that the riders would stop racing during any stage where they came under threat again. Speaking on behalf of the riders, Bahrain Victorious’s Jack Haig said: “Unfortunately, we’re being caught in the middle of ­something that maybe doesn’t really involve us. At the moment we are just the pawns in a very large chess game that is affecting us.”

Spain’s government has been one of the most vocal in condemning Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Earlier this week Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez accused the Israeli government of “exterminating a defenceless people” and “killing innocent boys and girls with hunger”.

In a statement released following the neutralisation of stage 11 into Bilbao, the Israel PremierTech team said: “Israel – Premier Tech has repeatedly expressed its respect for everyone’s right to protest, as long as those protests remain peaceful and do not compromise the safety of the peloton. The Vuelta a España race organization and police are doing everything in their power to create a safe environment and, for that, the team is especially grateful.”

Jasper Philipsen sprung to his third victory of this year's Vuelta a España on Friday, winning a sprint finish in Guijuelo on stage 19.

The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider, who claimed the red jersey on the opening day, and later won stage eight, was guided to the closing uphill drag by his team-mates, where he kicked clear of his rivals.

With a glance to the left across the line, Philipsen arrived a bike length ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), and clenched his fists in victory.

The win marked the sixth of the season for the Belgian, who withdrew from this year's Tour de France early following a heavy crash.

"It was a really, really tough finish line. Definitely after 11 days not going this deep, it hurts," Philipsen said in Guijuelo. "I was struggling in the wheel, but I saw the finish line and I pushed through."

The victory, he added, was the fruit of a "team job", with a nod in particular to Edward Planckaert and Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who led him out.

"With this team we try to keep the winning flow going," Philipsen said. "The guys are really experienced and they’re the best in this job. We’ll try to repeat it on Sunday [in Madrid], the final day. I’m really looking forward [to it] because it’s been a tough three weeks."

In the battle for the red jersey, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was able to restore four bonus seconds over João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), extending his lead to 44 seconds, thanks to an opportunistic grab at the day's intermediate sprint.

How it happened

With 16 teams still winless at this year’s Vuelta, it may have been surprising at the start of stage 19 to see so few gamble on the breakaway. Unaccompanied, Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was left to plough his own way, ahead of the peloton, towards Guijuelo.

Inside 60km to go, a routine intermediate sprint in Salamanca turned into a GC coup. Catching UAE Team Emirates-XRG unawares, Vingegaard shot out of the pack to collect four bonus seconds, after Otruba picked up maximum points. The move helped patch some of the time the Dane lost in stage 18’s time trial, in a race likely to come down to a margin of seconds.

Crosswinds then threatened on the vast roads of Castile and Léon. Vingegaard, again, was quick to react to the race unfolding, placing himself in a tearaway group around 35km from the line. When the peloton regrouped shortly after, Otruba by now swallowed up, Vingegaard kept himself attentively near the front. The gusts soon lulled, however, and the bunch bedded in for a sprint finale.

Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) led a strung-out line of riders uphill beneath the 1km-to-go banner. Alpecin-Deceuninck then stole the baton, peeling away their train for Philipsen to unleash his kick.

The Belgian, dressed in dazzling silver shoes and riding into a slight incline, hugged the right side of the barriers as he sprinted towards the gantry. Pedersen pushed him close, but there was no photo-finish needed. Philipsen claimed his hat-trick with both fists in the air.

Results

Vuelta a España stage 19: Rueda > Guijuelo (161.9km)

1. Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck, in 3:50:35
2. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek
3. Orluis Aular (Ven) Movistar
4. Jenthe Biermans (Bel) Arkéa-B&B Hotels
5. Ben Turner (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers
6. Arne Marit (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty
7. Fabio Christen (Sui) Q36.5 Pro Cycling
8. Ethan Vernon (GBr) Israel-Premier Tech
9. Thibaud Gruel (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
10. Jordan Labrosse (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, all at same time

General classification after stage 19

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 68:57:44
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +44s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:43
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:22
5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:23
6. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +5:21
7. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +5:24
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +7:30
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +7:46
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +10:21

“No, wait, wait, wait,” pleads Egan Bernal, the clippers buzzing against the back of his head. It’s Thursday evening in a hotel somewhere near Valladolid, and the Colombian is surrounded by Ineos Grenadiers staff, watching on and laughing as someone shaves his hair off.

A video of the moment appeared on social media. Within minutes, the treatment was over. Bernal is now one of four Ineos riders to visit the makeshift barbershop at this year’s Vuelta a España. Before him, Brandon Rivera and Michał Kwiatkowski bid adieu to their dos, while Filippo Ganna also lost his locks after his stage 18 time trial victory.

The haircuts have made for a fun subplot to the race. But they beg the question: why are Ineos Grenadiers riders shaving their heads?

The answer can be found in the team’s new motto: “All in for the win, all in for the trim”, which appeared in a now-deleted post on X of a close-cropped Bernal and Ganna.

Kwiatkowsi, the second rider to lose his hair, distilled the idea down into even simpler terms: “Stage win = shaved head,” he wrote on social media. But how does the team decide who loses their hair?

In interviews, the Ineos riders have spoken of a wheel – perhaps a comedically large TV-game-show-style prop, like in Wheel of Fortune, perhaps a more metaphorical one – that contains each of their names. The night before a stage, the person it lands on is obliged to shave their head in the event the team wins the following day. If the selected rider wins the stage himself, he is allowed to nominate a team-mate.

On Monday evening, for example, the pointer fell on Rivera, so when Bernal won his first WorldTour race in four years on Tuesday, Rivera and his hair parted ways. Kwiatkowsi, caught up in all the amusement, said he “volunteered somehow” alongside.

The following day, the wheel chose Bob Jungels, but he was spared by the victory of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Giulio Pellizzari.

The wheel then landed on Ganna for Thursday's stage 18 time trial, an omen that shook the team-mates of the two-time world champion. “If he wins, he gets to nominate someone else, so I’m pretty worried, to be honest,” said Ben Turner, as Ganna waited in the hot seat, having already set the best time.

Three hours later, the Italian's victory was confirmed. The celebrations followed, he waved to the crowds from the podium, and then faced a decision: who would he chose for the barber’s chair? Off went the hair of stage 16's winner Bernal. Ganna, it seems, shaved his too in solidarity.

With three stages to go, there are three more chances at victory at this year’s Vuelta, and three more potential victims of the clippers. Jungels, Turner, Magnus Sheffield and Victor Langellotti have all escaped the game so far. Look out for the wheel's next turn should Ineos win again.

Fillipo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) powered to an early lead at the stage 18’s time trial at Vuelta a España, in a time of 13 minutes not beaten in the following two hours, despite close attempts by UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mates Jay Vine and João Almeida.

Vine came closest to pipping the Italian to first, the Australian separated from the top seat by just 0.9 seconds.

Today marks Ganna's second win in Valladolid, after he took first two years ago at the Vuelta a España on a near-identical course.

The course was shortened from 27.2km to 12.2km in an attempt to ensure "greater protection" for the riders amid security concerns over ongoing pro-Palestine protests at the race.

Sitting in a nail-biting hot seat for almost all of the 18th stage, the Italian remained cool despite the mounting pressure.

"I think I suffered more in the last three hours in the hot seat than on the bike," Ganna said after confirmation of his win.

"[In] the first part I didn’t find the correct rhythm and then in the final I tried to push without thinking of the numbers or anything.

"I’m really happy for today. This last week has started really well for us and it’s not over yet. I’ve suffered a lot with the elevation in the first two weeks of this Vuelta and with illness, but every day I’ve got better and better."

Whilst Ganna was a race favourite even before he rolled down the start ramp, eyes were also on Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek). However, precious seconds were lost for the Dutchman after he took the second roundabout too wide, thinking the course was turning left rather than straight ahead in a mistake soon to be repeated by other riders including the German TT champion, Max Schachmann (Soudal Quick-Step).

‘In a short time trial like this you can’t make any mistakes,” Hoole said after crossing the finish.

The real heat, however, came later, when in quick succession, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took to the start ramp, followed by Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Almeida and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). Only then did Ganna's cool mask slip.

Hindley was out to gain time over Pidcock, and Pidcock, most likely relieved at the reduced course, was setting out to defend his third overall position. The Brit managed to lay down a time fast enough to stay ahead of Hindley, coming just under a second faster than the Australian.

‘I think that was my best ever time trial,’ Pidcock said at the finish, the day's mounting pressure still hanging around his shoulders.

In other changes to the GC, Matthew Riccitello (Israel Premier-Tech) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) switch places, and Almeida climbs to just 10 seconds behind Vingegaard, slimming the GC gaps ahead of tomorrow's stage in Rueda.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025, stage 18: Valladolid > Valladolid, 12.2km

1. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers, 12.2km in 13:00
2. Jay Vine (Aus) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +0.9s
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +7s
4. Bruno Armirail (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +9s
5. Ivo Oliveira (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +10s
6. Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ, +11s
7. Kelland O'Brien (Aus) Jayco-AlUla, +14s
8. Alec Segaert (Bel) Lotto, +15s
9. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +18s
10. Daan Hoole (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +18s

General classification after stage 18

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 65:07:13
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +40s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:39
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:18
5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:19
6. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +5:17
7. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +5:20
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +7:26
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +7:42
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +10:19

As the Vuelta a España builds towards its finale in Madrid on Sunday, the riders face one last time trial on stage 18.

Thursday's course in Valladolid is 12.2km and flat, cut down from the original 27.2km by the organisers. The decision to shorten the stage was made on Wednesday evening, in a bid to ensure "greater protection" for the riders amid security concerns over ongoing pro-Palestine protests at the race.

According to L'Équipe, the Vuelta organisers have sought extra security measures for the stage, for which 300 officers, in uniform and plain clothes, and 150 security guards are expected be deployed.

As is always the case in stage races, the first rider down the ramp will be the last-placed rider in the general classification, which is Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck) at this Vuelta. The Dutchman will start proceedings at 14:35 local time (13:35 UK time)

Race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) will be the last of 153 riders to begin his effort, doing so at 17:17 (16:17 UK time).

The Dane, a two-time winner of the Tour de France and former runner-up at the Vuelta, goes into the stage with a 50-second advantage over João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) currently sits in third overall, almost two-and-a-half minutes adrift of Vingegaard, and with a 36-second buffer to Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in fourth.

Time trial specialists to look out for during the day include: Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), twice a world champion in the discipline, at 14:51 local time, Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ) at 15:09, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) at 16:01, and Bruno Armiral (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) at 16:49.

The full rider order, with start times in local Spanish time, is listed below.

