Punchy Tom Pidcock wins stage 2 of the 2025 Vuelta a Andalucia as Pavel Sivakov moves into overall race lead

The GC at the 2025 Vuelta a Andalucia has been completely re-written on stage 2! With overnight leader Maxim van Gils distanced, Pavel Sivakov moved into the race lead as Tom Pidcock punched his way to the stage win ahead of former INEOS Grenadiers teammate Brandon Rivera.

Seven riders got themselves up the road to form the day's break. There were some notable names among them too including Enric Mas (Movistar Team), Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers), Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Waley Berhe (Team Jayco AlUla), Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Adne Holter (Uno-X Mobility).

On the final ascent of the Alto de los Villares though, the race exploded again as UAE Team Emirates - XRG went on the attack, helping turn the lead group in a 15-rider bunch. Although Tim Wellens and Pavel Sivakov (2nd & 3rd on GC) were in the lead group for UAE, race leader Maxim van Gils was a notable absentee, with the Belgian left to chase with Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team leader Tom Pidcock. At 50km to go though, to gap between the leaders on the road and Van Gils was already 48 seconds.

As Sivakov continued to put the hammer down, it was suddenly a battle of three-man groups as Sivakov, Clement Berthet and Brandon Rivera looked to hold off the chasing trio of Pidcock, Van Gils and Mas. By the summit of the climb, the leading trio still held a narrow lead of around 15 seconds. Although Pidcock and Mas managed to bridge that gap on the descent, Van Gils was unable, and on the flat afterwards, the gap really began to grow to the race leader.

As the leading quintet continued to only extend their advantage, Van Gils was soon swept up by the next group on the road, leaving the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe leader 1:48 off the front heading into the final 20km. With 10km to go, the timegap was largely the same, meaning the stage win was all but certainly heading to the front 5, as was the leader's jersey. Given the finale was an uphill, punchy one though, Sivakov was far from guaranteed to be the man to take that race lead.

As the road began to rise towards the line, Enric Mas was the first to launch a testing attack, but the Spaniard couldn't make any real differences. As the leaders started to play cat-and-mouse though, the gap was dropping quickly to the Van Gils group. The five entered the finale together though, and in the sprint it was Pidock that took the victory ahead of former INEOS teammate Rivera.