Jonas Vingegaard reclaimed the red jersey at the Vuelta a España after Team Visma | Lease a Bike finished second in the stage 5 team time trial at Figueres. UAE Team Emirates took the victory by just eight seconds, keeping their leaders Juan Ayuso and João Almeida within touching distance of Vingegaard as the race heads towards the mountains.
The 24.1km course in Catalonia provided drama from start to finish. UAE looked under threat in the final kilometre as Marc Soler, their fourth rider, drifted perilously close to losing contact. With times taken on the fourth man, the win hung in the balance, but the Catalan dug deep on home roads and clung on, securing the squad’s first ever Grand Tour TTT victory.
Visma had been widely tipped to win, carrying the pedigree of their Paris-Nice success earlier this year. Starting with only seven riders after Axel Zingle’s withdrawal, they led at the first checkpoint, faltered in the middle, then rallied with a late surge to limit their losses. The effort was enough for Vingegaard to retake the overall lead, holding an eight-second buffer over Ayuso and Almeida. “We lost some time to UAE, but we are still ahead of them in the general classification, and that’s something we can be happy about,” Vingegaard said. “I’m happy to be back in red and excited for tomorrow.”
Photo Credit: GettyThe day was not without controversy. Israel-Premier Tech’s ride was briefly halted by pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the road with a banner. Race director Javier Guillén called the incident “unacceptable,” stressing that while peaceful protest was legitimate, endangering riders could not be tolerated. One arrest was made, though no injuries were reported. The team later issued a statement condemning the disruption as dangerous.
Behind the two leading squads, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe impressed to take third, while Lidl-Trek and Ineos Grenadiers filled the top five. Ineos had started fastest but faded badly, with Egan Bernal conceding 16 seconds to UAE and eight to Vingegaard. “It was a very good TTT,” Bernal said. “We are not far away from the top spots, and there is a lot of Vuelta left.”
Q36.5, a ProTeam, punched above their weight with eighth place, just 22 seconds down. Tom Pidcock, now 13th overall at 30 seconds, admitted the closing stretch had been brutal. “The last five kilometres were horrible, I kept missing the back… but we did a really good job,” he told TNT. His coach Kurt Bogaerts hailed the performance as proof the squad can mix with WorldTour teams.
Photo Credit: GettyFor UAE, the win provides momentum ahead of the Pyrenean summit finish at Pal in Andorra on stage 6. Sports director Joxean Fernández Matxin praised the squad’s commitment. “It was our 74th win of the season, and a very special one. The road was technical and narrow, but we proved we could deliver when it mattered.”
Almeida echoed that sentiment, highlighting the narrow margins. “The gaps are small, it doesn’t mean everything, but it’s a good start. We had a plan and did it perfectly. Everybody was tired at the end, but we all got there together.” With the mountains looming, his words summed up both the precariousness and the promise of UAE’s position: just eight seconds shy of Vingegaard, yet with far bigger battles to come.
2025 Vuelta a Espana Stage 5 result
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Main photo credit: Cor Vos