The organisers of the Vuelta a España have decided to shorten stage 18's time trial to 12.2km amid security concerns about protests.

Thursday's race against the clock, set to take place in Valladolid, was originally scheduled to be 27.2km.

According to L'Équipe, the Vuelta organisers had already sought extra security measures for the stage, for which 300 officers, in uniform and plain clothes, and 150 security guards are expected be deployed, as pro-Palestine protests continue to affect the race.

A statement from the Vuelta released on Wednesday evening read: "With the aim of ensuring greater protection for the stage, the organisers of La Vuelta, in coordination with Valladolid City Council and following consultation with the College of Commissaires, have decided that tomorrow's time trial will be contested over a 12.2-kilometre route with the start and finish remaining as originally planned."

Pro-Palestine demonstrations have impacted this edition of the Vuelta numerous times, with activists calling for the withdrawal of Israel-Premier Tech, a team with no official links to the Israeli government, but whose co-owner Sylvan Adams has called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at-large for Israel".

During stage five's team time trial, protestors waving Palestine flags halted some of Israel-Premier Tech's riders. Stage 11 in Bilbao was then stopped with 3km to go – with no winner awarded – due to protestors blocking the road, while stage 16's finish line was changed mid-race to the 8km-to-go banner.

Speaking after the curtailed stage 16, the Vuelta's director, Javier Guillén, insisted the race will continue to its finish in Madrid on Sunday with "no Plan B".

“The main message I want to share with you today is that we are going to continue with La Vuelta,” Guillén told reporters. "Of course, it's terrible what is happening, and what we all want is peace. But everybody has their own space, and we want to protect ours, which is the Vuelta.”

Ahead of stage 17, won by Guilio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) riders at the Vuelta met and voted to continue racing. They did not, however, rule out abandoning the race if they face further disruptions.

"The riders voted by a majority to stop in case of a new problem. They will then decide whether to continue or to end the event," Pascal Chanteur, vice-president of the CPA riders' union, said.

The Spanish cycling federation, the RFEC, expressed its "utmost respect" on Tuesday with "those who are peacefully demonstrating" at the race.

"[The federation] also asks all those who demonstrate along the route of the race to do so peacefully, without hindering the progress of the competition and with the utmost care for the riders," a statement read.

Stage 18's time trial is due to begin at 14:35 local time in Valladolid (13:35 UK time).

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was the first senior European leader to accuse Israel of genocide over its actions in Gaza. More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

The 17th stage of the Vuelta a España turned into a battle between white jersey hopefuls, as Giulio Pellizzari romped to an impressive solo victory at the Alto de El Morredero summit finish in north-west Spain.

As well as being Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's first stage win of the race, it was also the 21-year-old's first career win – and what a way to take it.

Behind him Matthew Riccitello (IPT), second on the youth classification, had also hung with the small group of elite favourites from which Pellizzari attacked, and he attempted again and again to chase the Italian down – to no avail.

At the finish line, 16 seconds behind Pellizzari, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) sprinted away from the group to take the four bonus seconds for second place as well as two seconds on closest GC chasing rival Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

Holding on to his GC lead Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) came in close behind, followed by Joāo Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Riccitello.

After the stage both Vingegaard and Almeida confessed to not feeling at their very best, with the Dane conceding he was happy to have survived without losing time.

"I think the five or six of us were equal today," he said of the final selection. "I didn't have the very best day for me but I survived. That's the days you need to survive – the days you don't feel 100%. If you can get through those without losing any time, that's a good day."

Almeida said of Vingegaard: "He was not looking super. But I didn't as well. I think we're all a little bit in the same boat."

Asked about the fact he was distanced in the early part of the climb he said it was a strategic move that he knew would work out: "They were attacking quite hard, and I knew it was not a sustainable pace for them," he said. "So I just did my pace, and I knew I would get them back."

Vingegaard was also asked about tomorrow's 27km time trial at Valladolid, which mimics the one there in the 2023 race. That day saw him lose half a minute to Almeida.

The Dane said: "To be honest that was an awful time trial for me back then, so hopefully I can make it right this time. It's a flat time trial. Hopefully I can do well tomorrow."

How it happened

This upside-down horseshoe-shaped parcours around the hills and mountains of north-west Spain was all about the final climb.

There were plenty of lumps and bumps along the 143.2km stage between O Barco de Valdeorras and Alto de El Morredero, including the cat-three climb of the Passo de Traviesas at 75km.

But the final climb to the summit finish at El Morredero, with its vast, fire-blackened slopes only adding to the intimidation factor, towered over the stage and always looked like it would decide the winner.

Any early breakaway was always going to struggle to survive on its steep slopes – the 8.8km distance at 9.5% gradient tells the story.

All the same, a sizeable group went clear early on in the stage, determined to be the one that got away.

An initial eight-man break, including Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) clipped away with around 20km gone, and was soon joined by four more riders to make up enough firepower to last all the way to the El Morredero.

But the group never got more than around two minutes, and a last-ditch attempt to go free by Tiberi and Tejada in the final stages only lasted 11km.

With Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Visma-Lease a Bike pulling hard at the bottom of the final climb, even Almeida was distanced for a short while. But its steep gradients quickly sorted the wheat from the chaff, with only the top six on GC left – Vingegaard, Almeida, Pidcock, Hindley, Pellizzari and Riccitello.

Hindley tried to escape, but Pidcock was more than a match for the Aussie, and in the end he could only watch as his young team-mate Pellizzari disappeared up the road with 3.5km to go and, impressively, held on for the win.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025, stage 17: O Barco de Valdeorras > Alto de El Morredero, 143.2km

1. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, in 3:37:00
2. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +16s
3. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hangrohe, +18s
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +20s
5. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +22s
6. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +26s
7. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +53s
8. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, at same time
9. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +58s
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:44

General classification after stage 17

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 64:54:55
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +50s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:28
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:04
5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:51
6. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +4:57
7. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +4:59
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +6:24
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +7:06
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +10:16

The Spanish cycling federation, the RFEC, has expressed its “utmost respect” with “those who are peacefully demonstrating” at the current Vuelta a España, and has asked all protestors not to hinder the race.

On two occasions at this year's race, stages have been stopped early – general classification times were taken at 3km to go on stage 11 and 8km to go on stage 16 – due to pro-Palestine protests at the scheduled finish lines. Two riders have also crashed after protestors encroached on the road, while Israel-Premier Tech were stopped by protestors during their team time trial on stage five.

Activists have been calling for the withdrawal of the Israeli team, whose co-owner Sylvan Adams has previously called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at-large for Israel". The team has no official links to the Israeli government.

Following Tuesday’s stage 16, cut short and won by Egan Bernal, the RFEC (Real Federación Española Ciclismo) released a statement, urging protestors to take the “utmost care” towards the riders.

“The RFEC, firmly aligned with the values of sport, such as the pursuit of human excellence, respect for opponents and friendship between people, condemns, categorically and without any doubt, terrorism and genocide in Gaza,” the statement read.

“In this regard, it wishes to express its utmost respect for those who are peacefully demonstrating, but also and especially its concern about the extreme risk involved in invading the route of each stage, given that the cyclists and vehicles in the race travel at high speed and are exposed to serious crashes and injuries, as has already happened.

“For all these reasons, it asks all those who demonstrate along the route of the race to do so peacefully, without hindering the progress of the competition and with the utmost care for the riders, respecting the exercise of their profession, given that neither the cyclists nor cycling are responsible for the events being protested.”

Despite the continued protests, the director of the Vuelta, Javier Guillén, has insisted the race will continue to its finish Madrid with “no Plan B”.

“The main message I want to share with you today is that we are going to continue with La Vuelta,” Guillén told reporters after Tuesday’s curtailed stage in Galicia. "Of course, it's terrible what is happening, and what we all want is peace. But everybody has their own space, and we want to protect ours, which is the Vuelta.”

On Israel-Premier Tech’s presence at the race, Guillén said: “The participation of these teams is not prohibited because no international federation has done so, none. And there hasn't been any international body that has imposed sanctions requiring us, the world of sport, to act accordingly.”

"From now on, what we want is for the race to continue because all the teams participating in La Vuelta have legitimacy."

Protests are expected to intensify at the race as it moves towards its finale in Madrid this Sunday. According to L'Équipe, the Vuelta organisers have sought extra security measures for stage 18’s time trial on Thursday, where 300 officers, in uniform and plain clothes, and 150 security guards will be deployed in Valladolid.

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was the first senior European leader to accuse Israel of genocide over its actions in Gaza. More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

There was no triumphant welcome for Egan Bernal's first Grand Tour stage victory since his almost career-ending crash in early 2022. Instead, only a handful of fans and security guards were there to watch the Ineos Grenadiers rider win on day 16 of the Vuelta a España, which finished beneath the 8km-to-go banner.

The decision was made to curtail the stage mid-race due to protests at the summit of the final climb. As has become a common sight at this year's Vuelta, pro-Palestine protestors lined the final 3km of the route, which was scheduled to finish atop the Castro de Herville in Galicia.

News of the stage's shortening was shared with the riders around 10 minutes before they reached the new finish line. Times in the general classification were also taken at the same point, with no changes ultimately impacting the top three.

Bernal's victory came after he outsprinted his fellow breakaway remnant Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step) on a short drag. The win, though understated among the Galician hills, marked the Colombian's first at international level since a horror crash left him in intensive care at the start of 2022.

Then training in Colombia, Bernal suffered multiple fractures and a punctured lung after colliding with a bus. He later said doctors told him he had a 95% chance of being paralysed for life, but returned to racing eight months later.

Having stopped short of the finish line gantry, there was no TV interview broadcast with Bernal after the stage.

Photos shared on Getty Images showed hundreds of protestors waving Palestine flags in Castro de Herville, where they faced Spanish law enforcement officers from the Guardia Civil.

It is the second time this Vuelta a stage has been cut short due to the protests; on day 11 in Bilbao, the stage was stopped 3km from the finish, and no winner was awarded.

Activists have been calling for the withdrawal of Israel-Premier Tech from the race. The team has no official links to the Israeli government – which has carried out deadly attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza – although it's co-owner Sylvan Adams has called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at large for Israel".

A spokesperson from Israel-Premier Tech said the team is "committed to racing on" at the Vuelta. In response to the protests, the team removed the word 'Israel' from their kit ahead of stage 14.

