DISCUSSION Vuelta a España stage 2 | How many stage wins will Jonas Vingegaard get? Will the crash take a toll on Tom Pidcock?

The second stage of la Vuelta a España featured the classical "unipuerto" style, with a final climb to Limone Piemonte (9.9km at 5.1%) that suited not only pure climbers but also puncheurs in good shape.

The rest of the stage was mostly flat, with no other categorized climbs. Four riders - Liam Slock, Jakub Otruba, Nico Denz and Gal Glivar - went down the road and formed the breakaway of the day. However, Denz didn’t have the best legs and was dropped after a few kilometres, while Sinhué Fernández attacked from the peloton and joined the break.

After the break was established, the day passed by calmly, with Q36.5 immediately taking control of the bunch and never allowing the gap to go over 2:30 minutes. There was little to mention until rain appeared, bringing a lot of nervousness to the race.

Guillaume Martin was the first victim, crashing during a descent and being forced to abandon. George Bennett was the next to fall, although he could continue riding. However, with around 25km to go, the high speed combined with the wet roads caused a massive crash in which more than 10 men hit the deck in a roundabout, including the biggest favourite Jonas Vingegaard and British star Tom Pidcock.

Luckily, nobody looked seriously hurt after the crash, and everybody came back to the peloton after they slowed down the pace to wait for the affected riders. After that, Lidl – Trek and Visma were the two teams controlling the race, paving the way for Jonas Vingegaard and Giulio Ciccone.

The final climb wasn’t too hard until the last 2km, and it was Tom Pidcock who launched the sprint. It was too early however, and he was quickly out of contention for the stage. It was Vingegaard and Ciccone who proved to be the strongest, with the Dane narrowly taking the stage win and the red jersey in the process. David Gaudu surprisingly completed the podium.

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

The second stage of the Vuelta a España 2025 looked to be just as boring as the first, but the rain arrived to change that. Unfortunately, that led to several crashes in the peloton, including Jonas Vingegaard.

However, this did not affect him at all and he took the victory ahead of Giulio Ciccone, who is still spectacular after his victory in the Clásica de San Sebastián. Whether he is in La Vuelta to contest the overall, win a stage or both remains to be seen, but he has already come close to scoring a victory.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning the spectacular performance of Egan Bernal, who was one of the four riders who were a couple of seconds ahead of the rest of the favorites for the final general classification.

This is a very different Vingegaard than the one we saw at the Tour. It’s not about the fact that he won the stage, but about his body language. The absence of Tadej Pogacar clearly plays a role, yet the contrast is striking. His fans will confirm it: this is the Vingegaard they always recognize—completely relaxed, talking to anyone, joking, and after the win casually calling his wife. “If you don’t see me tomorrow, I’ll be the man in red.”

For cycling fans it’s refreshing to witness a glimpse of who he truly is. Wout van Aert often says he’s simply a good guy, and it shows. Success can reshape a rider, and stress can weigh heavily on even the strongest. Seeing Vingegaard so free and at ease in this Vuelta is a welcome and remarkable change.

This more relaxed version of Vingegaard will set the tone for the rest of the Vuelta. Without the constant pressure of battling Pogacar, he will ride with greater confidence and joy, turning composure into consistent strength. If he maintains this calm mindset, it’s not just a stage win but the beginning of a campaign where he will control the race on his own terms. Which means he can call his wife again tomorrow telling her to stay away... Bad weather.

It was an interesting stage. I mean profile wise the stage was not designed to be spectacular, this was always going to end in a sprint between those who can climb. But the aspect of a leadout battle up 80% of a final ascent is... rather unique let's say.

The rain impacted the finale quite a bit with Jonas Vingegaard and Tom Pidcock going down. Although Visma seemed the most harmed, that really wasn't the case, and it was Pidcock who lacked the legs in the final sprint. In his absence the two expected riders battled for victory, but it seems like the balance shifted more towards the climbing aspect and Vingegaard had more in the legs to sprint for victory.

It will mean little in the big picture but it will provide a lot of motivation, specially after much of the team crashed, and puts him already in the lead of the race - a psychological move on the competition.

The stage didn’t have much interest until the last kilometres, similar to yesterday. Yesterday we mentioned what a positive surprise it had been that no crashes occurred, sadly the same cannot be said today.

Rain and high tension in peloton are two ingredients that do not go well together, and today another big crash occurred, luckily with no (apparent) consequences for the riders. Axel Zingle took the brunt as he dislocated his shoulder, but he somehow managed to relocate it with the help of the doctors and didn’t even abandon. Riders are really superheroes...

Tom Pidcock didn’t time his sprint well; it was clear he started too early. I would say it was a bit disappointing to see him finishing in tenth and too far from Vingegaard and Ciccone, but it is true that he was affected by the crash 25km from the finish line, and that might have hindered him.

Someone that didn’t seem too affected by the crash was Vingegaard. The Dane came to the Vuelta as the unanimous favourite to win it and today he confirmed that his shape is excellent and not even a crash can stop him. Today wasn’t the day suiting him the best on paper, as it was a short and explosive effort instead of a longer climb, but he won anyway.

Without Pogacar here and after the absolute domination the Slovenian has showcased in the last two years, racking up stage win after stage win, I think Vingegaard wants to emulate him. I think he will try to win as many stages as possible, to send a message to the world that he can also rule a Grand Tour with an iron fist. After the win he was calling someone, maybe it was Pogacar, to make sure he doesn't miss his performances.