Favorites stage 10 Vuelta a Espana 2025 | Again a day for the breakaway, but how hungry is Vingegaard?

The second week begins in the Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva, Navarra's nature park, situated south of the city of Pamplona. From there, the riders will ride a short loop to head north towards the mountains.

The opening phase is mostly flat, and the middle section also features only uncategorized climbs. It is only when we arrive in Nacascués after 120 kilometers that the real climbing begins.

That's when the Alto de las Coronas comes into play. With a length of 8.8 kilometers and an average gradient of 4.4%, it will be a warm-up for what is to come later in the day. After a short descent, the road quickly climbs again towards the intermediate sprint, which is scheduled 22 kilometers from the finish.

The riders will continue climbing to an altitude of 1000 meters, where the final climb begins. The El Ferial Larra Belagua climb is 9.4 kilometers long and has an average gradient of 6.3%: a first-category climb. It starts off steeply with sections of up to 10%, after which the climb flattens out a bit towards the top. All in all, the stage is quite similar to stage nine, the last stage before the rest day.

Times
Start: 12:55 PM local time (06:55 AM EDT)
Finish: around 5:18 PM local time (11:18 AM EDT)

Temperatures in Spain will be pleasant, with the temperature rising to around 25 degrees at the start. The wind will be moderate and slightly head-on in the opening phase. In the middle section, in the run-up to the first climb of the day, the wind could potentially cause some damage. At the top of the final climb, it will be around 10 degrees, but it should remain dry.

Whereas the last stage before the rest day looked set to be one for the breakaway riders, this stage seems quite similar. As a result, many free riders will have their sights set on this stage. The main focus will be on the strong climbers in this Vuelta, as they have the best chance of winning the stage.

Lorenzo Fortunato certainly belongs in that group. XDS Astana has a lot of cards to play with Harold Martin Lopez, Sergio Higuita, Wout Poels, and Harold Tejada, among others. It would be a huge disappointment if the Kazakh team were not in contention on Tuesday.

Groupama-FDJ saw David Gaudu lose a lot of time earlier, so the Frenchman could just try to break away. Jay Vine and Juan Ayuso have both already struck once and, with their deficit in the general classification, could strike again. UAE Emirates-XRG could also try with Marc Soler, who excels on climbs.

Even more attackers? Then we come to riders such as Sergio Chumil (Burgos Burpellet BH), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), Victor Langelotti (INEOS Grenadiers), Antonio Tiberi, Santiago Buitrago (both Bahrain Victorious), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL), Marco Frigo (Israel Premier-Tech), and Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis).

And what if it will be the GC contenders after all? Then we at least have Sunday as a reference point. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) showed himself to be the strongest on the climbs, while his team can also count on Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss on the climbs. João Almeida (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) were the two riders who came closest to the Dane on Sunday. Felix Gall finished fourth on behalf of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and also gained some time on the rest of the competition.

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) tried to follow an acceleration by Vingegaard on Sunday, but ultimately dropped back... The Italian eventually finished seventh, behind the strong Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and the aforementioned Soler. Top talents Markel Beloki (EF Education-EasyPost) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) also climbed to a top-10 finish on Sunday.

Further down the rankings, riders such as Matthew Riccitello (Israel Premier-Tech), Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step), and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) may be able to use their deficit to the leaders to their advantage.

Top favorites: Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates - XRG)
Outsiders: Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), João Almeida, Juan Ayuso (both UAE Emirates-XRG) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ)
Long shots: David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Sergio Higuita, Harold Tejada (both XDS-Astana), Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis), Victor Langellotti (INEOS Grenadiers), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Sergio Chumil (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla)