Stage 16 from Poio to Mos – Castro de Herville burst into life after an extended 9 km neutral due to narrow city streets, with attacks flying immediately once the flag dropped. Early probes were reeled in, but after 50 frenetic kilometers a serious selection finally snapped the elastic: a 17-rider move formed featuring Marc Soler, Mikel Landa, Egan Bernal, Andrea Bagioli, Bob Jungels, Jefferson Cepeda, Nico Denz, Mauri Vansevenant, Sean Quinn, Finlay Pickering, Clément Braz Afonso, Rudy Molard, Brieuc Rolland, Victor Guernalec, Louis Rouland, Kevin Vermaerke and Jake Stewart. The pace was savage – 51.5 km in the first hour – and Visma – Lease a Bike settled into a steady chase with Dylan van Baarle and Wilco Kelderman, allowing the gap to grow past four minutes, then beyond six.
The first categorised ascent, Alto de San Antoñino, arrived with the break fully established. Nico Denz took maximum points ahead of Soler and Molard as the bunch crested at 4:18. Rain began to spit over Galicia’s coast, and the race hit the long Alto da Groba. Inside the break, tempo work from Jungels and Louis Rouland gave way to outright aggression when Landa attacked at 2.7 km from the summit, hands in the drops on the steep upper ramps. Bernal bridged, with Braz Afonso soon after; behind, Rolland clung on while others began to crack. Landa led over the top for the KOM, with Bernal next, then Braz Afonso, Rolland and Guernalec, while the peloton crossed six minutes down amid showers and waving Palestine flags but without incident.
The descent reorganised the front, and nine riders chased the Landa & Bernal move. Counterattacks reshuffled positions, but by roughly 95 km to go the second act was clear: the stage win would come from the break, the peloton content to ride a measured tempo. Through Baiona’s coastline, the weather stayed changeable. With 60 km remaining, team cars serviced the escapees, underscoring the collective commitment to keep clear.
Photo Credit: GettyApproaching the Alto de Prado – a 3.2 km wall on narrow country lanes, likened by commentators to a steeper Cipressa or Poggio – reports surfaced that a tree had been felled across the road at its base. Local officials quickly cut and cleared the obstruction, but it foreshadowed later drama. The road tipped up, the gradient bit at 16 per cent, and positioning became critical. At 28 km to go Landa’s group dived the approach descent to keep Soler and Pickering from bridging, then the climb detonated the front entirely: Bernal surged, Denz and the French riders were hurt by the pace, Rolland was distanced, and at 25 km to go Landa and Bernal were effectively the strongest pairing on the road, with Braz Afonso battling to stay attached.
Behind, Soler made a huge effort on a draggy rise to cut the gap for the chase, bringing it down to 15 seconds with 35 km remaining, then to 12 seconds at the Couso intermediate sprint, where Denz mopped up the 20 points ahead of Braz Afonso and Bernal. Soler and Pickering carved free of the rest of the chasers, but Bernal drove hard to prevent their return. As the race raced into the final 40 km, five leaders pushed their advantage over a disorganised pursuit, then swelled to a compact group before Landa and Bernal used the penultimate ramps to go again. Over the top of the Alto de Prado, Landa led, Rolland trailed by 27 seconds, while Soler, Denz, Pickering and Vermaerke were at 43 seconds. Bahrain Victorious tightened the tempo in the peloton to defend Torstein Træen’s top ten, paring the GC group to a dozen names.
The weather and tension rose together. Within the favourites, misfortune struck when Jonas Vingegaard punctured near the crest of the penultimate climb. He took a bike from Ben Tulet,t and the group observed convention – “Almeida raised his hand and did not attack the race leader as they go over the top of the climb.” UAE then radioed Soler to stop chasing and wait for the GC group around João Almeida, costing UAE their strongest satellite ahead.
Then, with Bernal and Landa pressing inside 15 km to go, the decisive twist: race radio announced, “We have a big protest at 3 kilometres before the line. We will decide the stage winner and take times at 8 km before the line.” Organisers shifted the finish effectively to the marker at the start of the final climb to Castro de Herville, outmanoeuvring the blockade 3 km from the original line. Confusion flickered as riders instinctively continued toward team vehicles uphill, but the sprint for the stage played out between the two strongest men of the day just before that new finish point – Bernal and Landa marked each other to the flamme, then Bernal kicked from the front and held it on the flat approach to take his first Vuelta stage victory.
The remnants of the break streamed over in scattered groups – Rolland close behind after the timing cut neutralised his late puncture, then Denz and Braz Afonso further back – while the GC group, reduced and wary after the Vingegaard incident, rolled through at tempo to the redefined finish. Felix Gall was among those to lose time on a day that began as a classic Galicia ambush stage and ended as a dramatic, improvised conclusion shaped by protests, weather, and a ruthless penultimate-climb selection.
2025 Vuelta a España Stage 16 result
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Main photo credit: Getty