Following Tuesday's stage 16, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) continues to lead the race by 48 seconds ahead of João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

According to L'Équipe, the organisers have sought out extra security measures for stage 18's time trial on Thursday, where 300 officers, in uniform and plain clothes, and 150 security guards will be deployed in Valladolid.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025 stage 16: Poio > Castro de Herville (159.9km)

1. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, in 03:35:10
2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, at same time
3. Brieuc Rolland (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +7s
4. Nico Denz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:02
5. Clement Braz Afonso (Fra) Groupama-FD, +2s
6. Bob Jungels (Lux) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:10
7. Kevin Vermaerke (USA) Picnic PostNL, +1:12
8. Finlay Pickering (Gbr) Bahrain-Victorious, +1:12
9. Sean Quinn (USA) EF Education-EasyPost, +2:28
10. Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +2:48

General classification after stage 16

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 61:16:35
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +48s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:38
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:10
5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:21
6. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +4:24
7. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +4:53
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +5:46
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +6:33
10. Junior Lecerf (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +8:04

Stage 16 of the Vuelta a España was shortened after pro-Palestine protests on the route caused a change of finish.

Speaking on race radio on Tuesday afternoon, while the race was just 16km from the finish in Mos. Castro de Herville, a race organiser said "we have a big protest at 3 kilometres before the line. We will decide the stage winner and take times at 8 km before the line".

Photos on Getty Images showed the road blocked by a large group, with Palestine flags, as Spain's Guardia Civil forces moved in.

It is the second stage of this Vuelta which has been shortened due to protests, with stage 11 in Bilbao being forced to end 3km before the finish, with no winner awarded. On Tuesday, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) won at the moved finish.

Activists have been loudly calling for Israel-Premier Tech to leave the race. The team has no official links to the Israeli government, but billionaire owner Sylvan Adams is a staunch supporter of the country’s actions in Gaza.

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was the first senior European leader to accuse Israel of genocide over its actions in Gaza. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's invasion of Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

In a statement released by Israel-Premier Tech last week, the team said they are "committed to racing on" at the Vuelta, despite growing pressure. The race resumed on Tuesday in Galicia, north eastern Spain, after the rest day.

On Saturday, it was announced that the team will race the remaining eight stages of the Vuelta a España without the word 'Israel' on their jerseys. The squad made the decision due to "safety concerns", though the official team name will not be changed.

According to L'Équipe, the organisers of the Vuelta have sought out extra security measures for stage 18's time trial on Thursday, where 300 officers, in uniform and plain clothes, and 150 security guards will be deployed in Valladolid.

"People do it for a reason," race leader Jonas Vingegaard said of the protests to Danish broadcaster TV2 last week. "It's horrible what's happening currently and I think those protesting do so here because they need a forum to be heard.

"Of course in a way it's a shame it happens exactly here, I think a lot of us [riders] think so, but again, I think they're just desperate to be heard."

A typically unrelenting second week in the Vuelta a España 2025 has seen the general classification crystallise as the favourites come to the fore and the hopefuls fall by the wayside.

There have been surprises though, including the way UAE Team Emirates-XRG continues to keep pulling winning card after winning card out of the deck, despite controversy over their team spirit.

And then there is Tom Pidcock's continued success in the general classification, with the Yorkshireman remaining on course for a Grand Tour best-ever.

In terms of the parcours, the Alto de L'Angliru was the stand out moment of the week, forcing everyone to dig deep as they pit man and machine against terrain. Impressive moments.

Let's take a look back over what we've seen in the Vuelta a España week two.

1. Jonas Vingegaard is not running away with this race

Jonas Vingegaard goes into the rest day with a 48-second cushion over next best rider Joāo Almeida. As far as cushions go, it is not the most comfortable. Think tatty bar stool rather than plush lounge armchair.

There's no doubt he would have preferred the plushness of, say, a two-minute gap, especially with the Portuguese rider looking as dangerous as he does.

After Vingegaard's PB-busting performances in the Tour de France, where he professed to have seen some of his best numbers and stood head and shoulders ahead of everyone in the race bar Tadej Pogačar, it might have been easy to assume that the Visma-Lease a Bike rider would walk the Vuelta a España.

But Almeida of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who has won three week-long stage races this year, is clearly on fine form and determined to push him till the end.

With an extremely tough week ahead that includes three summit finishes, two high mountain stages and a time trial, that 48-seconds could disappear rapidly down the plughole of one bad day. The GC still hangs in the balance.

2. The Angliru is still tough – but so are the riders

Much of the talk last week was of the fearsome Alto de L'Angiru on stage 13 – one of the toughest climbs not just in this race but in the entire repertoire of pro cycling. There's no doubt that its ultra-steep slopes, which surpass 20% in places and feature a six-kilometre section that averages between 10 and 16%, inspire fear in those tasked with racing up it.

And just in case the riders had forgotten what a 10%-plus slope looked like, the Angliru was preceded on the stage in short order by a pair of category-one climbs that featured plenty of them.

But for all the talk, the day itself was a thrilling masterclass in the power and grace of the professional bike rider (as well as the importance of choosing the right gear ratios).

The GC riders, led by Joāo Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) seized the climb by the scruff of the neck and powered from bottom to top without missing a beat.

It was clearly extremely hard going, but the panache with which it was ridden, not just by the top riders but pretty much all comers, reduced it to something far more palatable.

As someone who remembers riders crawling up steep climbs, zig-zagging across the road on corn-cob blocks, this modern taming of the terrain takes a touch of the spectacle away from it.

Nevertheless, it's an impressive watch.

3. Mads Pedersen's wait for a stage win is over

A classification leader's jersey is all about consistency rather than highs and lows. On occasion, for example, a rider will win a Grand Tour without actually winning a stage. It's never the preferred way, but the raison d'être of a GC rider is to win overall – everything else is secondary.

The raison d'être of the sprinter, on the other hand, is to cross the line first. That's why Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was sporting an expression of almost pathological relief when he won stage 15 to Monforte de Lemos on Sunday.

Barring incident, the green points jersey looks as though it will almost certainly be his on Sunday in Madrid – he currently leads second-placed Jonas Vingegaard by 98 points – but that all-important stage win had so far eluded him.

He came close in Ceres with second on stage three, losing out to David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), and he was fifth on the hilly stage 12, unable to bring back breakaway pair Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Javier Romo (Movistar).

Pedersen is not a pure sprinter. One of his strengths is his ability on lumpier, classics-style terrain. But all the same, he will now consider his green jersey campaign complete with the addition of a stage victory.

4. Tom Pidcock's GC campaign shows no sign of faltering

As the race closed out at Monforte de Lemos on Sunday evening, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) was still there in third place on GC, a useful (though far from decisive) 32 seconds ahead of fourth placed Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

This is uncharted territory for the Yorkshire rider. Never before this race has he ventured higher than fifth place on the overall, and that was for a single day in week one of the 2022 Tour de France.

This is very different. He's been ensconced in third place on the Vuelta for five days now, having spent the previous two days in fourth.

Week three does, of course, have a way of finding a rider out, as the distance and the mountains take their toll.

But the 26-year-old continues to look solid. If he can take this all the way to Madrid it will be a career high for him.

5. UAE Team Emirates-XRG appears to be an unstoppable juggernaut

When Juan Ayuso appeared to fall apart in week one, losing more than 10 minutes on GC on stage six to Andorra, it seemed as though one key weapon in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG armoury had been comprehensively decommissioned – at least for this race.

Their other GC contender, Joāo Almeida, may have remained, but the team looked severely weakened. (Ayuso's tirade against his employer in week two over his early contract termination didn't seem as though it would help either, but that's another story).

But few would have predicted that the team would continue to thrive, only appearing to become stronger and stronger as its riders inspired each to greater feats.

The situation as it stands, is that UAE Team Emirates has won seven of 15 stages. What makes this even more impressive is that this isn't down to one stand-out individual. Rather, these wins have been taken by four separate riders – Jay Vine (stages 6, 10) Ayuso (stages 7, 12), Almeida (stage 13), and Marc Soler (stage 14). Plus of course there is the cherry on the cake – their team time trial win.

The only question for UAE Team Emirates-XRG right now is who will win next.

Marc Soler laid down a characteristically flamboyant attacking performance to take stage 14 of La Vuelta a España on the mountain-top finish to the Alto de la Farrapona.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was the only survivor from a large early breakaway and finished the stage 39 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) who rounded Soler's team-mate Joao Almeida in the final few metres to take second ahead of the Portuguese rider.

That means that the Danish two-time Tour de France winner has extended his lead in the maillot rojo by a further two seconds over Almeida.

Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked in the last kilometre to shorten his deficit to Tom Pidcock's (Q36.5) podium place.

Soler had attacked in the valley ahead of the Alto de la Farrapona to break clear of his breakaway companions.

He took UAE Team Emirates-XRG's seventh win of this race and his fourth career stage win at La Vuelta after victories in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

"It's unbelievable. I cannot explain, and 50% of the stages we've won, that's amazing," Soler said after the finish.

"An unexpected day, but I'm very happy. 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."

How it happened

After the inhumane slopes of the Angliru transformed the look of the GC on the previous stage, stage 14 of the 2025 Vuelta a España was another savage mountain test through the Asturias region.

With two first category climbs to contend with at the back-end of the day, dozens of riders were motivated to get away in the early breakaway. 22 riders eventually made it clear of the bunch, including Marc Soler, Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) and Finlay Pickering (Bahrain Victorious). The group built their lead towards five minutes as the climbs approached.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG took control of the front heading onto the first of two concluding first-category climbs with 40km to go. With gradients above 10% for much of the ascent, they were keen to inflict pain on their rivals. Juan Ayuso did his work on the front in the second half of the Puerto de San Llaurienzu (9.9km at 8.6%), shredding the group down to around 15 as the gap to the front dropped below four minutes at the top.

On the valley road heading into the final climb of the Alto de la Farrapona (16.8km at 6%), Soler moved clear of the breakaway as his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mates led the bunch behind with a deficit of three minutes heading onto the climb. Soler built a solid lead over the break and had more than two-and-a-half minutes over the red jersey group with 4km to go. Pickering was putting in the best performance of his career so far by attacking the chase group in pursuit of Soler.

Behind, Felix Großchartner was the last man left for Almeida. The pace was strong, without any riders from the GC battle being dropped early. With 2.5km to go, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) got on the front for team-mate Hindley. The Italian lifted the pace in the group and thinned it down further.

Soler was holding the gap to the group of favourites at a comfortable distance despite Pellizzari’s pace. The favourites were swinging on the back of the white jersey’s wheel as Pickering was caught in the final kilometre.

With 800 metres left, Hindley attacked with Almeida and Vingegaard in the wheel. It was down to Pidcock to chase the Australian down, but Q36.5 man was fading. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R) took on the chase as Pidcock bobbed up and down, fighting to stay in touch in the closing metres.

