Vingegaard relieved of Pogacar, Gaudu in search of rebound, a departure from Turin … Everything you need to know about the 2025 edition

For its 90th anniversary, the Tour of Spain innovates with a departure from Italy on Saturday.

It's already time for the last big tour of the season. After the triumphs of Simon Yates on the Giro and Tadej Pogacar on the Tour de France, the runners will compete for the throne of Spain. Less closed and less concerned by massive sprints, the Vuelta generally offers a different experience. A priori, the winner will be unprecedented. Crowned in the last six of the last six editions, Primoz Roglic will not be present. Same thing for Tadej Pogacar or Remco Evenepoel. On paper, Jonas Vingegaard has a great opportunity to garnish his record.

A big departure since … Italy

A tour of Spain that starts from Italy is possible. A year after having launched a neighboring country, Portugal, the Vuelta chose the Piedmontese region to launch hostilities. The peloton will leave from Turin on Saturday, with a first arrival fixed in Novara, where a massive sprint is expected. The road will buck up the next day with an arrival at the end of an ascent of 9.8 km at 5.1%. The third day of racing will offer a short and fairly damaged stage (134.6 km with 2,000 meters of elevation gain), before a last step starting from Italy with an arrival in France, in Voiron, on August 27.

There will be a transfer by plane – without a rest day – for Figueres, with a first Spanish stage disputed in the format of a 24.1 km team time trial. The first big differences in the general classification will be widening during stages 6 and 7 with a mountain passage in Andorra.

The second week will offer two arrivals at the top of mythical ascents: Angliru (13th stage) and the Alto de la Farrapona (14th stage). The last chance to create differences will be the 20th and penultimate stage with an arrival at the Bola del Mundo (12.3 km at 8.6%). A single individual time trial is planned, on flat land, in Valladolid during the 18th stage.

Is the way free for Jonas Vingegaard?

With the exception of 2023, Jonas Vingegaard had become used to focusing only on the Tour de France since his first participation in 2021. This year, the Danish will aim for a first coronation on the Tour of Spain, two years after his second place behind his teammate Sepp Kuss – in an edition crushed by the Visma -Lease team in the face of powerless competition.

“I can't wait for the Vuelta to start”he already projected before the last stage of the Tour de France which he completed again in second place behind his rival Tadej Pogacar. As the Slovenian will not be present at the start, Jonas Vingegaard arrives in the shoes of the big favorite. But he will have to be wary of the UAE Team Emirates team, who will remain his main opponent, with two headliners: Joao Almeida and Juan Ayuso.

Cohabitation between the two runners already feeds debon. “Who is a leader? It is not clear and it will happen as at the Giro. Ayuso had signed a contract to be a leader. He is frustrated to be a little edge, but Almeida has given so many guarantees. He is super strong, it will be very complicated to sacrifice each other for each other”anticipates our consultant Lilian Calmejane.

Among the outsiders, it will be necessary to count on Egan Bernal (ineos grenadiers) or Felix Gall (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale). “Giulio Ciccone, for me, is a very interesting profile. He will play the podium for a long time. The question is: will he hold three weeks?”wonders Lilian Calmejane, winner of a stage on the Vuelta in 2016 and another on the Tour de France in 2017. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) should have been part of this list but he is still not recovered from the gastrointestinal infection which had already deprived him of the Tour.

David Gaudu, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Léo Bisiaux among the French to follow

He had preferred himself to give up the Tour de France because of his mixture. David Gaudu will try to relaunch himself on the roads of the Vuelta, a great tour that succeeds in him. He had won two stages in 2020 and had highlighted last year with a 6th place in the general classification. Before setting objectives, the runner of the Groupama-FDJ team will have to find his sensations, he who did not exist in the mountains on the Tour of the Ain (39th of the General when the set was quite weak), where he resumed, in early August.

With its masterful success at the top of Mont Ventoux on the Tour de France, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Sudal Quick-Step) will represent one of the best chances of stage victory. The Vuelta is also a land particularly conducive to the hatching and the development of young runners. Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) on the occasion of confirming the promises seen on the Tour de Burgos, where the 20-year-old climber has just won a stage in front of references like Giulio Ciccone or Isaac Del Toro.

“He is a very ambitious person. If he does not win races, he is a guy who will not make old bones in the bicycle. He is all the time disappointed when he is 2nd or 4th. He sees Paul Seixas and Romain Grégoire growing you want you to be of this generation”develops Lilian Calmejane, who sees in him a potential stage winner, in the same way as Thibaud Gruel (Groupama -FDJ – 21 years old), also at the start of his very first big round.