As expected, red jersey Jonas Vingegaard and João Almeida crossed swords on Friday’s punishing Angliru stage of the 80th Vuelta a España, with Almeida the stronger of the two, leading all the way and finishing it off with style. Almeida is the first Portuguese to win on the Angliru. It was his first Vuelta individual stage triumph, his second Grand Tour victory, and his team’s sixth win of the 2025 edition.
The Course
The dreaded Angliru is an Asturian beast that’s 12.4 km of 9.8 percent, a real leg breaker. Two Cat. 1’s of over 8 percent, Alto La Mozqueta and Alto del Cordal, were also in the final third of 202 km.
The last time the Vuelta ended on the Angliru in 2023, Primož Roglič beat his teammates Vingegaard and red jersey Sepp Kuss.
Canada’s Nick Zukowsky was among the 25 cats who formed the day’s breakaway, the breakaway keeping them within 3:30, the gap when the Alto La Mozqueta kicked up.
Naturally, the fugitive group went to pieces on the 8.2 percent Mozqueta, Alexandre Vinokurov’s kid Nicolas leading six fellows over the top. At the approach to Alto del Cordal’s slopes, Vinokurov, and three others had a useful advantage over their breakmates, and the peloton was still almost four minutes back. First Visma and then UAE-Emirates thinned out the peloton’s numbers. Vino Jr. again nabbed the maximum KOM points.
The descent of the Cordal led directly to the gates of the Angliru. Right at the base, Vinokourov, Jefferson Cepeda and Bob Jungels were stopped by yet another protest.
The escapees’ lead disappeared. UAE dropped 12th-place Egan Bernal and 13th Junior Lecerf, who had Mikel Landa bring him back to the field after a crash. Former red jersey Torstein Træen fell away as well. Tom Pidcock was a surprising victim of the pace.
Vingegaard only had Almeida, Sepp Kuss and Jai Hindley for company with 6 km to go. They sopped up Jungels, the last breakaway standing. Almeida set the pace, and with 4.5 km to climb only the red jersey could follow.
The lead duo crawled through a 20 percent corridor of noise, Kuss and Hindley still in dogged pursuit. Almeida accelerated just before the red kite. Vingegaard couldn’t come around the Portuguese.
Third place…
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