PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Vuelta a España 2025 stage 17 - Will Vingegaard and Almeida battle on Morredero? Will the race go on?

We preview stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana, which will take place on the 10th of September. It is going to be a key day for the overall classification, if the race is not blocked once again. The Alto de El Morredero is a brutal climb and the summit finish can be key to the outcome of the race between Jonas Vingegaard and João Almeida. The stage should start at 13:40CET and finish at 17:00CET.

But in Galicia, the riders will still find high mountains to tackle. Stage 17 will see the peloton take on another short day on the bike, but with a difficult final climb to the Alto de El Morredero. The peloton will be riding in a region recently devastated by wildfires, but it's beauty will certainly still be visible.

Another unipuerto stage, with a few small climbs but nothing meaningful until the riders go through Ponferrada and head into the base of the climb to the Alto de El Morredero. The climb is 12.1 kilometers long at 7.9% but features different sections. The opening 1.5 kilometers average 9% but then we have a flat section that leads into the "official" start of the ascent.

The final 8.8 kilometers average 9.5%, it's a terribly steep climb specially in in the first half of the final section and it's simply one where the pure climbers can once again destroy the peloton and the GC race. The riders will climb up well above the vegetation in the area and will have an exposed finale, one that is not as steep as the opening kilometers of the climb.

Some chances of rain, it is quite likely that at some point during the day it will fall and make the descents treacherous, and also some strong western wind. However unlike La Farrapona, the wind won't block out the action this time around, as it will mostly come as a cross-tailwind during the final climb and there won't be sections with headwind.

GC Fight - All of this must be taken with a grain of salt, because honestly I fear the continuity of the race. The protestors have now figured how they can neutralize and wreck the race both in sprint finishes and in climbs. This means that if there are people and willpower, they will do it again tomorrow, and honestly I don't see how much can be done to stop it.

But we must assume for the sake of the preview that everything will go as normal. Jonas Vingegaard versus João Almeida: On paper the climb suits both very well, long effort and we could see another stalemate, which would help the Dane and make his overall victory much more likely. But on the contrary, it means that a bad day for either of them could spell the end of their winning ambitions in the race, as there are only 48 seconds separating them.

UAE cannot really do anything here that will make much of a difference, they are likely to pace up the final ascent and set up an attack by the Portuguese, but the truth is that Almeida has to have the legs himself to drop Vingegaard. It's the same situation Vingegaard had in the Tour against Tadej Pogacar, tactics can only do so much.

Podium fight - The fight for victory will rule over the peloton but we may also have some Top10 battles influencing it. Today we saw Bahrain - Victorious push the pace to prevent Egan Bernal from entering the Top10 and also to distance William Junior Lecerf. With Felix Gall losing time today and perhaps feeling the fatigue, BORA and even Israel could well try to explore this weakness if the Austrian is once again dropped. But BORA, IF they have the men, will once again push and try to put Tom Pidcock under pressure, so Jai Hindley can attack the podium. We've seen already Giulio Pellizzari working for Hindley at La Farrapona, so I would even say this is a likely scenario - unless the group explodes quite early on.

One thing we know is Visma will not commit to a chase, they have six men left and although both van Baarle and Kelderman - who have done most of the work - remain in the race, they have all reasons to take it as easy as possible. If BORA or UAE want a shot at the stage win and extra bonus seconds they have to do the chase themselves. Which to be fair, they can, it's a very short stage and there is no real climb beforehand.

But we have good chances of a breakaway succeeding once again, specially as the breakaway riders should arrive to the final climb without great fatigue. Santiago Buitrago, Antonio Tiberi, Juan Ayuso, Jay Vine, Eddie Dunbar, Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda, Mikel Landa, Finlay Pickering, Marco Frigo and Bob Jungels are all men who have a shot if they make it into the right group. It won't be easy though, because the mostly flat start won't allow for groups of pure climbers to be formed.

*** Santiago Buitrago, Jay Vine
** Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida, Antonio Tiberi, Mikel Landa
* Jai Hindley, Matthew Riccitello, Felix Gall, Giulio Pellizzari, Tom Pidcock, Juan Ayuso, Eddie Dunbar, Marco Frigo, Bob Jungels

Pick: Santiago Buitrago

How: Solo win from the breakaway.