'I would have liked to do it harder' – Jay Vine climbs to victory on stage 6 of the Vuelta a España as Torstein Træen takes red jersey

Jay Vine climbed to victory on the first high mountain finish of the Vuelta a España on stage six, as his fellow breakaway rider Torstein Træen took the race lead.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Vine attacked with just over 20km to go on Thursday, and was never seen by the other nine members of the day's escape. Træen of Bahrain Victorious clipped away from the other chasers to claim the red jersey.

Behind, the group of GC favourites largely finished together, with previous race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) ceding his position, seemingly willingly. The only big casualty of the day was Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who lost minutes to the others, including his teammate João Almeida, who is inarguably his team's main GC rider now.

Træen, while unfancied as an overall contender, now has 2:33 on Vingegaard, with the other general classification favourites trailing further seconds behind.

The day was dominated by a 10-man break, from which both the winner and the new red jersey came from, while there was mostly stalemate among the GC riders, despite late attacks from Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Vingegaard, and Almeida.

However, the day belonged to Vine, who won his third Vuelta stage, and Træen, who took a Grand Tour leader's jersey for the first time in his career, and became the third Norwegian to wear Vuelta red.

"It [the plan] was definitely to win the stage, but there was always the option that if the break wasn’t going to win I could come back and do some work," Vine explained post-stage on TV. "It was always on the cards to have me in the break as an option to do something if everything came back together.

"I know these roads pretty well, I’m from just down the hill, Comella is my favourite climb in all of Andorra. I would normally have liked to have done it way harder, but with the headwind it was hard to get the guys to pull through and make it really hard. I decided to go at the top and with the wet descent, I know it really well, and I thought this was my chance to go away and then there would be no funny business. Mano a mano."

"It’s pretty incredible," he continued. "I got the call up to do this race about four weeks ago, it wasn’t on my schedule originally. To be able to win in Andorra, in front of my son with my wife, it’s unbelievable. It’s incredibly motivating, for the last 5km, this is for you Harrison."

How it happened

Three riders did not start stage six of the Vuelta a España: Simon Carr (Cofidis), Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal Quick-Step) and Arjen Livyns (Lotto).

As the race headed back into the mountains, there was a lot of interest in getting in an early break, with a third category climb coming straight away.

With 163km to go, a 10-man break was established, consisting of: Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), Archie Ryan and James Shaw (both EF Education-EasyPost), Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Louis Vervaeke and Gianmarco Garofoli (both Soudal Quick-Step).

This set the tone for the day, with those 10 men staying out front. At the top of the first climb, the Collada de Sentigosa, Vine took the points, with Vervaeke following in.

The next categorised climb was the Collada de Toses, a first category, which was submitted first by Vervaeke, followed by Vine. As a result, the former moved into the virtual lead in the KoM competition, after the second-longest climb at this Grand Tour.

Visma-Lease a Bike, the team of red jersey Jonas Vingegaard, pulled on the front for much of the day. It appeared that they were happy to let the stage win go, and possibly the race lead too, with the break’s advantage often over five minutes, at 6:39 with 31km to go.

Once the race had reached Andorra, the next climb was Alto de la Comella, but before then the intermediate sprint came in Andorra la Vella, which was won by Fortunato.

As the intermediate sprint neared for the peloton, the gap came down between the break the peloton to about five minutes, as teams sought to get their sprinters in place to mop up what was left of the points.

The weather also worsened as the climbing began, and the gap went below five minutes for the first time in hours.

The first attack came from the peloton as they hit the Alto de la Comella, with Raúl García Pierna tried to head up the road, although he was leaving himself a lot to do.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dropped off the back of the peloton momentarily after changing his bike.

Meanwhile, Vine won the points atop the Comella, and forged ahead alone. With 19km to go, the gap to the peloton dropped to just 3:40. García Pierna was caught by the peloton.

Behind Vine, nine riders remained: Armirail, Castrillo, Vervaeke, Garofoli, Debruyne, Ryan, Shaw, Træen and Fortunato. They trailed the lone leader by 23 seconds.

This increased to almost 50 seconds as the race closed in on the final climb, 9.6km at 6.5%. The remainder of the break behind appeared unable to claw him back, as Vine cycled through his adopted home of Andorra.

With 9km to go, Castrillo, Træen, Ryan and Shaw forged ahead. This was pegged back, with the chasing group becoming Castrillo, Vervaeke, Shaw, Armirail, Træen and Fortunato with less than 7km to go. Vine still had a minute advantage.

Træen attacked his chasers, aiming to take the red jersey, 51 seconds behind Vine. Meanwhile, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) lost contact with the peloton with well over 4km to the finish to go.

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) launched his attack with around 3km to go, chased by Vingegaard. The Dane continued to pull, with other GC favourites unable to completely close the gap, which was not a chasm straight away. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was forced to chase behind, but was losing seconds.

Meanwhile, Almeida’s teammate Vine made it two stages in a row for UAE Team Emirates-XRG as the Australian was champion atop Pal. Træen finished second, to take the red jersey.

Down the mountain, Vingegaard was caught by Almeida and the other GC riders, and then Almeida attacked again, but this was pegged back. All the main favourites finished together, apart from Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) losing a few seconds, and Ayuso, who lost minutes.

Results

Vuelta a España 2025 stage six: Olot > Pal, Andorra (170.3km)

1. Jay Vine (Aus) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 4:12:36
2. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +54s
3. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana, +1:10
4. Bruno Armirail (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:15
5. Pablo Castrillo (Esp) Movistar, +1:52
6. James Shaw (GBr) EF Education-EasyPost, +2:05
7. Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +2:15
8. Ramses Debruyne (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck. +2:19
9. Archie Ryan (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, +2:42
10. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +4:19

General classification after stage six

1. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, in 20:25:46
2. Bruno Armirail (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +31s
3. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) XDS Astana, +1:01
4. Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:58
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:33
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +2:41
7. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +2:42
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