Velogames Preview – Spain 2025

Is it just me or does the final grand tour of 2025 feel a smidge like an afterthought? It has crept up out of nowhere and plenty of big names are missing it in favour of other targets or perhaps more favourable preparation for the world championships and end of season classics. The being said, there are plenty of stories to be written here. Only four riders on the start list have previously won a grand tour, and only one of those has been victorious at the Vuelta. The relegation battle is also coming down to the wire and appears to be a two horse race between Cofidis, who are here, and Uno-X, who aren’t here. Also in the mix is the quest for not just grand tour stage wins, but just wins at all. Intermarché-Wanty and Arkéa – B&B Hotels are both still without a win at World Tour or Pro level in 2025. A further four World Tour teams are searching for their first grand tour stage success this year. So plenty to play for all round! Let’s dive right into what we can expect over the next three weeks and then get into dissecting who’s who on the start list.

The Route

The 2025 edition of La Vuelta a España offers the usual smorgasbord of flat stages ending in 15km climbs and gradients I’d find it hard to walk up let alone cycle. We start in northern Italy, make our way over the Alps into France, before arriving in Spain on stage 5. From there, we make our way across the mountainous north coast before twisting around and heading for Madrid. We don’t go any further south than the capital city in this particular edition. There aren’t too many ‘rampas inhumanas’ in this years’ race, but those we do have should offer quite the show. There are many stages that offer a medium degree of difficulty that should be too hard for the sprinters, but not enough for the general classification (GC) men, which should tempt a large number of hopefuls into the breakaway.

Overall, we’re looking at four flat stages with the potential for a couple more to entice those fast men who have the better climbing legs. There are ten summit finishes and five medium mountain stages proving once again, that this is the climbers grand tour. On the time trial front, we have a team time trial on stage 5, and a flat individual time trial buried deep in week three on stage 18. Let’s take a closer look at the key stages to watch out for.

Stage 1: The opening stage offers a chance for the sprinters to claim the first red leaders jersey, with the only climb coming before the halfway mark. The stages that follow aren’t all that tricky and could end in either reduced groups or breakaways.
Stage 5: The team time trial and the first stage in Spain. Look out for Visma, UAE, Bora, Lidl, Jayco, and Ineos in this one.
Stage 6: The first ‘proper’ summit finish, which takes us into the Andorran Pyrenees.
Stage 7: Part two of a week one mountain double header. The peloton leave Andorra and head west for another summit finish.

Stage 11: The 2nd stage in week two is the absolute gem you see above where the riders will do battle in the hills surrounding Bilbao. The finale is very similar to the opening stage of the 2023 Tour de France when Adam Yates claimed victory. The Alto de Pike averages 9.2%, but reaches a 16% maximum and the gradient is in the double digits for most of the second half of the climb. I predict breakaway fireworks.
Stage 13: Back on the menu for 2025 is one of the most fierce and epic climbs in world tour racing. The Alto de l’Angliru returns two years after Visma locked out the podium on the stage and also confirmed the final podium of the race, more or less.

Stage 16: A fun medium mountain day near the coast just north of Portugal offers the breakaway another chance at success. There’s obviously breakaway potential on the majority of stages in this race, but this is just one of those stages that’s almost guaranteed to be one.
Stage 18: The only individual time trial of the race is 27.2km long and mostly flat bar a small bump in the first half of the course.
Stage 20: The final mountain stage of the race before the sprint finale in Madrid and it’s one of only two stages to exceed 4000m of vertical ascent. The final climb is simply bonkers culminating in a 3.2km ramp averaging 12.5% and maxing out at 18.3%. Talk about saving the best ’till last eh.

Velogames Category Guide

So in addition to giving the lowdown on the great and good in each category, I’m going to introduce a special new section. I don’t often flat out give advice apart from some general tips on how to spread the budget around what to avoid, but this time I’m going to spell out more of my feelings on who I’m genuinely tempted to pick and why. Especially for the unclassed section, where this game can be won or lost. I’m also going to try and open up to more race scenarios and how certain riders can benefit from what happens on the road. An almost infinite number of possibilities exist for how a Vuelta plays out, so it’s always hard to definitively say what is a right or wrong answer. That’s part of what makes it my favourite grand tour. So what say we crack on!

All Rounders

This section is dominated by the out-and-out race favourite in Jonas Vingegaard. He’s here to win, the team is fully supporting him, and baring illness or injury, he’s winning this race. The question is how close can the others push him? Can his closest rivals snatch a few stages from him and keep both the gap close and the Velogames leader board close? Let’s have a look at Jonas and those rivals in some more detail.