Soler took his fourth Vuelta stage win as Vingegaard took second ahead of Almeida, slightly extending his overall lead. Hindley finished ten seconds ahead of Pidcock to close in on that final podium spot.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025 stage 14: Avilés > Alto de la Farrapona (135.9km)

1. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 03:48:22
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +39s
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +39s
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +43s
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +48s
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +53s
7. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech
8. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling
9. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, all same time
10. Finlay Pickering (GBr) Bahrain Victorious, +1:25

General Classification after stage 14

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 53:29:49
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +48s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:38
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:10
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +3:30
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:21
7. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +4:53
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +5:46
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +6:33
10. Matteo Jorgensen (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +8:52

After the escalation of pro-Palestine protests this week at La Vuelta a España, the Israel-Premier Tech team have removed the word ‘Israel’ from their jerseys for the remainder of the race.

Contrary to rumours that the team name could also be adjusted, the squad will continue to be called Israel-Premier Tech, with the team insistent that there are no plans to drop ‘Israel’.

The team has no official links to the Israeli government, but billionaire team owner Sylvan Adams is a staunch supporter of the Israel Defence Forces actions in Gaza and has called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at-large for Israel," sparking a rise in protests during La Vuelta.

The team logo, modelled on the Star of David remains on the kit, moving over to the right-side of the chest. 'Premier Tech' has also been removed from the front of the jersey, with its logo moving up to a more prominent position alongside the Star of David logo on the left-side of the chest. 'Israel' has also been removed from the right leg.

Protests have been a regular occurrence since the conflict in Gaza began, but have been intensifying during the Spanish Grand Tour. They reached a peak on Wednesday during the 157.4km stage starting and finishing in Bilbao, capital of the Basque Country. It was reported that up to 2,000 protestors lined the finish straight in Blibao, forcing race organisers to bring the finish line forward by 3km with no stage winner.

The previous day, Intermarché-Wanty rider Simone Petilli was injured after protestors blocked the road in front of the peloton. Earlier in the race, protestors blocked the team during the team time trial.

With further protests halting the breakaway at the foot of the Angliru on stage 13 on Friday, the team has decided to make the kit change. The word ‘Israel’ had already been removed from the team’s vehicles and casual clothing, and riders had been issued with blank training kits for their safety last year.

Israel-Premier Tech released a statement on their social media accounts on Saturday morning.

"In the interest of prioritising the safety of our riders and the entire peloton, in light of the dangerous nature of some protests at La Vuelta, Israel – Premier Tech has issued riders with team monogram-branded kit for the remainder of the race,” the statement read.

“The team name remains Israel – Premier Tech but the monogram kit now aligns with the branding decisions we have previously adopted for our vehicles and casual clothing.”

Calls have come from several quarters for the team to pull out or be removed from the race, but Israel-Premier Tech have vowed to race on in recent days.

There's something different about Tom Pidcock at this Vuelta a España. It's not just the tenacity, the best-ever general classification performance or the improved climbing legs, but a relaxed demeanour. It belies the fact that he might be under more pressure than ever; never before has the 26-year-old been this high up overall at a Grand Tour, and for a fifth day in a row he maintained it.

It wasn't just on any stage, either, but on stage 13, which finished on the Alto de L'Angliru, 12.4km at 9.7%, but with more than 5km over 11%. It's not for the faint-hearted.

"It’s a hard climb innit," Pidcock of Q36.5 Pro Cycling said at the finish. "It was super tough. Finding the rhythm there it’s unforgiving, at the start I was ok, but I knew I couldn’t continue that pace to the top. I think everyone slowed down, I think I only lost a minute and 20 or something. I just tried to do my own pace, but you can’t really, [I was] just fighting the whole way up, you don’t really get in a rhythm.:

The Yorkshireman did lose more than a minute to stage winner João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and also 48 seconds to Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and 24 seconds to Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).

However, his measured effort on the vertiginous slopes saw him hang onto third place overall, and this was not the end of his charge for the podium, or at least the top five in Madrid. Either would be a big deal.

"Not bad, I didn’t lose too much time," Pidcock said of his day. "I’d have liked to be at the front, but we’ve also got to be realistic, I think I did pretty good.

"I think I did a pretty good effort considering how long it was, but yeah I’ve broken numerous power records at this Vuelta, up to 20 minutes, half an hour."

The Angliru is the toughest climb of this Vuelta, but there are still four summit finishes at this race left, including stage 20's Bola de Mundo, 12.4km at 8.6%. There's also the small matter of a 27.2km time trial on stage 18.

"It is a little bit of an anomaly, but it tells us stuff to come," Pidcock said. "Hindley is obviously pretty strong, Gall is strong on longer climbs, so of course it tells us something."

This is a big learning experience, but also encouraging for the remaining tests. "I’m recovering pretty well, obviously it’s getting late in the race, so it’s taking its toll," he concluded.

João Almeida won atop the Alto de L'Angliru on stage 13 of the Vuelta a España as Jonas Vingegaard hung onto the red jersey.

Almeida won UAE Team Emirates-XRG's sixth stage win of this Vuelta atop the legendary Asturian climb, taking seconds on his main rival, Vingeggard of Visma-Lease a Bike.

The Portuguese rider stormed to victory from seemingly the bottom of the climb; while he was unable to shake Vingegaard from his wheel, the Dane could never come round.

The climb, 12.4km at 9.7%, rarely disappoints, and the race split apart, although there was not a knockout blow for one rider over another. It was also a very fast day, with the 202.7km, with 3,958m of climbing, completed at 41.3km/h.

The lead pair gained time on the other general classification rivals, with Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) moving up, and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) among those losing out. However, Pidcock remains on the overall podium.

Vingegaard leads the race by 46 seconds from Almeida, with Pidcock 2:18 behind the leader. Hindley is now in fourth, 42 seconds behind Pidcock, with Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 15 seconds further back. Pellizzari and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) both moved up the top 10 despite losing time to some of those above them on GC.

"This is a special one. I still don’t believe it," Almeida said on TV post-stage. "Thanks to my teammates, they were key today. They did an amazing stage. I just put my pace from the bottom, and I just did the best I could.

"Jonas was always on my wheel, the last kilometre I was on the limit, I guess we were both on the limit. I was waiting for his attack any time. I thought he was going to pass me at the finish line, I knew it quite well from two years ago and I took the first corner first and then it’s hard to pass. It was an amazing day. I think it’s the hardest climb in the world, it’s crazy. Oof, I’m very sore."

Asked if this gave him confidence in aiming for the win, Almeida said: "I have a lot of time to make up to Jonas, he’s looking phenomenal, it’s going to be hard, but we’ll never give up."

The early part of the day was dominated by a large break, which featured Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), as the Dane continued for hunt for intermediate sprint points, which he duly did.

The last remnants of that break, Bob Jungels (Ineos Grenadiers), Nicolas Vinokourov (XDS Astana) and Jefferson Cepada (Movistar), were all caught halfway up the Angliru, after they had been briefly held up by a protest.

While Vingegaard remains in red, and the top three remain the same overall, with four mountain top stages to come, including one tomorrow, there remains a lot up for grabs at this Vuelta. The battle for red seems tight between Vingegaard and Almeida, while that for the podium and the top fives counts a few more among it.

Almeida's victory was also the 79th for UAE this season, as the team approaches the record for most wins in a year; currently held by Columbia-HTC with 85 in 2009.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025 stage 13: Cabezón de la Sal > L'Angliru (202.7km)

1. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 4:54:15
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
3. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +28s
4. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +30s
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +52s
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +1:22
7. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +1:16
8. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, at same time
9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:15
10. Abel Balderstone (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, +3:06

Vuelta a España 2025 general classification after stage 11

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 49:30:54
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +46s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:18
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:00
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +3:15
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:01
7. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +4:33
8. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +4:54
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +5:21
10. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +5:26

Protestors disrupted the Vuelta a España again on Friday's stage 13, blocking the breakaway at the foot of the final climb, the Angliru.

As the breakaway approached the brutal final climb, a group with Palestine and anti-fascist flags stood in the road, forcing the lead car and the riders to stop. Police on bikes and on foot managed to clear the protestors, allowing the trio and the peloton to pass through.

The three, Bob Jungels (Ineos Grenadiers), Nicolas Vinokourov (XDS Astana) and Jefferson Cepada (Movistar) were all delayed as a result, with their lead over the bunch cut, although they were always likely to be caught on the vertiginous Angliru.

Protests have become a threat to the race and the safety of riders, with the presence of Israel-Premier Tech the main focus of activists, but their actions have interrupted the event consistently.

It follows a week of incidents at the race, with Wednesday's stage 11 shortened in Bilbao, with no win awarded. The day before, a rider crashed after protestors ran onto the road, with police unable to hold them back, while on stage five a group blocked Israel-Premier Tech's team time trial.

There were protests at the start, in Cabezón de la Sal, although the race was not interrupted. It was announced earlier on Friday that the government of the autonomous community of Asturias, where stage 13 finishes and stage 14 begins, would not be present at the race due to Israel-Premier Tech's presence.

Spain's Foreign Minister also said he supports Israel-Premier Tech leaving the Vuelta, although the team have maintained they're staying in the race.

While the privately-owned Israel-Premier Tech has no official connection to the state, its co-owner, Sylvan Adams, has called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at-large for Israel".

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was the first senior European leader to accuse Israel of genocide over its actions in Gaza. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

More to follow...

Watch stage 13 of the Vuelta a España today for a spectacular ascent of one of cycling's most fearsome mountains, the Alto de l'Angliru, with all the details here on live streams, TV coverage, and how to tune in wherever you are in the world.

Stage 13 of the 2025 Vuelta a España gets underway at 11:10 UK time (BST) with the finish expected around 16:15 BST.

The stage measures 202.7 kilometres, starting in Cabezón de la Sal and, more importantly, finishing atop the mighty Angliru, the Vuelta's most iconic ascent. The Angliru measures 12.4km at an eye-watering average gradient of 9.4%, with plenty of ramps far steeper that make it a battle simply to keep the wheels turning.

It should be a riveting spectacle, and it should have huge consequences in the battle for the red jersey, so read on for all the details on how to watch the Vuelta a España stage 13 online and on TV, wherever you are in the world.

Watch Vuelta stage 13 in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch stage 13 of the Vuelta on TNT Sports and Discovery+.

TNT Sports 3 is the channel for pay-TV viewers, and Discovery+ (£30.99/month) is its streaming platform.

Coverage gets underway in both cases at 13:30, joining the action a couple of hours into the stage, before the climbing begins.

