PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Vuelta a España 2025 stage 21 - Can Jasper Philipsen make it 4 in Madrid?

We preview stage 21 of the Vuelta a Espana, the final day of the race which will take place on the 14th of September. If the race goes through all the way to Madrid, it will be a finale for the sprinters. The stage is expected to start at 16:40CET and finish at 19:20CET.

The race, as usual, ends in Madrid with a flat day that will give the sprinters a final chance to hunt for a Grand Tour victory in 2025. Simple day with just over 100 kilometers to race and a final circuit in the nation's capital.

We don't really have meaningful gradients to take note of, and we've got a final roundabout that will be tackled just outside the final kilometer. It's a finale for the pure sprinters and a chance for some to save their race.

Back to 30 degrees temperatures but this won't be much of a bother at that time of the afternoon, and the riders won't mind as it will be their final race day for a while.

Jasper Philipsen - The man to beat. It's actually funny because Philipsen arrives at the end of the Vuelta and I still can't tell whether he's got his best form or not. He has taken three wins, but as he said after winning stage 19, he hadn't had a proper effort for 11 stages. He represents a few riders that have just been on the back of the Vuelta for a long time off screen and off action. But in any way, despite modest his Alpecin leadout looks to be the best in the race and in a flat sprint form won't matter much - he proved this in the first week - and he is the undoubted favourite to win the stage.

The 3 rivals - Then you've got Mads Pedersen, winner of the green jersey who won't take extreme risks but could go with a win to end the race, although the flat sprints aren't his specialty; Ethan Vernon who was second on the first day of the race and Orluis Aular who consistently showed good form and has handled well all kinds of sprints.

Besides these four men above we will have Elia Viviani leading Lotto, someone who had a perfect leadout on stage 8 and also had a very decent sprint. The Italian can absolutely still perform I would say. INEOS don't have the best team for a flat sprint but Ben Turner can try something, as can Filippo Ganna to be honest.

Bryan Coquard, Stanislaw Aniolkowski, Jenthe Biermans, Madis Mihkels, Thibaud Gruel, Ivo Oliveira and a few other riders are likely to try and be there in the mix, although it's unlikely that any of them will reach a top result.

*** Jasper Philipsen
** Mads Pedersen, Orluis Aular
* Ethan Vernon, Elia Viviani, Arne Marit, Ben Turner, Bryan Coquard, Stanislaw Aniolkowski, Jenthe Biermans

Pick: Jasper Philipsen

How: Regular bunch sprint.