Climbers

As always, the climbers are a minefield. It’s a veritable feast of riders who can podium grand tours or drop when there’s a hint of wind only to DNF two days later. At the time of writing this, I honestly have no clue who I’m going to pick here. There are a couple of riders I’m definitely not taking and around nine who I’m tempted by, but I’ll leave those notes to the end. Here’s the list in detail.

These are your 10 credits or more climbers. Only four of these are seriously going for GC and one might never be back to the top level. The most expensive rider in this list is perhaps not even going for GC and at 14 credits that seriously damages his points potential. Even after writing out all of that, I’m still no clearer on who I might actually pick. Onwards to the bargain bin!

Sprinters

This category is always fascinating at the Vuelta. For the last few years, there has always been one rider that dominates the field. Last year had another rider who was slightly closer and there was also a decent 6 credit rider in Mathias Vacek, but for the three years before that, the gaps were not close. It’s often that one rider or team who makes it their mission to crush the points jersey competition. Riders like Jakobsen, then Pedersen, Groves, and last year we had Wout Van Aert, even though he didn’t finish the race and the points jersey went to Groves once again. So what about this year? Well on paper, it looks to be a straight duel between Mads Pedersen and Jasper Philipsen. The former is having one of their best ever years and looks fairly unstoppable, whereas the latter has been quiet despite winning the opening stage of the Tour before being taken out in a crash on stage 3. I would say one of these is essential, but that isn’t to say there aren’t one or two bargains hiding in here. Those bargains just might end up being outscored by Pedersen by about 1000 points.

Unclassed

The Vuelta is often the perfect race for the unclassed category. Plenty of breakaway opportunities, and a whole stack full of potential stage winners. We’ve had some brilliant riders from this category in past editions. Last year, it was the triple heroics of Castrillo, Küng, and Schmid for 6 credits, and Berrade for 4. There was Andreas Kron in 2023, and Fred Wright in 2022. So who’ll it be this time around. Well, here are a few of my picks to look out for. Other riders are available.

In addition to these heroes, if you’re after a four credit rider, here are the riders I’d consider. Torstein Træen, Markel Beloki, Gianmarco Garofoli, Guillermo Juan Martinez, Bob Jungels, or possibly Hugo De La Calle. Any 4 credit rider is always a gamble unless there’s an obvious pick, like Berrade was last year, but if I’m taking any of these guys, it’ll be Garofoli. He scored 361 points at the Giro from two breaks and even finished 4th on the queen stage.

Selection Advice

So! Now onto my thoughts for who to pick, who not to pick, and who to pick with caution. I’ll never flat out tell you not to pick someone, because I get it wrong all the time! So here’s who I’m thinking about more seriously.

In the all rounders, I’m definitely taking Vingegaard. Even for 28 credits, he’s the race favourite and the best climber in the race, so I have to pick him. That, coupled with what I’ve heard today about the UAE leaders, makes him the first rider on the team sheet. Almeida has said he expects the podium and Ayuso has been playing down his own shape, but they are both exceptional riders. If I can find a way to fit in one of them, I might take Almeida. Elsewhere, I’m looking at Jorgenson and Tiberi, and definitely looking at Soler.

For the climbers, I’ve thought long and hard. Landa is looking for stages later on in the race, Ben O’Connor will need a raid to get into the top 5, Hindley’s form is an unknown, and Buitrago is hard to read. It’s really tough to know where to begin, but the riders I like are Ciccone, Bernal, Gall, Pellizzari, Fortunato, Caruso, and then Lecerf for a super leftfield bargain pick. I’m really hoping Ciccone goes well, he deserves good fortune and something major to be proud of after the year he’s had.

As I said before, I’m taking either Pedersen or Philipsen for my sprinter. Aular, Gruel, and possibly Zingle are all tempting, but the big two are surely hoovering up the majority of the points.

The unclassed all comes down to how well you see Pidcock going. I’m cautious, so spending 12 credits on him is not an option. It also depends how much budget you have left, unless he’s one of your first riders selected. Ganna is looking good for a decent score and as the only 8 credit unclassed, he’s a good option. Below this you guess is as good as mine. I’m tempted most by Bisiaux, Langellotti, Silva, Tulett, Fisher-Black, but really there are so many options to consider.

Hopefully I’ve given you some good insight and perhaps told you one or two things you may not have been aware of. I’m going to have great fun picking my team for this one. Make sure to join the league if you haven’t already. The code is 224381821. We have CYRIL currently sitting 2nd overall in the Stage Race Championship, so massive luck to you! I’m just hoping to end with a bang after my season derailed slightly with some very questionable picks at the Tour. I’m also hoping to stream after the race, recap the year, and roast all the teams of everyone who comes to hang out. Until then, cheerio.