The challenging first week of the 2025 Vuelta a España continued on Friday, and the result was similar to Wednesday and Thursday’s–UAE-Emirates with the victory. Juan Ayuso turned his disappointing Vuelta around with the second consecutive breakaway win from a UAE rider. Norway’s Torstein Træen retained the red jersey.
The Course
Friday’s summit finish, Cerler (12.1 km at 5.9 percent), was comparable to Thursday’s Pal. Three other Cat. 2 and 1 one climbs made it another good day for the KOM competition, which Jay Vine claimed by winning Stage 6.
How long could Bahrain-Victorious’s Norwegian Torstein Træen hold on to the red jersey? Vingegaard and Almeida were +2:33 and +2:41 of Træen respectively and Bruno Armirail was half a minute back.
Again, Jay Vine was among the breakaway riders. The Vine dozen also contained teammate Ayuso, 43rd place on GC, trying to salvage something from what has started as another disappointing Grand Tour. Ayuso took 10 points atop Cat. 1 Port del Cantó. On Cat. 2 Puerto de la Creu de Perves, Vine was first to the top. The peloton was 3:45 behind with 78 km to go.
On the day’s second Cat. 2, Coll de l’Espina, Vine made a thrust inside the final kilometre to add to his KOM lead. The Australian was last year’s polka dot jersey winner.
Before Ayuso, Vine and the other fugitives climbed 12-km Cerler, they faced a 14-km uphill drag, their gap 3:30 at the start of this final leg. Træen’s Bahrain-Victorious couldn’t make a dent in the break’s advantage. Green-jersey Mads Pedersen nipped out of the formation to claim the day’s intermediate sprint.
Vine pulled when the road kicked up, popping riders before Ayuso attacked, Marco Frigo finding his rear wheel. In the peloton, Visma revved up the pace. Ayuso shook off Frigo with 10 km to climb.
Marc Soler went to the front of the 15-strong red jersey group to wind it up for Almeida. The Portuguese accelerated to pare it down to Vingegaard, Giulio Ciccone, Egan Bernal and 2023 winner Sepp Kuss for a kilometre until it reformed. Soler was the only one to attack after that.
The sprinters will appreciate Saturday’s course. There’s not a categorized climb in the 163.5 km.
2025 Vuelta a España Stage 7
1) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) 4:49:41
2) Marco Frigo (Italy/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:14
3) Raúl…
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