"If we wanted, we could have fought for the win" - Jonas Vingegaard opts against ruining Ayuso's party on stage 7 of La Vuelta 2025

Jonas Vingegaard made no attempt to chase down Juan Ayuso on the final climb of Stage 7 at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana — and according to the Dane himself, that was entirely by design.

On a day when UAE’s 22-year-old climbed to a solo victory from the breakaway, Team Visma | Lease a Bike rode with restraint in the peloton, content to let the stage play out ahead while protecting Vingegaard’s GC position heading into the second weekend.

“It was a decent day in total. It was not an easy day,” Vingegaard said at the finish to the assembled media scrum. “We want to still try to save our energy a bit, so yeah, we decided not to do anything today. And anyway, it was a hard last climb. But yeah, the team did well.”

With Ayuso minutes ahead and no major GC gaps on offer, Vingegaard confirmed the team’s decision to stay conservative — despite UAE Team Emirates - XRG clearly showing signs of form and intent, with Ayuso winning the stage and Almeida briefly attacking late.

When asked if Visma’s muted presence on the final climb meant the stage win had never been within reach, Vingegaard was clear: the choice was tactical, not circumstantial. “No, I think for sure if we wanted, we could have fought for the win,” he said. “But yeah, as I said, we want to save the team also still. So yeah, we save it for the second and third week because there it will be hard enough.”

It was a familiar response from a rider known for patience — and for targeting the third week as his terrain. At this point last year, Vingegaard had also remained relatively quiet, before turning the race upside down in the final block of mountain stages.

Vingegaard remains well placed overall, sitting second place behind race leader Torstein Traeen and narrowly in front of Joao Almeida. The three were part of a small GC group that came to the line together in Cerler, none losing time despite Almeida’s probing attack in the final kilometres.

The coming weekend brings more altitude and an uphill finish to Aramón Formigal. Whether Visma continue to sit tight or shift gears remains to be seen — but Vingegaard’s approach remains steady. “There are many hard stages still to come,” he said simply. “We’ll be ready.”