PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Vuelta a España 2025 stage 5 - Will Jonas Vingegaard get his red jersey back on the race's team time-trial?

Stage 5 of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana is going to be an interesting day, as we have the return of team time-trials to the Grand Tours. We preview the first stage where we should see meaningful GC differences, with a few teams having the upper hand in the 24-kilometer long effort.

After the first four days abroad between Italy and France, the Vuelta a España enters Spanish territory in the Catalan town of Figueres, where a 24 kilometer team time trial will take place, which is sure to generate important differences between the favorites in the general classification.

There isn't too much to analyze route wise as there are no climbs on the course, it will be very fast and the gaps will not be huge; but there are a few little technical sections where it's necessary to be cautious to avoid a day-ruining fall.

Small chances of rain could affect the outcome of the day, and it will be a cause for tension for many teams. The forecast points at a slight possibility, unlikely but not impossible.

Visma - The Dutch team on paper came in with a pretty much ideal team for this effort. Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson are GC men but with tremendous TT power; Victor Campenaerts and Dylan van Baarle are very strong in this type of rouleur effort, and the team just has a tremendous amount of money and focus poured into the discipline. But the loss of Axel Zingle, even if not their best weapon for this effort, can be very costly. They will have a good day in any scenario certainly, but taking the stage win or gaining time on UAE may be very difficult with 7 riders.

UAE - Of course UAE is the other team that just pours money into time-trialing and so natural selection will just push these two teams forward even if their names aren't the absolute best. But yes, UAE can aim for the stage win, maybe even the red jersey - João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Jay Vine and Mikkel Bjerg make for an astounding quartet to push this team into a possible victory, but several other riders within the lineup also have the capacity to roll at a very high speed and maintain it.

Groupama - FDJ will start with David Gaudu in the race lead but it will be lost, but I wouldn't say it will be too dramatic as with Stefan Küng and Rémi Cavagna in the lineup, there are two men who can actually drive forward the team to a solid team. But losing it is inevitable, further pushed by the fact that they have already lost Guillaume Martin.

INEOS Grenadiers could also have an interesting shot at the stage win on their best day as Filippo Ganna leads the team; riders like Magnus Sheffield, Ben Turner, Michal Kwiatkowski and Bob Jungels will be supporting Egan Bernal's GC ambitions. No other team will come close to being in contention for the stage win.

*** Team Visma | Lease a Bike, UAE Team Emirates - XRG
** INEOS Grenadiers
* Lidl-Trek, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, Team Jayco AlUla

Pick: Team Visma | Lease a Bike