Two Grand Tours have been raced by the men’s peloton so far in 2025, and at both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, it was the same two teams who fought for the top spot – Visma Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates.
Visma’s Simon Yates snatched the pink jersey from Isaac del Toro to win Italy with a stunning performance to Sestrière on the penultimate stage, while UAE’s Tadej Pogačar defeated Jonas Vingegaard for a second year in a row at cycling’s most prestigious race in July.
With the third Grand Tour kicking off this Saturday, August 23, in Turin, Italy, the Vuelta a España looks set to be another UAE vs Visma battle and decider for Grand Tour supremacy in 2025.
The men in yellow and black will have the overall favourite – Vingegaard – who is looking to better his runner-up finish at the Tour, while the Emirati outfit brings two of their top GC stars to try and capture the red jersey – João Almeida and Juan Ayuso.
Key to surviving the 21 stages and fighting out the key mountain stages will be their respective support squads. Both sides, thanks to their wealth of budget and talents, will start the Vuelta with impressive rosters, but whose is actually stronger – both in theory and on current form?
Jonas Vingegaard vs João Almeida
The first matchup is contentious before you even pit Vingegaard against Almeida, because it could easily be Ayuso in UAE’s top slot – that hierarchy has yet to be decided – but based purely on their results in 2025, we have compared Almeida to Vingegaard.
On paper, this obviously runs easily in the Dane’s favour, as a two-time Tour de France…
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