After 2.5 hours in hot seat, Ganna claims victory in shortened Vuelta time trial, while Almeida gains time on Vingegaard
CyclingThursday, 11 September 2025 at 18:38
Stage 18 of the Vuelta a España was won on Thursday by Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers). In the adjusted time trial, the Italian had started very early, and was just faster than Jay Vine (UAE Emirates-XRG), who came up one second short. Among the GC contenders, there were only small differences, meaning Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) kept his red jersey, although his lead shrank by ten seconds.
As mentioned, the organizers had already intervened on Wednesday evening by shortening the course to 12.2 kilometers. That cut the time trial by more than half, a big setback for the GC riders with ambition and great time trial abilities.
A little after 2:30 PM, Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was the first to test himself on the new course. A few minutes later, Dutchman Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek) followed, setting the first target time for others to chase.
Hoole was not even finished yet when Ganna rolled down the start ramp. The Italian had won the Valladolid time trial two years earlier, but that was on the original, longer course. Meanwhile, Hoole was seen gesturing in frustration on the bike, before crossing the line with 13 minutes and 19 seconds on the clock, the fastest time up to that point.
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Vernon comes close to Hoole, Ganna much faster
Ethan Vernon bettered Hoole’s time at both the first and second checkpoints, but the Israel-Premier Tech rider fell two seconds short at the finish. Hoole later explained that an error in judgment concerning a roundabout had left him visibly irritated.
Then Ganna stormed in with a commanding time of roughly 13 minutes flat, 19 seconds quicker than Hoole. That put the Italian firmly in the hot seat. The question: would anyone else match that blistering time?
Mads Pedersen gave it a shot. Even though the green jersey wearer from Lidl-Trek had a perfect chance awaiting him the next day in stage 19, he went all out. At the second checkpoint, Pedersen clocked the same time as Ganna, but at the finish, he was 21 seconds slower than the INEOS Italian.
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Rivals come close, but not enough to unseat Ganna
Next came some other strong time trialists. Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ) matched Pedersen’s time, while Ivo Oliveira (UAE Emirates-XRG) managed only a provisional second place. Kelland O’Brien (Jayco AlUla) and Alec Segaert (Lotto) also posted solid rides, slotting into third and fourth provisionally.
Anticipation built until Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates-XRG) went off in quick succession. The Swiss Küng flew through the first and second checkpoints with the fastest times, but faded in the closing stretch to finish 12 seconds behind Ganna, putting him in a provisional third place. Ayuso, after a fast start, ended up only eleventh.
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After an excellent time trial by Vine, attention slowly shifts to the GC men
Jay Vine was, on behalf of UAE Emirates-XRG, a rider who could possibly spring a surprise. The Australian and also wearer of the polka-dot jersey went extremely fast and recorded the fastest time at the second checkpoint. There he was no less than nine seconds faster than Ganna.
Still it would not be enough for Vine in the end. Just not enough: the Australian from UAE came up only one meagre second short at the finish. An excellent time trial from the polka-dot jersey wearer, but ultimately without victory. With a good chrono, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) clocked a provisional third time not much later.
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Time for the GC men!
Slowly but surely it was time for the favorites for the overall victory. Whether they would match Ganna’s time remained to be seen, but the differences between them would at least become interesting on the 12.2 kilometer long time trial. Vingegaard, on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike, started last, a little after a quarter past five.
Almeida had started off fast, but already had to concede some time at the second checkpoint. Vingegaard was at that same point three seconds slower than Almeida, which was also the difference at the first checkpoint.
At the finish Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) was three seconds faster than Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), in the battle for third place. Almeida would record the third-fastest time at the line, eight seconds behind Ganna. Vingegaard was ultimately ten seconds slower than Almeida and finished in ninth place. That meant the victory went to Ganna, after a long wait in the hot seat.
Results stage 18 Vuelta a España 2025
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Latest Comments
- Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
- All they learned is that at the end of a 3 week race, Wout can beat him on a slightly bumpy stage. Obviously, this is very much thanks to Wout not racing for GC every day. This doesn't teach them a thing for Jonas beating Pogi. Not saying Jonas will never beat him again. But this absolutely won't have anything to do with it if he does beat him.Veganpotter28-07-2025
- Well, he eventually Pogacar pays the price for his insane spring campaign which was really crazyRosenkohl196125-07-2025
- Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to Heiden. What he did was unique and exceptional but he wasn't the only one who combined those distances, nowadays it is just not possible and nobody competes in both distances. The same is true for cycling with for example the combination of Roubaix and de Tour de France. In Merckx era there were more riders who managed a top10 in both races than currently.Joostmehrtens19-06-2025
- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
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