Vuelta time trial becomes a glorified prologue: organization removes 15 kilometers from the original course due to safety concerns
CyclingWednesday, 10 September 2025 at 21:37
The eighteenth stage of the Vuelta a España, an individual time trial of 27.2 kilometers, will be heavily shortened to guarantee rider safety. The organization of the Vuelta a España announced this on Wednesday evening. From the original distance around Valladolid, only 12.2 kilometers remain.
Time trial specialists who had set their sights on stage 18 will be disappointed, because a substantial and especially flat 27-kilometer test is being cut by 15 kilometers. Of course, this is all connected to the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests in this Tour of Spain.
To better secure the stage, the organizers of the Vuelta, in cooperation with the city of Valladolid, decided to stage the time trial on a 12.2-kilometer course. The start and finish will take place at the originally planned locations. What the exact route around Valladolid will look like was still unknown on Wednesday evening.
Much lighter climbers at the top of the general classification will not mind the news of a shorter time trial. Specialists Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) will still struggle to put the explosive Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Red Bull duo Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari behind them.
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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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