Watch Vuelta stage 13 in the US and Canada

In the US, fans can watch stage 13 of the Vuelta a España on the streaming platform, Peacock – plans start from $10.99 per month.

Over the border in Canada, cycling streamer FloBikes ($39.99/month) is showing stage 13 of the Vuelta, starting at 08:30 ET.

Watch the Vuelta stage 13 in Australia

Fans in Australia can watch stage 13 of the Vuelta on the SBS Viceland channel and the SBS On Demand streaming platform, with coverage starting at 22:50 AEST. Both are free to watch.

Can I watch stage 13 of the Vuelta a España for free?

You can watch stage 13 of La Vuelta today, September 5, for free on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand in Australia.

Additionally, numerous European countries have free Vuelta coverage through public broadcasters. In the host country of Spain the stage is on La 1 on TV and streaming via the RTVE Play free streaming platform. In Belgium, Sporza has free streaming on its website, and the same goes for NOS in the Netherlands.

How to watch Vuelta a España stage 13 from anywhere

Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.

A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad.

NordVPN is the best, according to our friends across the office at TechRadar and Tom's Guide.

Want to know more? We have an explainer on the benefits, costs, and considerations of using a VPN...
– Should I use a VPN to watch cycling?

Vuelta a España stage 13 timings

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Juan Ayuso outgunned breakaway companion Javier Romo to take a second Vuelta a España stage win at at Los Corrales de Buelna on stage 12.

The Spanish UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider, who has been in the media over the last few days following a controversial announcement about his departure from the team, attacked from a huge breakaway group with 26km of the mountainous stage to ride.

Countryman Romo (Movistar) tagged along, and the pair managed build enough of a lead to keep them out front to the finish, where Ayuso proved the strongest in a two-up sprint.

The pair did not always work well together, with Ayuso calling for Romo to work harder in the early stages and vice versa later on.

Ayuso said: "I had to play my cards and uh, I played the final Ks saying that I really wanted the stage and he had to put more (in) if he wanted to arrive [at the finish]," Ayuso said afterwards.

"I was told from the car to play like this. It's not something I really enjoy, not cooperating fully. But sometimes you have to play smart, and that's what I did in the final," he said.

He added: "In the sprint, I know this road a lot because this is where it finishes in the junior races also, so I knew how to time my sprint and yeah, it went out perfectly."

Despite the main group of GC favourites finishing several minutes down on Ayuso and many of the other members of the original 40-man breakaway, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) retained the GC lead.

The stage appeared to run smoothly in spite of concerns about pro-Palestine protestors, whose presence led to yesterday's stage finish in Bilbao being neutralised, with no winner awarded and GC times taken at the 3km to go mark.

How it happened

Bookended by two decent-sized mountain ascents and not a huge amount in-between, much of the action on this 144.9km outing in northern Spain centred around the beginning and the end of the parcours.

Thankfully, today's stage ran its course and a winner was celebrated at the end – as opposed to yesterday, where the chequered flag in Bilbao was put away again without ever waving a rider through. Not properly, anyway.

The peloton stayed together over the first 20km before the early break went on the approach to the day's first climb – the cat-two Puerto de Alisas – which began at 32km.

So far so normal. But perhaps less predictably, that first break was 18 riders strong. What's more, another huge bridging group also quickly formed and before too long, the two had joined up to form a very strong break of around 40 riders.

Boasting riders the strength of Juan Ayuso, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Mikel Landa (Movistar) and many more, it soon became clear that Vingegaard's Visma Lease a Bike team would have their hands full limiting the gap, let alone bringing it back.

The break did go all the way, building out a gap to six minutes and beyond. Equally predictably, the final climb of the cat-one Collada de Brenes proved the catalyst for the eventual winning move.

First James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) had a pop, but that was followed more emphatically by Ayuso's move, with Romo shadowing him. The pair formed a fractious working relationship that took them all the way to the finish, with the big break splintering behind them as riders did their best to rein them in.

Ultimately, Ayuso managed to position Romo right where he wanted him in a sinuous final kilometre, before sprinting around him without too much difficulty.

Result

Vuelta a España 2025, stage 12: Laredo > Los Corrales de Buelna (144.9km)

1. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 3:16:21
2. Javier Romo (Spa) Movistar, at s.t.
3. Brieuc Rolland (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +13s
4. Victor Campanaerts (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +17s
5. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek,
6. Nico Denz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, both at s.t.
7. Damian Howson (Aus) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +18s
8. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious, at s.t.
9. Pablo Castrillo (Spa) Movistar
10. Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, both at s.t.

General classification after stage 12

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 44:36:45
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 50s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +56s
4. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +1:06s
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:17
6. Bruno Amirail Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:23
7. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:26
8. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:30
9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:33
10. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +2:44

Spain's Foreign Minister supports Israel-Premier Tech leaving the Vuelta a España, as ongoing protests threaten to engulf the race.

Speaking on Radio Nacional de España (RNE), as reported by Cyclingnews, José Manuel Albares said: "I understand it [calls for the team to be expelled], and I would certainly be in favour of it.

"You know that this is not a decision made by the Spanish government; it is made by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Therefore, the Spanish government had no say in the participation."

However, Israel-Premier Tech are "committed to racing on" at the Vuelta, despite growing pressure.

On Wednesday, stage 11 was shortened and no win awarded after disruption at the finish line from pro-Palestine groups, but this was not an isolated incident. The day before, a rider crashed after protestors ran onto the road, with police unable to hold them back, while on stage five a group blocked Israel-Premier Tech's team time trial. It's not just the Vuelta, either, with disruptive actions at both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France this year.

It has created a major issue for the Vuelta's race organisers, Unipublic, with more protests expected over the next 10 stages, although the most visible might have occurred in the Basque Country, which has now been left behind. The Basque Country has a long history of solidarity with marginalised peoples and independence struggles, due to its own status as an autonomous community within Spain.

However, the problem still remains, with vocal and persistent criticism of Israel-Premier Tech's participation in the race while Israel's war in Gaza continues. While the privately-owned Israel-Premier Tech has no official connection to the state, its co-owner, Sylvan Adams, has called himself a "self-appointed ambassador-at-large for Israel".

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was the first senior European leader to accuse Israel of genocide over its actions in Gaza. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died. At least least 21,000 children in Gaza have been disabled since Israel's forces invaded, a United Nations committee said this week, where a famine is occurring, also according to the UN.

"We cannot continue to maintain a normal relationship with Israel as if nothing were happening," Albares said on the radio. "Because we have to send a message to Israel, to Israeli society. They have to understand that Europe and Israel can only relate – as stated in Article 2 of the Association Agreement – when human rights are respected, because as democratic countries, we base and relate to each other in that way."

The Vuelta's technical director, Kiko García, said on Wednesday that he hoped "rapid changes" would occur after the race's latest disruption.

"We know that if there are no reactions or there are no changes in any way, then the protests will continue," he explained. "As we've said, we have no choice but to follow the rules. The team's participation is obligatory, and whoever can decide the opposite – that isn't us.

"Our duty is to protect the race, of course, the riders and the teams, and we're moving on that."

According to reports elsewhere, riders at the Vuelta have asked for Israel-Premier Tech to leave the race; Escape Collective published messages which showed riders saying the race could not continue safely with the team still there.

However, Israel-Premier Tech have been clear that they will stay in the race, saying that their departure would set a "dangerous precedent".

"Israel-Premier Tech is a professional cycling team. As such, the team remains committed to racing on at the Vuelta a España," a team spokesperson said. "Any other course of action sets a dangerous precedent in the sport of cycling not only for Israel-Premier Tech, but for all teams. Israel-Premier Tech has repeatedly expressed its respect for everyones' right to protest, as long as those protests remain peaceful and do not compromise the safety of the peloton.

"The Vuelta a España race organisation and police are doing everything in their power to create a safe environment and, for that, the team is especially grateful. However, the behaviour of protestors in Bilbao today was not only dangerous, but counterproductive to their cause and deprived the Basque cycling fans, some of the best cycling fans in the world, of the stage finish they deserved.

"We thank the race organisers and UCI for their continued support and cooperation, as well as the teams and riders that have expressed their support both publicly and privately and, of course, our fans."

The squad at the Vuelta, now seven strong, includes six nationalities: two British riders, Jake Stewart and Ethan Vernon, who is second in the points competition; one American, Matthew Riccitello, who is 10th overall and second in the young rider category; a Canadian, Pier-André Côté; an Italian, Marco Frigo; a Czech rider, Jan Hirt; and Nadav Raisberg, an Israeli.

Israel-Premier Tech are at the Vuelta, despite being a ProTeam, because they qualified through UCI points for all WorldTour events this season. As things stand, they also are in line to be promoted to the WorldTour next season.

The team has had extra security throughout races this season, which includes at this Vuelta. On Wednesday, the team bus was protected by Basque riot police after the interrupted finish.

Meetings were held between riders, race organisers, the UCI, and the CPA riders' union pre-stage 11, with the race continuing, but with the warning that it might stop if protests continued to cause danger.

"This might be the last time we'll have a stage winner in this Vuelta," race leader Jonas Vingegaard told Denmark's TV2 on Wednesday evening.

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, condemned the events of stage 11: "The UCI reiterates the fundamental importance of the political neutrality of sports organisations within the Olympic Movement, as well as the unifying and pacifying role of sport. Major international sporting events embody a spirit of unity and dialogue, transcending differences and divisions.

"In this sense, the UCI reaffirms its commitment to the political neutrality, independence, and autonomy of sport, in accordance with the founding principles of the Olympic Movement."

As things stand, on Friday morning, Israel-Premier Tech remain in the race.

Tom Pidcock had hoped for stage 11 of the Vuelta a España would end with joy, with a potential stage win alongside time gained on general classification rivals.

Instead, the day ended with frustration, as the stage was neutralised due to pro-Palestine protests at the finish line. Q36.5 Pro Cycling's Pidcock, alongside Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), took time on others, including João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), but there was no stage win on offer.

GC times were taken at 3km to go, after Pidcock had briefly dropped Vingegaard on the Alto de Pike, before the pair worked together to build a gap towards what became the finish line.

"It’s hard to describe the disappointment to be honest," Pidcock told reporters at the finish line. "I felt like today was my day. I feel like there should always be a finish line, we’re not riding a sportive are we.

"I knew the finish line was at 3km [to go] but I didn’t know where that was. I was too busy trying to rotate with Jonas. We passed through there, I realised there wasn’t going to be a winner... It’s not easy. I think the Vuelta did what they could to keep us safe. I don’t want to say anything political, I don’t want to get into trouble."

