Vuelta a Espana 2025: Jonas Vingegaard dominates Stage 9 summit finish at La Vuelta as Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock emerge as strongest Red Jersey challengers

Jonas Vingegaard has given the clearest sign yet of his Red Jersey intentions at the 2025 Vuelta a Espana dominating on the summit finish of stage 9 ahead of Joao Almeida and Tom Pidock to head into the first rest day of the race with another win under his belt.

On paper, the day looked tailor-made for attackers, with a long but not overly steep summit finish – 13.3km at 5.2% – preceded by largely flat terrain. With just five teams having claimed stage wins so far, there was no shortage of motivation in the bunch. The action started early, with waves of attacks in the opening kilometres, though none could establish a meaningful lead. The peloton even split briefly after an acceleration on an uphill drag, but the gap soon closed and the race reset.

It took more than an hour before a serious move formed. Michal Kwiatkowski and Archie Ryan were the first to prise open daylight, before being joined by Michel Hessmann, Liam Slock, and Kevin Vermaerke. Together, the quintet finally established the day’s breakaway. The bunch, unwilling to allow too much freedom, kept them on a short leash, and after 60km of racing the lead hovered at just 25 seconds. Eventually, the gap began to stretch, reaching 1’45’’ with 110km still to ride.

Behind, there was a small scare when Jonas Vingegaard suffered a mechanical, but the Dane quickly returned to the peloton without issue. At halfway, the leaders had built their margin out to 2’30’’, though with strong rouleurs in the move it was clear they intended to fight all the way to the final climb.

Lidl–Trek soon moved to the front of the peloton, with Daan Hoole and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier doing the bulk of the chasing. Their steady pace kept the escapees under control, the gap holding around 2’30’’ as the race entered the final 80km.

With 75km to go, the situation was unchanged, but the weather suddenly turned. Dark clouds rolled overhead and before long it was pouring down, soaking both the leaders and the bunch. The rain added a nervous edge to proceedings, and as the road slicked, Lidl–Trek continued to keep the tempo high.

By the 50km mark, the storm had eased but the break’s lead had shrunk to two minutes. The chasers remain in control, and while the front group continues to work well together, the bunch shows no signs of letting them go completely. There was then a brief moment of worry for Sepp Kuss, who punctured, though the American was quickly back in the peloton without lasting damage. With 30km remaining, the leaders still had a gap of 1:30 as the bunch closed in. Up ahead loomed the decisive climb of Valdezcaray, with just 17km left before its lower slopes.

At the intermediate sprint, Liam Slock took the honours ahead of Hessmann and Kwiatkowski, with the points only a small consolation for the escapees as the peloton loomed ever closer. At 20km to go, the margin was down to only 55 seconds, with Lidl–Trek still driving the chase. The team looked committed to setting up Giulio Ciccone, while also keeping Mads Pedersen in mind if he could survive the steepest sections of the ascent.

There was a scare in the peloton shortly after when Victor Guernalec hit the deck. Fortunately, he was the only rider involved despite crashing in the middle of the bunch, and the incident caused only a brief ripple of tension in the pack.

Almost as soon as the final climb began, the breakaway were caught by the peloton. At the back meanwhile, Juan Ayuso was again dropping away early, not sticking around to help out UAE leader Joao Almeida. The Spaniard was far from the only one though, as Lidl-Trek's intense pace-setting continued to dwindle down the numbers of the GC group.

With around 11km to go, Team Visma | Lease a Bike then ignited the fight for the Red Jersey as Jonas Vingegaard, firstly locked onto the wheel of Matteo Jorgenson and then making a move of his own distanced all rivals other than a brave Giulio Ciccone. As the Dane continued to put the pressure down though, Ciccone too was soon distanced.

In the chase, Almeida was slowly but surely pegging Vingegaard back with his steady climb and by 9km to go he was back to within 7 seconds with only Tom Pidcock and Felix Gall still in the chase with the Portuguese. Perhaps sensing the imminent comeback of his main rival however, Vingegaard soon kicked again and started pushing that gap back out as Gall too was dropped, leaving only Almeida and Pidcock as nearest chasers, 23 seconds down at 5km to go.

The stage win was Vingegaard's though, as the Dane raced into the finale with around 30 seconds lead over Almeida and Pidcock, who were left fighting for 2nd and 3rd as the wait began for Torstein Traeen as to whether or not Vingegaard would take back Red to boot.