Vuelta a Espana 2025: Team-by-team preview
Mihai Simion
The 80th edition of Vuelta a Espana will begin tomorrow from Turin, marking a historic first visit by the Spanish Grand Tour on Italian roads. Tadej Pogacar and the 4-time winner Primoz Roglic are missing from the startlist but we'll still have a peloton of high quality, although at first glance less than in the past years. Here's a short preview of the 23 teams who will be at the start in Turin:
13 years have passed since their last and only stage victory in La Vuelta, brought by Antonio Piedra on Lagos de Covadonga. That's a long time ago... Can they do it this time? It seems very difficult but the past Spanish national championships showed some glimmers of hope: Balderstone, new ITT champion and Barcelo 2nd in the road race. Along their sprinter, the Uruguayan Guillermo Silva, they have a chance at victory from the right breakaway. Abel Balderstone could be the right person to follow in Piedra's footsteps.
They do have some Spanish riders who can climb pretty well (Mario Aparicio especially) but their hope at a stage win lies on Uruguayan and Guatemalan shoulders. If Eric Fagundez and Sergio Chumil will be at the level they showed at the start of the season, they have a tiny chance. Better odds for Chumil who has a a pretty impressive final kick.
Just 3 victories this year and it doesn't look like they will save their season in Spain. They have a veteran climber (Sepulveda) and a veteran sprinter (Viviani) but both well past their prime. Their saviour can only be the young Alec Segaert who's debuting in a Grand Tour, he has a chance at victory both in the individual time trial and in a breakaway. I trust him to do it.
Another team that is having a season to forget. You know the situation is bad when your biggest hope at a stage win is Louis Meintjes from a breakaway but hey, he did it before. One rider to keep an eye on is the young Dutchmen Huub Artz who will discover his first Grand Tour.
This is very likely the team's last ever Grand Tour...Chasing a stage win and more importantly a contract, the riders should overperform just like in the Tour de France. On the right day, Cristian Rodriguez or Raul Garcia Pierna can win a stage from the breakaway. One of them will do it, they don't have Vauquelin anymore to worry about...
They're coming with Coquard and Aniolkowski for the sprints but let's face it, their best hope for a victory is still the specialist Jesus Herrada. He's not getting any younger though and he didn't win in 2 years. The rider to watch is Oliver Knight who starts his maiden Grand Tour in great form after his first pro victory in Wallonie.
Jake Stewart and Ethan Vernon for the sprints, Marco Frigo for the hills and Matthew Riccitello for the high mountains. They have everything covered. Based on what we've seen this season, I think it's time for Marco Frigo to score that first big victory. If he stays on the bike for three weeks, the pocket climber Riccitello can finish in the GC top 10 without problems.
The main goal should be to repeat the Giro success, win a bunch sprint with Casper van Uden. He won't have the best leadout in the peloton (no Bram Welten) and he didn't look great in the last races so I'm a bit skeptical that he will pull one out of the hat. The rider to watch is the 20-year old Colombian Juan Guillermo Martinez. It's probably too early to fight for a stage victory but this is a race where he will fare well in the future.
They won stages in both Giro and Tour this year and they want to complete the collection in Vuelta. Chavito didn't win in years so they put their hope in the Grand Tour freshmen Archie Ryan, Luke Nerurkar and Markel Beloki, it will be interesting to see how they will do in their first 3-week race. The oldest of the three, Archie Ryan is the one with the biggest chances to succeed.
It feels very weird to not see either Nairo Quintana or Enric Mas in the line-up, it's for the first time in 8 years that the Spanish team is not targeting a high place in GC. They will have the rather modest goal of winning a stage and the only one who could do it seems to be Pablo Castrillo, the big sensation of last year's race. We shall see if he will be able to climb as fast as he did as a rider of Kern Pharma.
Can David Gaudu save his season in Spain? He did it twice before and I trust him again, I think the most relaxed Grand Tour of the year really suits him. A stage win and a place in the top 10 are in his reach if he arrives in his best form. If he fails, they still have a shot with Guillaume Martin who is certain to find himself in a lot of successful breakaways. They also have Stefan Kung who won last year's individual time trial but this time, I will be surprised if he will do it. His performance agains the clock was subpar all year long.
There was some outrage among cycling fans (and rightfully so) when it was announced they received the wildcard instead of Kern Pharma who won three stages last year but now things calmed down. The Swiss team kept their promise to the organizers and brought Tom Pidcock who will try for the 2nd time this year to target the General Classification in a Grand Tour. On paper, Vuelta's mountain stages suit him better so he should be able to finish in the top 10 and also take a stage win home. I also hope that Fabio Christen can have some freedom in his first Grand Tour, he's fast enough to win from a select group.
