DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Recap | Jonas Vingegaard's Vuelta win, surprises and most marking moments

The Vuelta a España 2025 has finished, and it has been an edition that will be hard to forget. It has been marked by pro-Palestine protests, which have disrupted many stages and forced the neutralization of some of them.

The last day was no exception. It started without incidents, with riders taking the first kilometers easy and taking the usual pictures to commemorate the end of a Grand Tour. However, as the race arrived at Madrid, the riders were welcomed with huge crowds of protestors blocking the road and causing chaos. One Arkéa rider, Victor Guernalec, even got entangled with some demonstrators as he was trying to pass by.

Race organizers told the riders to stop, as they could not guarantee their safety. There were moments of confusion and madness, given that thousands of people had invaded the roads of Madrid with Palestine flags and were not allowing the race to continue as normal.

After a few minutes, organizers realized it was completely impossible to keep the race going, so they just cancelled the stage with still more than 50km to go. They also confirmed there would not be the traditional podium ceremony to honor the riders, which was a sad and disappointing way to conclude an edition of the Vuelta.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today and the whole Vuelta in general.

Well, a dark page on the history of cycling. This is meant to be a sports competition and nothing else. Today we did not have any of this. From the competition itself, there's absolutely nothing to comment.

From the whole race itself, i'd say it was a Vuelta that is following the current flow of Grand Tours which is that the favourites tend to win it. I expected noone other than Jonas Vingegaard to win it, and it happened. It was good to see João Almeida obtain a career best, and his 2nd Grand Tour podium, and there's that feeling that he might win a Grand Tour one day but he'll have to wait and get into a scenario like we had in the Giro this year, with no Pogacar and Vingegaard.

Speaking about Giro, it ended up being the best Grand Tour in terms of suspense on the GC fight, perhaps one of the best in recent years. Also i'd like to point out that the secondary classifications (points, mountain) definitely need to be reviewed as they simply do not attract enough people to fight for them anymore, and this happened throughout the whole year.

I take no credit off the winners, but i'd expect some fight for points or mountain classifications and the only fight we had in this Vuelta was provided by Jonas Vingegaard on both categories. A lot to improve. A terrible way to finish the Grand Tour season, hoping for a better 2026!

Ultimately it's impossible to not address the elephant in the room, this was a race marked by protests. Not by Jonas Vingegaard's first Vuelta win, Jasper Philipsen's three wins, Lidl-Trek's historic feat of being the first team to conquer all points classifications in 1 season, etc... It was the Vuelta of the protests against Israel - Premier Tech, in which the riders affected the most were all of other teams, who endured abuse, crashes, altercations and urine thrown at them for three weeks.

The race being over does not mean the problems will end. A lot of cycling's beauty comes from the fans' contact with the riders, both on the road, and before/after stages. With no doubt this access will be cut in some races or locations because of the abuse of this proximity.

Arguing Israel's presence at the Vuelta is sportswashing well, it's a failed attempt at sportswashing, which everyone knows but for some reason is not said openly. The team's presence in the race boosted the Palestinian cause much more than what it would've otherwise, whilst Israel's reputation was dragged in ways that have rarely been seen in sports.

But as I've argued plenty times, the team's presence in the race means 0 to the people in power in Israel who can actually have an impact in the situation, they simply do not care in any way if the team is here or not and their decisions will not have been impacted by it in any way.

Hence why I've argued (some said controversially) that abusing the Vuelta peloton, which rarely even included the team's riders, but riders of other teams, would have any positive impact - whilst having great potential of turning a few people away from the cause.

Geopolitics aside, the victory of Jonas Vingegaard was an expected one, he was the man to beat with the strongest climbing legs and strongest support. He wasn't at his best, with an illness sloghtly hampering him, but was nevertheless the deserved winner. Of course, having Portuguese blood, a part of me wanted João Almeida to take the win, but I can still nevertheless positively look at what was his best Grand Tour performance to date, where he would've likely won if the Dane wasn't present.

Tom Pidcock and Matthew Riccitello are wonderful surprises GC-wise, which I'm excited to see more of, but have properly enjoyed already the journey of both into unknown Grand Tour territory. We lucked out not having a race where the GC was largely influenced by crashes and mishaps, but instead the riders' legs, and the tight gaps and interesting battles that happened all throughout compensated a bit for the lack of spectacle on several days and the oddly-designed route that never promised for many fireworks.

The Vuelta a España 2025 should have been a celebration of cycling. Instead, it was overshadowed by protests that disrupted the race and stripped it of its rhythm. A grand tour is already unpredictable enough with weather, terrain, and tactics. To see it marred by factors outside the sport was a disservice to riders, fans, and the event itself.

