PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Vuelta a España 2025 stage 2 - Vingegaard, Pidcock or Pedersen? Which kind of rider can win opening summit finish?

We preview stage 2 of the Vuelta a España, a stage taking place fully within Italy and right by the border with France. This is a Vuelta stage that follows a traditional format, being almost completely flat and then featuring a slight uphill finish. This will see the GC riders in action in a final sprint, but can the likes of Mads Pedersen and Jasper Philipsen survive the climb to the line?

Stage 2, as usual in the Vuelta, will be a single stage. It is a completely flat stage until the finish in Limone, a classic 'unipuerto' stage, only it takes place in Italy this time around. The start in Alba is not complicated and there is very little worth mentioning throughout the day, only with an intermediate sprint but no categorized climbs until the riders reach the base of the Colle di Tenda - which they will not take on all the way into the finish.

They will instead climb up until Panice Soprana, before the start of the climb's toughest sector. It is not a very hard summit, about 8 kilometers at 5%, but it will test the GC riders while offering a chance to several riders. The climb gradually gets steeper and the final 1.5 kilometers average 8% which is significant. It'll be a battle between the climbers, plus a few classics riders that can handle the high pace. 

No "traditional Vuelta weather": 15 degrees, clouds and most likely some rain. Now, this is not going to be a dangerous or technical finale, there are no descents and very little town crossings that can be dangerous in the finale, but it will be something worth nothing and worthy of attention.

Jonas Vingegaard - Now, this isn't an arrival for Vingegaard, but it is one mostly for the climbers. If we were talking about a Pogacar or Roglic at their best this finale wouldn't even have tension. But Vingegaard isn't the "best climber and best sprinter amongst the climbers" that we've gotten use to in the last few Grand Tours. In very good form, he should still be a prime favourite for the stage win, but I recon we'll not have the very best Vingegaard yet. Matteo Jorgenson could be given some freedom to attack in the finale and could Axel Zingle survive and then try to go for a sprint? I think he definitely can, the team may have that as an option.

UAE - UAE don't have a man to properly win the stage but with gaps possible at the finish and bonifications at hand, obviously the job is to keep both João Almeida and Juan Ayuso well positioned. Neither is very explosive, but if their form is good enough they could have enough in the tank to compensate in the end and potentially net a stage win.

Other climbers - Giulio Ciccone is the outlier when it comes to the climbers, being a very explosive rider but having the climbing legs to arrive at the sprint fresher than the likes of Pedersen and Pidcock even if they hang on very well. The Italian has won San Sebastian and the queen stage of the Vuelta a Burgos recently, there's no reason to believe he won't show great legs. Santiago Buitrago and David Gaudu have big question marks, but are the kind of explosive riders who could be there too in contention.

In the middle we've got Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda, Javier Romo, Mikel Landa, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Jai Hindley, Giulio Pellizzari, Egan Bernal, Felix Gall, Léo Bisiaux, Antonio Tiberi and Guillaume Martin as men who should be present, but how far can they actually go?

Can the sprinters or classics riders survive - There is a very big question regarding Mads Pedersen and whether he can survive this climb. The safest bet is he can survive but likely the final 1.5 kilometers will be too hard for him and he will crack, if the pace is very high - which it should. But then you look at performances such as his entire Paris-Nice where he was literally climbing with the best (the rain absolutely helped) and you wonder if he can actually hang on and then sprint to the line. After his Tour of Denmark, we know his form is right up there...

Tom Pidcock though comes as a more safe bet, and I believe he will be riding very strongly, with proper preparation this time around. He is the only world-class puncheur at the startline and he could take advantage of the absence of the 'aliens' who usually win on every terrain. Finn Fisher-Black, William Lecerf Junior and Sergio Higuita are men with the explosivity and climbing ability to also be able to contest a win here in ideal circumstances.

*** Tom Pidcock, Giulio Ciccone
** Jonas Vingegaard, Juan Ayuso, João Almeida
* Matteo Jorgenson, Axel Zingle, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Giulio Pellizzari, Egan Bernal, Felix Gall, Antonio Tiberi, Santiago Buitrago, Victor Langellotti, William Junior Lecerf, Mads Pedersen

Pick: Tom Pidcock

How: Reduced group sprint.