Vingegaard seals overall victory with stage win on brutal Bola del Mundo
CyclingSaturday, 13 September 2025 at 17:30
Jonas Vingegaard won the twentieth stage of the Vuelta a España. The Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike withstood the pressure from UAE Team Emirates - XRG and João Almeida and broke away from his rivals on the grueling sections of Bola del Mundo. As a result, he successfully secured the red jersey. Behind him, teammate Sepp Kuss finished second, ahead of Jai Hindley.
It was going to be the moment of truth. There would be some serious climbing along the way, but the focus was, of course, on the finish. The grueling Bola del Mundo would be decisive, and there was still a lot that could happen: red jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard had a 44-second lead over João Almeida. The battle for the podium was also still fascinating.
After a slightly delayed start due to mechanical defects, the attack began immediately on the opening climb. But then the most significant split took place: about 30 riders managed to break away from the peloton. There were no riders from Visma | Lease a Bike or UAE Team Emirates - XRG among them. They limited themselves to chasing. Among those who did break away were Egan Bernal, Giulio Ciccone, Santiago Buitrago, Mikel Landa, Mads Pedersen, and Dutch riders Jardi Christiaan van der Lee and Huub Artz.
UAE doesn't give the breakaway any space
The large group was not given much space, as UAE Team Emirates - XRG and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe kept the gap small. Almeida's team in particular took responsibility: the gap between the peloton and the breakaway was never more than 2 minutes. When the Puerto de Navacerrada, the penultimate climb, loomed, it was very much in question whether the breakaway would make it to the top.
Thanks to Lidl-Trek, they did: riders such as Julien Bernard and Carlos Verona gave their all for Giulio Ciccone, who wanted to shine one more time after a disappointing Vuelta. As a result, a group of eleven riders remained out of the peloton's reach, including Van der Lee, Bernal, Dunbar, and Landa. Van der Lee was strong and even took the mountain points at the top.
In the peloton, Ayuso took responsibility, and with that, the pace picked up a bit. However, there was undoubtedly no scorching acceleration: it was clear that UAE Team Emirates - XRG would not open the attack here. The Spaniard ensured that only about 25 riders remained at the front, but Vingegaard still had four domestiques left: Wilco Kelderman, Sepp Kuss, Ben Tulett, and Matteo Jorgenson.
Read on below the video!
Protest almost disrupts the race
In the valley, the leading group broke apart. Van der Lee, Bernal, Ciccone, and Landa proved to be the strongest, but they were stopped at the foot of the final climb by a group of protesters. Fortunately, the police and marshals did an excellent job, allowing them to continue quickly. The peloton was also hindered, but fortunately did not have to stop.
Landa was alone for the first few kilometers, but the chasing trio later caught up to him. That was when Ciccone launched his attack, but the peloton followed just over a minute behind the lone Italian. Not long after, he was joined again by Landa, who continued to ride at his own pace. But the approaching peloton loomed like a dark cloud over the breakaway riders.
Read on below the video!
The battle erupts on the notorious goat path
When Jay Vine took the lead, the pace immediately picked up. There were immediate casualties: Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Felix Gall (AG2R La Mondiale), and Jorgenson could no longer keep up. The favorites managed to get very close to the two leaders, who had stayed ahead until it got really steep; the battle could now begin!
Ciccone and Landa were the first to turn onto the goat path, but the favorites were only a few meters behind. They were quickly caught by Almeida, who had to go it alone. The Portuguese rider immediately set a fast pace, but Vingegaard followed swiftly. Hindley and Pidcock were also still in good shape, as was Kuss.
Read on below the video!
Hindley opens battle, Pidcock cracks
The pace was very high: Matthew Riccitello, who suddenly had a chance at the white jersey, was forced to drop back. Pidcock also struggled, so Hindley took over. The Australian set a fierce pace, but was unable to shake off his rivals: the five best climbers of the day were close together. Until Vingegaard launched his attack. The red jersey wearer attacked on the steepest part of the climb.
And no one had an answer. He quickly opened up a gap of about 20 meters, which he extended in the final kilometer. Almeida and Hindley took the lead among the chasers, but they were no match for the power of the superior Dane: he secured his overall victory in the Vuelta in the best possible way. To crown it all, Kuss finished second, ahead of Hindley.
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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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