Why Vuelta might be more competitive than the Tour

The Tour of Spain: never likely to have quite the same brand impact as the Tour de France.

But while the youngest three-week race of the Grand Tour trio is often the most overlooked, the Vuelta a Espana might just be the most competitive and entertaining of the year.

Why? Put simply, Tadej Pogacar is just too good these days. He has won the past two Tours de France by a combined 10 minutes.

But Pogacar is not riding the Vuelta, as he focuses attention on September’s World Championships.

And while the 26-year-old Slovenian is away training in a jersey which specifically asks people not to stop him or take photographs, the rest of the peloton are seeking glory.

“I’m looking forward to this Tour of Spain”, said 28-year-old Jonas Vingegaard – the favourite given he is the only rider to have beaten Pogacar at the Tour de France, taking titles in 2022 and 2023.

Things have changed, and this summer’s Grande Boucle – the ‘ great loop ‘ around France – proved it.

Vingegaard’s lung injuries from a harrowing crash last year possibly still linger, meaning there’s pressure on the Dane to win something and uphold his status as being the only rider anywhere near Pogacar’s level.

Britain’s great hope Tom Pidcock has impressed at his new Q36.5 team this season, winning the Saudi Tour, becoming a European mountain bike champion and showing strongly in the Giro d’Italia and Arctic Race of Norway.

He has not scored wins on Alpe d’Huez level, as he did at the Tour de France in 2022 for Ineos Grenadiers, and many see this race in Spain as his big chance to make a serious impact in the overall general classification.

The 26-year-old has talked in the past about believing he has the physiology to win over three weeks – a quality most riders don’t have.

“There are plenty of stages with profiles that could suit a rider like me, and there’s even a stage in Andorra, quite close to where I live”, said Pidcock before this race.

“We learned from the Giro]d’Italia] and had more time for thorough preparation this time, with an altitude camp and the Arctic Race of Norway. I’m curious to see what I can do in the general classification”.

But winning one or more of the Vuelta stages will be impactful in itself, as his team seemingly sign rider after rider during cycling’s ‘ transfer window ‘ to help support their overall leader.

So what of the route on this famously golden, late-summer jaunt?

First of all, the 2025 race actually begins in Italy’s Piedmont region, where there are enough hills for the classics specialists to entertain across the early stages.

But with 10 summit finishes and several of them in the Spanish Pyrenees and the Cantabrian and Basque mountains, and the Central System near to Madrid, there is a lot for the climbers to enjoy and slim pickings for the sprinters, who excel on the flat roads.

By stage five, the hunt for the red jersey will be getting serious with the race’s one individual time trial. There is a team time trial to mix things up later on too, but it is the mountainous tests, such as the climbs up to the Alto de Angliru and the penultimate stage slugfest on the Bola del Mundo, which will probably bring the most drama.