The 26-year-old was forced to swerve protestors in the road on the Alto del Vivero holding a banner.

Pro-Palestine protests have been seen throughout this Vuelta, over Israel's war in Gaza, and Israel-Premier Tech's continued participation in the race.

"I think a lot of people have held back from talking about it publicly, but it’s a bit scary sometimes in the peloton," Pidcock said. "I think as long as our safety comes first, then we can continue racing, that’s what we’re here to do. Bike racing has nothing to do with things that are happening elsewhere…

"Putting us in danger isn’t going to help your cause," he continued. "It’s simply not going to help. They’ve got the right to protest about whatever they want, but putting us in danger is not the way forward.

"From what I was told today was going to be the biggest day of protests, so now on it might be better."

Despite the frustration, Pidcock moved onto the podium overall, the first time he has done this at a Grand Tour. He also managed to distance Vingegaard, something few have been able to do in the last few years.

Jonas Vingegaard and Tom Pidcock took time on their general classification rivals as stage 11 of the Vuelta a España ended with no stage winner.

The pair escaped on the final climb of the day, the Alto de Pike, with Q36.5 Pro Cycling's Pidcock briefly dropping Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike. They then descended to an improvised finish with 3km to go, appearing to take around 10 seconds on other riders.

The stage was shortened and neutralised due to pro-Palestine protests at the finish line, with no-one awarded the victory in Bilbao.

Pidcock took the bonus seconds atop the Pike, too, to gain time on everyone else in the race, including Vingegaard and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

"It’s hard to describe the disappointment to be honest," Pidcock said. "I felt like today was my day. I feel like there should always be a finish line, we’re not riding a sportive are we?"

"I was a bit disappointed and I didn’t want to do anything, but then Tom went for it, he went really fast on the climb, I had to let him go there," Vingegaard said post-stage. "Then I could come back over the top and then actually we had a good cooperation. We wanted to take as much time as possible. I’m not sure Tom actually knew that there was no stage winner, because he wanted to keep going afterwards. I knew already, so I just went as fast as possible to the 3km [to go] and I stopped.

"The team did super, super well today. Already in the start, I think it was really impressive that on a day where everyone wanted to be in the break, they managed to only let three guys up the road. I think that says it all really. Then we controlled it, and from there they just did super well."

How it happened

With seven classified climbs on stage 11, including one within the first 10km, it was set to be a day of breakneck speed racing around the Basque Country.

The neutralised start was briefly held up by a pro-Palestine protest, before the riders got away.

There were almost immediate attacks from Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), setting the tone for the day.

The first KoM point, the Alto de Laukiz, was crossed first by Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), followed by Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Guillermo Thomas Silva (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

There were seemingly endless attacks over the next 30km, but the Visma-Lease a Bike controlled peloton, riding for red jersey Jonas Vingegaard, remained in control.

The first significant break came with 133km to go, with Pedersen joined by Orluis Aular (Movistar) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Pedersen won the sprint atop the Alto de Sollube, but the attacks from the peloton did not end there, with Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lukas Nerurkar (EF Education-EasyPost) among those attempting to escape, although this was shut down.

The leading trio – Pedersen, Soler and Aular – were not allowed much leeway by the peloton. On the Balcón de Bizkaia, Soler took the points.

With 79km to go, Pedersen and Aular were caught, with Soler going alone. On the Alto de Morga, Soler again claimed the points, followed by Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step) and Nicolau.

The attacks didn’t end, although Soler was caught. Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were away with 52km to go, with Landa taking the points on the Alto de Vivero.

Landa and Buitrago were still away as they crossed the finish line for the first time, followed by a chasing group which once again contained Pedersen. The latter achieved his goal of taking points in the intermediate sprint, despite his effort being disrupted by a protest.

Landa was then dropped, appearing to be in pain. Buitrago was still away on the penultimate climb, the Alto del Vivero, as attacks started coming from the group of favourites. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led as the race passed Buitrago, with Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) also putting in a dig.

As the race passed the top of the Vivero, what was left of the peloton was a group of general classification favourites, including Vingegaard, Almeida, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Pellizzari and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe). Vingegaard was aided by Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike).

The group swelled again at the bottom of the descent, before it was announced that there would be no stage winner due to protests at the finish. GC times would be taken with 3km to go.

However, the race appeared to be back on on the final climb of the Alto de Pike, with riders pushing on. Pidcock attacked with 8.4km to go, followed by Vingegaard and Hindley. The 26-year-old managed to drop Vingegaard briefly, as the pair rode away. As the climb reached 16%, Pidcock kept digging in, and put distance into Vingegaard, and sailed towards the six bonus seconds at the top. Four seconds went to Vingegaard, with two for Almeida.

On the descent, Pidcock and Vingegaard worked together, followed by Almeida, Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Hindley. While there would be no stage winner, the pair could still take time on their rivals, around 10 seconds in the end.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025 stage 11: Bilbao > Bilbao (157.4km)

No stage win awarded

Vuelta a España 2025 general classification after stage 11

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 41:14:02
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +50s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +56s
4. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +1:06
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:17
6. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:26
7. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:30
8. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:33
9. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +2:44
10. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +3:11

There was no winner on stage 11 of the Vuelta a España in Bilbao after pro-Palestine protestors disrupted the finish line, with general classification times taken with 3km to go.

It followed a tense day in the Basque Country, as protests dogged the race through the region on Wednesday, with flags, banners, and direct action. The neutralised roll-out had been disrupted earlier by protestors blocking the road, after conversations were reported to be happening between team representatives, the riders' union and race organisers over safety issues.

As a chasing group crossed the finish line for the first time, ahead of a final lap around Bilbao, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was shown slowing the riders down, as protestors threw white paper into the road, and it appeared that some had invaded the finish. Pedersen was awarded third place in the sprint, despite being blocked from third position because of the actions of the activists at the side of the road.

On the Alto del Vivero, the penultimate climb, protestors with a banner ran into the road, forcing riders to swerve.

Riot police were then sent to the finish line, causing the race to change its tack. Images showed the barriers broking down and police using force to push crowds back.

With around 16km to go, the Vuelta's race radio announced that there would be no stage winner.

"Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at 3 kilometres before the line," the race organisers said. "We won't have a stage winner. We will give the points for the mountain classification and the intermediate sprint, but not on the finish line."

On Tuesday, Intermarché-Wanty's Simone Petilli crashed after protestors ran onto the road, with police unable to hold them back. This led to riders asking fans to stay clear of the peloton and not risk any incidents.

Meetings were held between riders, race organisers, the UCI, and the riders' union the CPA pre-stage 11, with the race continuing, but with the warning that it might stop if protests continued to cause danger.

"It was a conversation between us and the organisation. We, the riders, know that in the last few weeks the organisers have been doing as much as they can – so many police, so many," Lotto's Elia Viviani told Cyclingnews on Wednesday.

"Obviously, if there’s a situation that is dangerous for the peloton, we should decide something. But as the organisation has said, we don’t know what’s going to happen, we’ll see how it goes.

"If it’s all peaceful, then there’s no problem, so the race will proceed normally. We are dependent on that. On our part, if it’s peaceful, then we’ll simply restart. If there are falls, danger and so on, then we’ll decide what we do, because they [the organisers] don’t know what’ll happen."

Protests have been targeted at Israel-Premier Tech, who a Spanish left wing party called to be excluded from the race, but have also been a visible part of most stages of the Vuelta.

Earlier in the race, a group disrupted Israel-Premier Tech's team time trial on stage five. While the team has no official connection to the state of Israel, its owner, Sylvan Adams, has been vocal about his support for the country, of which he is a citizen.

There were also disruptive actions at both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France this year.

According to the BBC, over 60,000 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

On Wednesday, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, warned that Gaza is “becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law”.

Riders at the Vuelta a España have spoken out over protests at the race, after a crash seemed to have been caused by pro-Palestine activists on stage 10.

Protestors then disrupted the neutralised roll-out on stage 11 in Bilbao, after conversations were reported to be happening between team representatives, the riders' union and race organisers over safety issues.

On Tuesday, Intermarché-Wanty's Simone Petilli crashed after protestors ran onto the road, with police unable to hold them back. The accident was not shown on television, but was shared on social media, with most of the peloton dodging the protestors on the road, but Petilli being unfortunate.

Writing on X on Wednesday morning, Petilli asked for protests to not get in the way of riders and put them at risk.

"I understand that is not a good situation, but yesterday I crashed because of a Protest on the road," he wrote. "Please, we are just Cyclists and we are doing our Job, but if it will continue like this our safety is not guaranteed anymore, and we feel in danger! We just want to Race! Please."

Louis Vervaeke of Soudal Quick-Step echoed Petilli's request.

"We fully acknowledge that everyone has the right to protest. However, we kindly ask that this be done in a safe manner," he said on X. "Our focus here is on our sport, not on politics or any particular position in this matter. I respectfully urge you not to endanger either us or yourselves."

Adam Hansen, the president of the riders' union the CPA, expressed support for Petilli.

"We remind everyone that cyclists are not involved in political or social disputes — they are simply doing their job: racing," he wrote on X. "Their safety must never be put at risk. While we respect the right to peaceful protest, actions that endanger athletes cannot be accepted. Rider safety must remain the highest priority. The CPA stands firmly with the riders: they just want to race in safe conditions."

It is the second incident involving pro-Palestine protestors affecting the race, after a group disrupted Israel-Premier Tech's team time trial on stage five. While Israel-Premier Tech has no official connection to the state of Israel, its owner, Sylvan Adams, has been vocal about his support for the country, of which he is a citizen.

Protests have been targeted at Israel-Premier Tech, who a Spanish left wing party called to be excluded from the race, but have also been a visible part of most stages of the Vuelta.

There were also disruptive actions at both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France this year.

According to the BBC, over 60,000 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,200 people died.

On Wednesday, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, warned that Gaza is “becoming the graveyard of international humanitarian law”.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said this week that Europe's response to Gaza had been a "failure". "What we’re now witnessing in Gaza is perhaps one of the darkest episodes of international relations in the 21st century," he argued

The Vuelta's organisers did not comment on Tuesday's incident.

For all his success, Tom Pidcock has never finished in the top 10 overall at a Grand Tour. This is what he overtly came to this Vuelta a España to do, to take aim at a high finish on general classification in his second Grand Tour this season.

In fact, Q36.5 Pro Cycling's Pidcock has never been higher than fifth on GC mid-race at a Grand Tour, something which has changed this week with the 26-year-old up to fourth overall. While he is almost a minute behind red jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), it has been a very promising opening 10 days.

