Favorites stage 7 Vuelta a España 2025 | Back into Spain with a brutal three-part climb

We will start in Andorra la Vella, the capital of the microstate, but the riders will quickly reach Spain. According to the profile, this will be the case just one kilometer after the official start. The riders will head towards the first climb of the day on a slight descent, which looms up quite quickly.

After 13.2 kilometers, the Port del Cantó begins, which, at almost 25 kilometers long, is quite a long climb. However, the average gradient of 4.4% does not fully convey the difficulty of this climb. The start of the climb is quite challenging: the first six kilometers climb continuously at about 8%, with a section of 13%.

After that, the climb becomes much more irregular, and the gradients also drop significantly. We even see two very short descents in the profile before we continue climbing to the summit, which is at an altitude of 1742 meters.

After a long descent and a short stretch through the valley, the road quickly climbs again. The riders will cycle uphill for almost 20 kilometers before the next climb begins. That is the Puerto de la Creu de Perves (5.7 kilometers at 6.3%). After the summit, there is another slight bend, after which the riders will continue towards the Coll de l'Espina.

Like the Creu de Perves, this is a second-category climb. At 5.5%, the gradient is slightly lower than its predecessor, but at 7.1 kilometers, the Coll de l'Espina is somewhat longer. At the top, it is still more than thirty kilometers to the foot of the final climb. There will not be much flat terrain in that intermediate section.

There is another intermediate sprint in Benasque, after which the riders will soon reach the Celar climb, the final ascent. The ascent is 12.1 kilometers long at 5.8%, but don't let that gradient fool you. It is actually a three-part climb, with two short descents between the three steep sections. The first two climbs are the most difficult, with a maximum gradient of 14%. After a brief descent, the road climbs steeply again, after which the climb to the summit becomes slightly less steep.

Climbs
37.9 km: Port del Cantó (24.7 km a 4.4%)
107,7 km: Creu de Perves (5,7 km a 6,3%)
141,5 km: Coll de l'Espina (7,1 km a 5,5%)
171,0 km: Cerler (12,1 km a 5,8%)

Times
Start: 12:17 PM local time (06:17 AM EDT)
Finish: around 5:13 PM local time (11:13 AM EDT)

The temperature at the start will be a pleasant 22 degrees Celsius. It will be cooler along the route and in the mountains. At the foot of the final climb, the temperature will be around 16 degrees, which means it will be even colder at the summit. The wind will be at the riders' backs during the final climb.

The second tough mountain stage in a row may have a different character than Friday's stage. Why is that? We have a different red jersey wearer. Whereas Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma | Lease a Bike team did not want to control the red jersey, the same cannot be said for Torstein Traeen's Bahrain Victorious team. Team leader Xavier Florencio had already spoken about the red jersey as a dream before the start of Stage 6, so they will defend it fiercely.

This does offer opportunities for the GC contenders in this race. First and foremost, you have Vingegaard, but Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) is also making a good and very aggressive impression. You can bet that he, too, will have marked Friday's stage in his route book to secure the stage victory for his team.

At UAE Emirates-XRG, Jay Vine won the stage, and he also wears the mountain jersey, for which there are a lot of points to be earned on Friday. Teammate Marc Soler is too close in the GC to be given freedom, as Sepp Kuss put it before stage 6. As for the leaders, we saw a good Joao Almeida and a downright poor Juan Ayuso.

Who else was doing well? The men who were able to stay close to Vingegaard and Ciccone. We are talking about Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R), Giulio Pellizzari, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5).

We also learned a little more about the breakaway. Someone like Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) is probably a little too close to get any freedom, but riders like Victor Langelotti (INEOS Grenadiers), Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkéa), Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla), Pablo Castrillo, Javier Romo (Movistar), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), and perhaps also Wout Poels (XDS-Astana) are likely to be involved.

Top favorites: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Jay Vine (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Outsiders: Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R) and Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Long shots: Giulio Pellizzari, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Javier Romo (Movistar) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5)