The UCI bears a large share of the blame. By letting Israel-Premier Tech remain in the race, the governing body left the Vuelta organizers hanging dry. They knew the controversy and the risks yet chose inaction.

One cannot escape the thought: if this had been the Tour de France, politics would have been involved from the first minute. Emmanuel Macron would not have let his country’s sporting crown jewel be tarnished, and the UCI would have reacted swiftly. The Vuelta, by contrast, was left exposed. The UCI just did not care. They can be considered the biggest losers of the event.

The peloton too could have done more once the protests escalated. Riders today are highly professional, but they lack the unity of past generations. Imagine Bernard Hinault in this situation. 'Le Blairau' would have neutralized the race himself, forcing order with his sheer will. Today’s stars have leg power, but formed a front of sheeps, and that hesitation helped deepen the sense of chaos.

In the end, cycling itself lost. The race narrative became less about sporting brilliance and more about off-the-road politics. Fans who tuned in for drama on the climbs instead were wondering if the race would even end or be neutralised again. The Vuelta deserved better, and so did cycling. It should not be a sport held hostage by forces beyond its own arena.

The Vuelta 2025 was shaped by Jonas Vingegaard’s dominance, but the real story lay with the new generation. Tom Pidcock’s fearless riding earned him a first grand tour podium and proved he can now battle with the very best across three weeks. Giulio Pellizzari impressed with a stage win and a long spell in white, marking him as one of Italy’s brightest hopes.

Joao Almeida, still only 27, confirmed his steady rise as a grand tour leader by pushing Vingegaard deep into the final week. And in Madrid, it was Matthew Riccitello who had the last word, securing the white jersey. Did I mention Riccitello? "Everything considered, I think this has been a very successful Vuelta for us.”, he said moments after the race today. He rides for Israel-Premier Tech. Which brings me right back where I started. All the way back, to square one.

The main protagonist of this Vuelta has sadly not been related to cycling. The protests started as an isolated incident the day of the team time trial, affecting only the Israel Premier Tech riders, which was the intended target on paper. However, they escalated and disrupted the proper development of the race.

I agree with Rúben’s words, the problem is not over after the Vuelta is done. The boycott has been very successful, as two stages were neutralized, the last one has been cancelled and the images of Palestine support have gone around the world. It has been proven that a cycling race can be very easily disrupted, so more and more people will consider imitating them in the future, either to protest against Israel or for other causes.

Israel Premier Tech know that, and I think there is going to be a lot of internal pressure to avoid that. Removing the name of Israel from the jersey was clearly not enough, they need at least to drop Israel as a sponsor, or even completely rebrand. After all, most of the riders and the staff are not from Israel and have nothing to do with the conflict. They just want to do their job, but they are realizing they are in the worst possible team to do that.

After all that has happened, they will struggle a lot to attract talent if they don’t change something. Very few riders would accept riding for a team knowing they are going to be in the eye of the storm, and they will have to miss some important races for safety reasons.

Cycling-wise, the GC outcome was actually not too surprising. Jonas Vingegaard was the overwhelming and he won. Maybe not in dominant fashion, as we would have expected, but he did it anyway and it also counts. He never seemed to struggle and Almeida could never drop him. Only Pidcock did it in Bilbao for a few meters, but other than that he was very solid throughout the whole race and is the deserved winner. As I said yesterday, only Tadej Pogacar is currently able to beat him at a Grand Tour.

Joao Almeida did a great race, it is a pity UAE didn’t fully commit to supporting him. He clearly lacked some support, especially during the first two weeks. Who knows if that would have been enough to allow him to beat Vingegaard, personally I don’t think so, but it would have made things more interesting, and it would have given a much better look for UAE as a team.

Still, the team’s performance was outstanding as a whole. Seven stage victories with 4 different riders and a second place in the GC is something very difficult to improve.

Tom Pidcock was obviously another big name, finishing in the podium against all odds. After a very disappointing Giro d’Italia, he turned his season around and did the unthinkable. Hats off to the Briton, he beat a Giro d’Italia winner such as Jai Hindley. Still, I think that shows the GC field was very weak this year.

Regarding the new generation, it has looked very promising. Matthew Riccitello and Giulio Pellizzari impressed me a lot, fighting for the white jersey until the last day. I expect them to take a step ahead next year.

In the sprinters field, there is much less to note. Jasper Philipsen was the outright dominator as expected, and Mads Pedersen couldn’t beat him not even once. At least, the Dane had his stage win. He has been one of the most combative riders of this Vuelta, so he deserved that.