"So how many climbers should we send in La Vuelta?" "All of them!" was probably Vinokourov's answer. This must be by far the lightest team at the start, reminiscent of the Kelme team and its South Americans. If they will have the same firepower as in Il Giro, a stage victory from the breakaway should be easy to obtain. All eyes (and pressure) will be on the Ecuadorian Harold Martin Lopez who's doing his Grand Tour debut and also on Fortunato who was flying in the recent Vuelta a Burgos.
They will have the best sprint train in the race for Jasper Philipsen, the fastest rider of this Vuelta peloton. After wearing the first Yellow Jersey in Le Tour, he's favourite to do the same with the Red Jersey here and he will try also to take the Green Jersey home, something that Alpecin accomplished in the past two editions. Anything less than two stage wins for them would be a failed mission and they rarely fail.
They're coming with two of the stars of last year's edition, 2nd place Ben O'Connor and double stage winner, Eddie Dunbar. Joining them is the Finestre stage winner from this year's Giro, Chris Harper which makes for a super powerful triumvirate for the mountain breakaways. You just can't leave the race empty-handed with such a stellar line-up. GC wise, it will be almost impossible for O'Connor to make it again on the final podium unless of course, the favourites let him gain 6 minutes in a breakaway....
No Remco Evenepoel and Landa just started racing after his terrible Giro crash so he won't be at his best level. No GC goals means more freedom for all the riders and they will take the opportunity with both hands. Landa, Max Schachmann and Valentin Paret-Peintre make for a very solid trio of stage hunters. My rider to watch is the young Junior Lecerf who arrives in great shape after winning Czech Tour.
After a successful Tour de France where he finished in the top 5 overall, Felix Gall will try to repeat the same also in La Vuelta. I highly doubt that he can ride two Grand Tours in a row at such a high level, a stage victory is a more reasonable target for him. A rider to keep an eye on is the 20-year old Leo Bisiaux who already impressed in Vuelta a Burgos and he will now race his first Grand Tour.
La Vuelta a Espana is the only Grand Tour missing from Egan Bernal's palmares which is crazy when you think about it. It's almost certain that it won't happen this year but we've seen some promising signs in Il Giro where Egan finished 7th, I think he could fight for a top 5 placement here in Spain if everything goes well. Kwiatkowski, Sheffield, Langelotti and Ganna (favourite to win the only individual time trial of the race) are solid picks for a stage victory alongside Bernal, of course. It's definitely one of the strongest teams at the start of this race.
The whole team will back Antonio Tiberi who must have some fire in his belly after his podium bid in this year's Giro was ruined by a crash. He will have Buitrago at his side but he will miss Damiano Caruso who broke his hand two days before the start. The podium is a realistic goal for Tiberi especially because the route avoids the scorching south of Spain where he suffered a heat stroke last year.
The 4-time winner of La Vuelta, Primoz Roglic is missing from the start for the first time since 2018, it definitely feels like the end of an era... It will be Jai Hindley instead who will lead the squad, hoping to improve his 9th place from 3 years ago. He should be able to do it but the podium doesn't seem a realistic target with the form he showed lately. Giulio Pellizzari is doing his 2nd Grand Tour of the year, being just 21 years old so I don't think it's healthy to expect him to fight for GC but you never know, the kids are very strong these days. A first pro victory though is definitely something he can achieve here.
With Mads Pedersen and Giulio Ciccone in the best shape of their career, the team gives us the two big favourites for the Green and KOM jerseys plus at least 4 stage victories. Despite their statement, I still think Ciccone will try to target the overall podium. If that doesn't go well after the first week, then he will readjust and go for stage wins and the only KOM jersey he misses in his Grand Tour palmares. Until that happens, I still believe that Giulio Ciccone will end on the final GC podium in Madrid.
In the absence of Tadej Pogacar, the world's best team brings both Joao Almeida and Juan Ayuso who will share the leadership and will likely offer some comedy moments to the fans just like they did already 3 years ago. On paper, it's a very strong team but in the past some of these riders showed hesitation when they had to work for each other, the sports directors won't have an easy job in this race. Unless he gets caught sleeping at the back of the peloton and misses a split, Joao Almeida should finish on the podium this Vuelta. Ayuso can do the same if he avoids the bad luck and the bad day. But winning the whole thing? UAE will miss Pogacar.
Jonas Vingegaard returns to La Vuelta to finish the job from two years ago when he behaved nicely towards his loyal teammate, now it's time he wins again a Grand Tour. It's not as strong as the TDF squad but the way it's structured for every terrain, Visma is still the best team in this race. I expect to see a very strong Jorgenson who wants to make his Tour performance forgotten.
Alongside fellow American Sepp Kuss, they are expected to destroy the peloton on every decisive climb where Vingegaard should drop everybody even if he won't be at his best level every day. He's the 2nd best climber in the world and the gap to the 3rd is very big, we saw it also during the last Tour de France. Barring incidents, on September 14th, we should see the first Danish winner of Vuelta a Espana.
