The Vuelta a España begins this Saturday in Turin, offering the final Grand Tour of the season and a last chance in 2025 for riders to secure one of cycling’s most prestigious titles. With a route packed full of brutal climbs, including the iconic Angliru, and barely a flat stage in sight, the race is expected to favour the pure climbers.
Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar are absent, leaving the spotlight on Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida and Juan Ayuso. Alongside them, riders such as Giulio Ciccone, Jai Hindley, Antonio Tiberi, Egan Bernal and Mikel Landa will also be chasing results. The field may lack Pogačar’s explosive presence, but it still promises an intense three-week battle from Turin to Madrid.
2025 Vuelta a Espana GC favourites
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Jonas Vingegaard starts as the overwhelming favourite. The Dane was runner-up to Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France, recording eight podium finishes on stages but no wins. He has not claimed a Grand Tour since 2022, and this Vuelta represents the clearest opportunity to add another major title.
“I’m here for the overall win,” Vingegaard said. “And with this team supporting me, that seems like a realistic goal. There are many stages where differences can be made, so it’s important to be ready from the very start. I’m ready and would prefer to start racing right away.”
He will be supported by a strong squad including Sepp Kuss, Matteo Jorgenson and Victor Campenaerts, ensuring Visma-Lease a Bike have the firepower to control the race.
Photo Credit: GettyJoão Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
João Almeida has already proven his stage-racing pedigree in 2025, winning the Tour de Suisse, the Tour de Romandie and Itzulia Basque Country. His Tour de France ended with a crash and a fractured rib, but he has recovered in time to lead UAE alongside Ayuso.
“The recovery from the Tour crash has been smooth and my sensations in training have been improving,” Almeida said. “We have a strong group around us, and I believe we can fight for something big.”
Almeida’s strength lies in his consistency. He may not produce explosive attacks, but his diesel engine and time trial ability make him a serious GC contender.
Photo Credit: GettyJuan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
For Juan Ayuso, this Vuelta is a chance to put a difficult season behind him. After abandoning the Giro d’Italia with a knee injury and suffering limited racing since, he comes into his home Grand Tour with uncertainty about form but clear ambition.
“This is the first time I haven’t specifically prepared for a Grand Tour, and the first time I’m starting two in one year,” Ayuso admitted. “So it’s been a strange build-up. I need to see how I am doing in the race, then we’ll see. If I’m not great, I’ll help João, assuming he’s doing well.”
Ayuso has already finished third and fourth overall at the Vuelta, both before his 21st birthday. Now 22, he will be desperate to deliver a podium on home roads.
Photo Credit: GettyGiulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek)
Giulio Ciccone heads into the Vuelta in strong form, having taken a stage win at Vuelta a Burgos and victory in the Clásica San Sebastián. His Grand Tour record is patchy, with no GC top ten yet, but the Italian thrives on steep uphill finishes and could turn consistency into a breakthrough three-week ride.
The challenge for Ciccone is to make it to Madrid. If he does, he has every chance of securing the best Grand Tour result of his career.
Photo Credit: GettyEgan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)
Egan Bernal continues his comeback from his career-threatening crash in 2022. Seventh overall at the Giro this year, including several top mountain finishes, showed he is edging back towards his former best.
“It’s my dream,” Bernal said when asked about winning the Vuelta. “I don’t know if I’ll achieve it or not, but the truth is I wake up every day thinking about being the best again.”
A win would complete his set of Grand Tour victories, having already won the Tour de France in 2019 and Giro d’Italia in 2021. That target may be a stretch, but another top result looks realistic.
Photo Credit: GettyJai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Jai Hindley will lead Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in the absence of Roglič. The 2022 Giro winner has struggled for results recently, crashing out of this year’s Giro with a fractured vertebra, but he is building back towards form.
“Jai is our leader, but with a balanced team we can be protagonists on several stages and aim to take some wins,” said team DS Patxi Vila. “While it’s not easy to pinpoint an exact expectation for Jai, he is a Grand Tour winner and he has already shown that he has the legs to win a three-week race.”
Hindley will be joined by Giulio Pellizzari, sixth at this year’s Giro, offering Bora another potential GC card.
Photo Credit: GettyAntonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious)
Antonio Tiberi impressed with fifth at the 2024 Giro d’Italia and was running fourth at last year’s Vuelta before heat-stroke forced him out. His 2025 campaign has been disrupted by a heavy Giro crash, but he still offers Bahrain a legitimate GC hope.
With both a team time trial and an individual time trial on the route, Tiberi’s ability against the clock could give him an edge over rivals. If he survives the heat and avoids mishap, a top five is within reach.
Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep)
For veteran Soudal-QuickStep leader Mikel Landa, the 2025 Vuelta a España is a test of his own condition after his terrible crash in the Giro d’Italia and of how the Belgian team will compete in Grand Tours without Remco Evenepoel in the years to come.
“Burgos was a tough race, I couldn’t do much, but at least I could break through my nerves of crashing after the Giro and get back to pushing myself to the limit. My back is still not in great shape, but I’m hoping that I can get through,” Landa said in a pre-Vuelta press conference in Turin.
“I’m hoping I can get a stage win, that’s my most realistic option, but even that could be tough.”
He explained that his recovery from the Giro crash was relatively straightforward at first physically, but much harder mentally. “I couldn’t bear to watch the Giro at all on TV. I was really upset about it. It was clear how the race was going to play out, with the toughest part in the third week, and I was angry at not being there.”
“By the Tour, though, I was doing OK. It was very hard to have to leave the Giro like that, particularly when I was so motivated to do well and at my age I won’t have so many more opportunities.”
The Basque rider also spoke about Evenepoel’s imminent departure and how that will affect the team. “Going for stages is something the team has in its DNA, and that’s what we’ll be doing here, so it’s a bit of a practice, because that’s what we’ll be doing in Grand Tours.”
Looking ahead, Landa has one eye on the Italian Classics and the World Championships at the end of the season. “Before Burgos I wasn’t so sure, but now I know I want to go through right til the end. I’m really keen to do as well as I can in Italy.”
“Here in the first week, if there are 30 or 40 riders in the last part of a stage, I hope to be there, but if there are five or ten, I’m sure that I won’t be. But then I’ll look to do well in the second and third week. The last time we went up the Angliru I did pretty well. And maybe that can happen again, too.”
Photo Credit: GettyBest of the rest of the GC favourites
Visma-Lease a Bike will arrive with depth beyond Vingegaard. Sepp Kuss, the 2023 winner, and Matteo Jorgenson, eighth at last year’s Tour, are both capable of top ten finishes if given freedom. UAE also have depth, with Marc Soler and Jay Vine adding climbing strength to Almeida and Ayuso.
Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), fifth at this year’s Tour de France, is another rider to watch, though questions remain about how he will fare in back-to-back Grand Tours. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) continues his own recovery journey and may aim for stages rather than GC, but he cannot be discounted entirely.
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) heads to his second Grand Tour of the year aiming for stage wins and possibly a tilt at the top ten. “I’m curious to see what I can do in the general classification,” he said. “The course this year is very diverse but still typical of the Vuelta, with many uphill finishes.”
With a stacked field, a punishing route, and the absence of Roglič and Pogačar, this Vuelta a España is set to be wide open. Vingegaard begins as the man to beat, but the supporting cast of climbers and opportunists ensures the red jersey battle should remain alive all the way to Madrid.
