Favorites stage 14 Vuelta a España 2025 | UAE again?!

While Friday's Angliru stage was 202 kilometers long, Saturday's 14th stage is “only” 136 kilometers. The start is in Avilés, a city on the Asturian coast. From there, the riders will tour around Oviedo towards the higher areas of Asturias, where the terrain will be challenging for the second consecutive day.

The first sixty kilometers of the stage are relatively flat, although in Spain, that means that it never gets really steep. There are several sections of false flat where a breakaway group could form, but experience has taught us that such a ‘flat’ opening phase can also be completed at a rapid pace. Before you know it, you're at the foot of the first climb.

At this stage, the starting point is the Alto Tenebreo, which the riders tackle after covering just over sixty kilometers. On the profile above, this climb does not look like much, but that is mainly due to the toughness of what is yet to come. With 5.8 kilometers at a 6.2 percent grade, the Tenebreo is also a tough climb.

What follows is a short, steep descent, followed by a challenging uphill section leading to the next climb. That is the Puerto du San Llaurenziu, which we can safely describe as a beast. It starts off fairly timidly with gradients of 4, 6, and 8 percent, but in the last five kilometers of this ten-kilometer climb, we don't drop below ten percent.

After San Llaurenziu, we descend for only ten kilometers before starting the final climb, La Farrapona. This is 16.8 kilometers long at 6.0 percent, but as with its predecessor, that's not the whole story. The first eleven kilometers are pretty irregular, and so-called satellite riders can still be of vital importance here, after the earlier climb we have already had.

However, the real challenge of La Farrapona lies in the final stretch, as the gradient does not drop below 8 percent in the last six kilometers. It is therefore no surprise that climbers such as Rein Taaramäe (2011), Alberto Contador (2014), and David Gaudu (2020) have won here in the past.

Climbs
69,5 km: Alto Tenebreo (5,8 km a 6,2%)
102,1 km: Puerto du San Llaurenziu (9,9 km a 8,6%)
135,9 km: La Farrapona (16,8 km a 6,0%)

Times
Start: 1:50 PM local time (07:50 AM EDT)
Finish: 5:10 PM local time (11:10 AM EDT)

At the start in Avilés, it is 27 degrees Celsius, which is warm for this time of year, and the wind is also at the back for most of the day. At the top of the mountain, it is still 21 degrees Celsius.

Before the start of the stage finishing on the Angliru, it was expected that Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike would go all out, but that did not happen. For a stage like Saturday's, that offers extra hope: on the one hand, the yellow and black team will want to seize every opportunity, but on the other hand, the competition may smell blood?

Of course, we immediately think of the brilliant Joao Almeida of UAE Emirates-XRG. The Portuguese rider took the victory on the Angliru and is still close behind the leader in the GC. The team from the Emirates also holds part of the key in terms of the breakaway, as they can also choose to send riders such as Jay Vine and Juan Ayuso for stage seven.

Behind the two leaders, the other riders finished not too far behind. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) was third, and that team also has someone else to play with in Giulio Pellizzari. In addition, Sepp Kuss finished fourth on the Angliru, but he will mainly be riding in support of Vingegaard.

Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), and surprise contenders such as Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural) and Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) also climbed well on the Beast of Asturias. However, it is worth noting that this is a distinct type of climb. So riders like Egan Bernal (INEOS) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) could come to the fore again, unlike the day before.

For the breakaway, we will also be keeping an eye on riders such as Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Wout Poels, Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), and Javier Romo (Movistar). However, some of them seem to have worn themselves out in this Vuelta.

Top favorites: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Outsiders: Juan Ayuso, Jay Vine (UAE Emirates-XRG), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
Long shots: Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) and Javier Romo (Movistar)