Sunday's stage nine was only the third time that the man from Leeds has finished in the top two on a Grand Tour stage, after his famous win on Alpe d’Huez three years ago at the Tour de France, and the gravel stage in the same race last year.

On stage 10, another mountain top finish, Pidcock led the GC contenders in, defending his fourth place overall, and giving himself more confidence. The Yorkshireman seems relaxed in his new guise, and seemingly comfortable mixing it with more established Grand Tour names.

"It was good," he explained to reporters. "I was feeling good today again, we have nothing to lose, we are here to try and win. We need to try, and tomorrow is another day.

"Today I backed up my ride the other day, so the more I do that the more confidence I have."

While other contenders have fallen behind, Pidcock has remained solid, advancing up the leaderboard, to be there among elevated company, in Vingegaard and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). He trails Almeida by 20 seconds, but leads other GC riders like Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) by over a minute.

Stage nine and 10 were the best evidence yet for Pidcock the GC rider, something which still remains a bit of an unknown at a three-week race. He has finished 13th at the Tour before, but any kind of top 10 here would be a significant result. A top five would be a level above, again.

"The start was super fast, but it wasn’t that hard in the wheels to be honest," he explained. "There are a lot of tired bodies, you can see that by the size of the peloton. The climb was pretty tough but it wasn’t too bad in the end.

"I feel super good. After a performance like I did on Sunday, it fills me with confidence, so the more that happens the better I feel."

This is a world away from the Giro d'Italia, which Pidcock raced in May, where he finished 16th overall and wasn't in the GC top 10 after the opening day.

"We knew that the Giro was a probability, but I said I wouldn’t change my plans, I’d do the Classics and the Ardennes and whatever," Pidcock said. "I didn’t want to sacrifice any of that. The Giro was too much I think, I was not fresh, I was not ready, but here’s different."

Wednesday sees a Classics-style stage around Bilbao, which would typically suit the Q36.5 rider. "I looked at it a bit, I don’t know it fully. I think it’s going to be a hard one, that’s for sure," he predicted.

Jay Vine mastered the breakaway on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España to climb to his second victory of this race, as Jonas Vingegaard took over the red jersey.

After a 100km-long fight to get into the day's escape, UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Vine attacked from it on El Ferial Larra Belagua to take his fourth Vuelta stage, and UAE's fourth of this race. Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) finished second, with his teammate Javier Romo in third.

Meanwhile, Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) ended his three-day stint in the race lead, losing enough to mean Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike claimed back the top spot on general classification.

Vine's victory for UAE followed a 24 hours dominated by more mixed stories about the team, after the announcement that Juan Ayuso would leave at the end of 2025.

The Australian navigated the 26-rider break expertly, waiting until almost 5km to go to power on alone, and was never seen again.

His teammate João Almeida, third overall, attempted to force splits on the final climb in the group of general classification contenders, but gaps weren't coming. In the end, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) led the men aiming for the red jersey in, including Vingegaard and Almeida.

"Winning is so, so hard, and it’s such an incredible feeling when it happens," Vine said post-stage on TV. "I don’t think I’ll ever get used to winning, because it’s just unbelievably hard.

"I think I made my move for two and a half hours at the start of the race, trying to follow the big moves. The guys would help me where they could. At the two hour mark I just said it wasn’t happening, then there was a crash and I got stuck behind that, and we were jumping for another 45 minutes. Mikkel [Bjerg] helped me get across, and I thought that was the hardest part of the race until the final climb turned into that.

"I didn’t want to drag everyone up the climb, so I tried playing a bit of possum at the bottom, and was able to attack my way across to the other riders. Then I got rid of Archie, and then got to Pablo and was able to drop him through the last s-bend, and then it was just gritting my teeth to the end."

How it happened

The Vuelta a España resumed after the first rest day in much the same way as before, with a mountain stage, another summit finish.

The flat start to stage 10, however, meant that it was very difficult for a breakaway to establish itself. In fact, despite the efforts of many, including the man in the lead of the mountains competition, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the day’s escape wasn’t set until well over 100km into the day. The average speed after two hours of racing was 49.9km/h, which shows how full-on everyone was.

Finally, with around 68km to go, a group established itself in front of the peloton. The 26 were: Mikkel Bjerg and Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Orluis Aular, Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo (Movistar), Matteo Sobrero and Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) Louis Vervaeke and Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step), Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Bruno Armirail and Johannes Staune-Mittet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Xabier Mikel Azparren and David González (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Harold Tejada, Nicola Conci and Fausto Masnada (XDS Astana), Rudy Molard (Groupama FDJ), Abel Balderstone, Joel Nicolau, and Jakub Ortuba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Paul Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Gijs Leemreize and Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic PostNL), Lars Craps and Alec Segaert (Lotto), Sean Quinn and Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) and Pier-André Côté (Israel-Premier Tech).

This big group was allowed some leeway from the peloton, taking three minutes into the closing section of the day.

On the Alto de Las Coronas, the first classified climb of the day, Romo took the points ahead of Vine, ostensibly in an attempt to escape the break, not take points. Romo kicked off the move, and was joined by Vine, Bernard, Castrillo, Ryan, Azparren, Conci, Balderstone and Segaert.

Behind, Bahrain Victorious continued to pull on the front of the peloton, for red jersey Torstein Træen.

Bernard won the intermediate sprint in Isaba, with 21km to go, before Segaert launched an attack from the front group through the 20km-to-go marker.

The classified final climb to El Ferial Larra Belagua began with 9.9km to go, with an average of 6.3%, but with ramps above this.

Lotto’s Segaert built up a lead of 43 seconds with 13km to go, making him believe a first Grand Tour stage victory might be in sight, while the rest of the break were another 30 seconds back. The peloton was 3:14 behind Segaert.

As the climb began, Bernard, Conci, Vine, Ryan Castrillo and Romo were left chasing Segaert, with the win seeming likely to come from these riders.

With 7.6km to go, Castrillo caught Segaert, with Vine, Bernard, Romo and Ryan following. The attackers had just over two minutes on the red jersey group, what was left of the peloton. Here, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) pulled for João Almeida, shadowed by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

As the group of favourites made it onto the climb, Træen was dropped, leaving around 11 riders. Almeida put the pace on the front, followed by Vingegaard and others.

Vine caught Castrillo with 5.5km to go, pulling in the blue polka-dot jersey, before going alone.

Lower down the mountain, seven riders were left in the GC group: Almeida, Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).

Almeida attacked again with 5km to go, followed by Vingegaard, Pidcock and Jorgenson, and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), they were 1:17 behind Vine. The group swelled again, with Hindley and Pellizzari joining.

Vine flew to victory, having comfortably distanced Castrillo, while most of the GC contenders finished together, with Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) among those losing time.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025 stage 10: Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva > El Ferial Larra Belagua (175.3km)

1. Jay Vine (Aus) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 3:56:24
2. Pablo Castrillo (Esp) Movistar, +35s:
3. Javier Romo (Esp) Movistar, +1:04
4. Archie Ryan (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, +1:05
5. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling
6. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek
7. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike
9. Junior Lecerf (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
10. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, all at same time

General classification after stage 10

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 37:33:52
2. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +26s
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 38s
4. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +58s
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:03
6. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:05
7. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:23
8. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:16
9. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time
10. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +2:43

Juan Ayuso is to leave UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the end of 2025 after "differences in the vision of development plans and in the alignment with the team’s sporting philosophy", it was announced on Monday evening.

The Spanish GC rider, who is currently riding the Vuelta a España, had a contract with the team until 2028, which will be terminated early. His next squad remains unclear.

The decision was made public by his team on Monday, the Vuelta's first rest day. The team said: "Ayuso will now remain on the roster until the end of 2025 after a decision was made following differences in the vision of development plans and in the alignment with the team’s sporting philosophy."

"Juan has been a valuable talent and we are grateful for what we have built together," UAE's CEO, Mauro Gianetti, said in a statement. "At the same time, our sporting project has always been focused on continuity, group harmony, and building a winning team. We believe that, in the best interests of both parties, this decision is the most consistent with the values that define our organization. UAE Team Emirates – XRG will continue on its path of growth and development, confident that the team’s identity and strength remain our foundation. We wish Juan every success in the future."

"I would like to thank the team for the support and opportunities they have given me over these years," Ayuso said. "I have had the chance to grow and to compete alongside the very best, and I know that what I have learned will always remain part of my professional background. I now feel it is time for me to take a different path, with the same enthusiasm and I wish UAE Team Emirates – XRG success for the future."

Ayuso joined the team in 2021, and has established himself as one of the best general classification talents in world cycling. This year, he has won stages of both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta, as well as winning Tirenno-Adriatico overall.

The 22-year-old finished third at the Vuelta on debut in 2022, before finishing fourth in 2023. However, being in a team as stacked with talent as UAE has not always been easy, with Ayuso having to share leadership duties across the year with Tadej Pogačar, João Almeida and Isaac del Toro among others.

His departure is just the latest mid-contract move, following Remco Evenepoel in leaving a team early, as the Belgian did when switching Soudal Quick-Step for Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe for 2026.

What the Vuelta a España might lack in Grand Tour status it is surely making up for in difficulty this year, ensuring that this three weeks is no late-season phone-in for riders looking to tune up for the Road World Championships.

What amounts to very nearly the first half of the race has thrown up some fine days of racing as the breakaways attempt to capitalise on the hilly stages and the sprinters go all-out where they can. Even the GC race, slow-burning at first, has yielded its first surprises and big battles.

Let's take a look at some of what we've learned so far in this first nine days.

Tom Pidcock really is going for the GC

Tom Pidcock's announcement that he would be riding for the general classification at this year's Vuelta was met with a certain degree of dubiousness. After all, we had seen and heard this before at the Tour de France, where things didn't exactly pan out as intended.

But that was a different time, and a different team. Pidcock certainly seems happier since he left Ineos Grenadiers for Q36.5 Pro Cycling and the effect of that was perhaps what we saw in his riding on Sunday's ninth stage to Valdezcaray.

Up until then Pidcock had stayed quiet, chipping away with top 10s and top 20s on the days that mattered. But on stage nine he came out to play. Despite losing 24 seconds to stage winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the final count-up, Pidcock, together with Joāo Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) dropped the rest of the GC contenders to the tune of 38 seconds.

The 26-year-old ended the stage fourth on GC, and while there is a huge amount of hard riding still to do in this race, he had issued a major statement and climbed to the highest position he has ever known in a Grand Tour.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG looking good – but is 'good' enough?

According to the form book, the most concerted attempt to upset favourite Jonas Vingegaard's victory plans was going to come from UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

UAE's two-pronged attack started out with a pair of riders that have both been knocking on the door of a Grand Tour victory for a few years now in the form of Joāo Almeida and home rider Juan Ayuso.

As we now know, it is unlikely to be Ayuso's race – a bad day saw him finish nearly 12 minutes down on stage six to Pal. Andorra. While he bounced back to win the following day's stage to Cerler. Huesca La Magia, his performances over the weekend saw him finish well down on both days and surrender further GC placings.

Almeida on the other hand has ridden a solid race, shadowing Vingegaard everywhere he needed shadowing – until yesterday, when he lost 24 seconds.

He is now 38 seconds in arrears on GC to the Dane, and still within shouting distance with a lot of very tough racing left.

Vingegaard looks the strongest – so far

Coming into the Vuelta, few were in disagreement: Jonas Vingegaard was, and remains, the outright favourite to win on GC.

Yes, he lost the Tour de France to Tadej Pogačar. But Tadej Pogačar is not here, and when it comes to Grand Tour riding, few can hold a candle to the Pogačar-Vingegaard duality anyway.

Vingegaard had even professed to have seen his best ever power figures at the Tour, which won't have filled his Vuelta rivals with confidence.

However, the Dane built his season around the Tour, not the Vuelta, and while such details are unlikely to be unveiled until after the race, his numbers in Spain could easily be down on those from the Tour.

However, so far Vingegaard has been solid throughout, and based on his performance – and his team's – at Valdezcaray though, the Dane still appears to be the strongest rider in the race, and with the strongest riders around him.

That is, at least for now. This Vuelta is one of the hardest Grand Tours we've ever seen, and there is so much hard racing still to come. Can he keep it up all the way to Madrid?

Points but no wins yet for Pedersen

The make-up of the stages in this first week have been a good gauge of what the Vuelta looks like overall – that is, mountains-heavy.

The sprinters present are going to need to take any and every chance presented to them, and there are not going to be many.

Jasper Philipsen has so far proven to be the best at this, with his stage one victory rewarded with the bonus of the red leader's jersey, and netting a second stage win at the weekend on stage eight.

Despite being arguably more versatile, Philipsen's sprint rival Mads Pedersen has so far not managed this feat, although he came close with a second place at Ceres.

Instead the Dane's strategy has centred on intermediate sprints, of which he has won two and featured in the points in four.

But with the breakaways often hoovering up all the available points, and Ethan Vernon (IPT), who is second in the points classification, chasing hard behind (and sometimes prevailing), this is not the most surefire way to build out his lead. It is, however, the best option he's got for most of this very hilly race.

Hello, Giulio Pellizzari

The young Italian is repaying the faith that the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team put in him when they signed him on a three year contract at the end of last year.

His lead in the young rider classification has not wavered since he took it from Juan Ayuso on stage six (or, perhaps, when Ayuso handed it to him with an emphatic capitulation).

The 21-year-old climber has led USA's Matthew Riccitello (IPT) by 27 seconds since that fateful Andorra stage and has finished in the top 20 on all the hard mountain stages so far. He currently sits 10th overall.

Already this year he has finished sixth overall at the Giro d'Italia, where he was also second in the young rider competition.

It will be interesting to see how he develops over the next two seasons – but first he has to get through what is likely to be one of the hardest Grand Tours he'll ever ride.

Jonas Vingegaard claimed his third Vuelta a España victory to bring the lead in the general classification within touching distance on Stage 9.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, now trails the red jersey by less than 40 seconds ahead of the rest day, with Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) holding onto the top spot.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) showed up and impressed in the race for the GC, coming in second on a mountain finish behind Vingegaard and pipped João Almeida (Emirates XRG) on the line, jumping eight places in the overall standings.

Stage 9 opened in Alfaro, marking its debut at the Vuelta as a stage departure, and hosted a tense final day before a rest day.

Tired legs and a tight general classification meant riders had a tentative and brutal 195.5km across rolling terrain ahead of them on their way to Valdezcaray.

Stage 9 followed another strong showing from Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck), but ultimately left the general classification unchanged.

As a result, heading into the final day before the rest, there were two questions on everyone’s minds: will Vingegaard finish the week on a high with a stage win and regain the red jersey, or will Træen continue to lead the Grand Tour into next week?

In the end, it was a mix of both, with Vingegaard winning but Træen holding on red.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Kicking off in Alfaro with an immediate 10km ascent, it was expected that the riders would capitalise and form a breakaway, and yet it was cagey.

It was not until 15km had passed that four riders, Stefan Küng (Groupama–FDJ), Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale), Alec Segaert and Liam Slock (Lotto), moved up the road, but the effort failed soon enough.

This was the trend that plagued the first hour of racing, with all attempts to break free being reined in by the peloton with ease, despite the gradual and undulating terrain that opened the first 45km of racing.

And then, finally, the racing began with Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Archie Ryan (EF Education–EasyPost) breaking from the peloton ahead of the first (and only) major descent of the day, building a lead to over 25 seconds.

Not long after, Slock and Michel Hessmann (Movistar) set off, building an instant 15-second gap from the peloton, and pursuing the two leaders who led the chasers by 10 seconds.

Then Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic–PostNL) attacked from the peloton and made the juncture to the leaders, who held a 20-second lead.

After countless attempts to snap the elastic, the five-man group eventually broke free with 130km to go and built a lead of a minute and a half.

From there, the weather was the only thing to change from sunny to heavy rain, as their lead was unbridgeable for the next 90km.

The gap continued to grow through the 100km to go mark, to a substantial two minutes, and within the next 10km, it extended by another 40 seconds.

It was not until 50km mark that the peloton began to inject some serious pace ahead of the intermediate sprint.

With only points available for the first five riders, the peloton began to reel in the breakaway and with 40km remaining, they now trailed by one minute 40 seconds.

But it was too little too late for the peloton as they still lagged over a minute behind when Slock took the full 20 points uncontested.

There was no rest for the wicked either, with the approach of the final 20km, the breakaway had to hold off a charging peloton for as long as possible before the looming categorised climb.

Between the 20km mark and the base of the climb the peloton had managed to reduce their deficit to only 10 seconds.

With a massive 13.2km at an average gradient of 5.2% ahead of them, the category 1 climb completely flipped the race on its head as Slock was initially dropped by the breakaway before they were eventually caught by the peloton.

With Juan Ayuso (Emirates XRG) and David Gaudu (Groupama–FDJ) already dropped on the climb, the race for the GC intensified, as all the contenders began to up the pace, with Lidl-Trek riders Carlos Verona, Andrea Bagioli and Giulio Ciccone leading the charge.

Five Visma-Lease a Bike riders, with Vingegaard, upped the pace further and moved clear, with Almeida leading the seven rider chase group involving Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Pidcock, Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matthew Riccitello (Israel–Premier Tech), Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) and Felix Gall (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale).

And the drama was not done there, as the fatigue from not only the long day but also the long week started to set in, Vingegaard managed to drop Ciccone at the front, with Almeida, Pidcock and Gall going on as a trio, swiftly overtaking Ciccone in the process.

With 3km to go, Vingegaard held a 32-second lead over the charging Pidcock and Almeida, but more importantly, the leader held a two-minute advantage over the red jersey.

Vingegaard rode with determination to regain the general classification lead for the third time this Vuelta and to enter the rest day wearing the maillot rojo.

Vingegaard rode to his third stage win in solo fashion, ahead of Pidcock, who impressively pipped Almeida on the line.

Result: Vuelta a España 2025 stage nine: Alfaro › Valdezcaray (195.5km)

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike in 04:32:10
2. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +24s
3. João Almeida (Por) Emirates-XRG, at the same time
4. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:02
5. Raul García (Spa) ARKEA-B&B HOTELS, +01:46
6. Marc Soler (Spa) Emirates-XRG
7. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek
8. Markel Beloki (Spa) EF Education-EasyPost
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
10. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana Team, all at the same time

General classification after stage nine

1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, in 33:35:46
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +37s
3. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +1:15
4. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +1:35
5. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +2:14
6. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:42
7. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana, +2:47
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:49
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +2:53
10. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at same time

After seven stages of this year's Tour de France, 3:43 separated the top 10 overall; there were 54 seconds between first and second, and Tadej Pogačar, the eventual winner, was leading already.

After seven stages of this year's Vuelta a España, there might be 2:58 between Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) in first and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in 10th, but between the riders thought to be favourites for general classification, there is just 30 seconds.

Between Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in second place, 2:33 behind Træen and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) in 11th, there is 30 seconds, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) in their midst.

Obviously, you could argue its a quirk of the stages ridden so far; at this year's Giro d'Italia, just 39 seconds separated the top 10 after seven days, but there hadn't been many hard GC days yet.

At this Vuelta, there have already been three summit finishes, including two category-one endings, so why has the race not blown apart?

It is vanishingly simple, really, although not much succour for the fan screaming at the TV hoping for something to happen already – this race is very hard. There have been three stages with over 3,000m of climbing, but there are eight more to come, and six summit finishes.

The reason for the GC stalemate so far is that there is so much more to come, including both L'Angliru, and the Bola de Mundo on the penultimate stage. There is more than enough time to make a difference, 14 more stages, in fact.

Putting in a lot of work this early in the race might lead to burnout close to the end, especially for a rider like Vingegaard, who has already been through an entire tough Tour this summer.

"It was a decent day in total," the Dane explained on TV post-stage. "It was not easy. We wanted to save our energy a bit, so we decided not to do anything today. It was a hard last climb, but the team did well.

"If we wanted we could have fought for the win, but we wanted to save the team, we saved it for the second and third week because there it will be hard enough. We decided not to do it today."

The one attack from a GC rider on Friday came from Almeida, who after work from his teammate Marc Soler, put in a dig on the final climb. He took Vingegaard and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) with him, but after a lack of collaboration, they were pegged back by their rivals.

"I saw that they didn’t really want to go for a hard finish." Almeida said post-stage. "I asked Marc to pull a bit to try, but I thought the climb would be harder to be honest. But it is what it is, I tried. Maybe there was an opportunity for somebody, but they also didn’t want to cooperate in the end. But yeah, one less day.

"I’ve been feeling better every day, so I think it’s a good sign. I’m looking forward to the next hard ones."

"Jonas didn’t really have to [attack], so I get it, it is what it is, but I think he doesn’t really pull a lot of the time," the Portuguese rider joked, pointedly.

In the end, Træen retained the red jersey, comfortably. While he is not thought as a threat to the overall across three weeks, the longer the stalemate goes on, the more he'll warm to his role as race leader. There are a lot of hard stages to come, however, starting with Sunday's category-one summit finish. It never ends at this Vuelta.