No disrespect intended to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and the other GC contenders in the 2025 Vuelta a España, but during its three tumultuous weeks in Spain this autumn, there were many points when their battle for victory felt like the least of anybody’s concerns. Whether the Vuelta could actually continue to be held was a rather more pressing matter.
In fact, as pro-Palestine demonstrations mushroomed from the relatively tiny kernel of half a dozen people running onto the road in front of Israel-Premier Tech during the stage 5 team time trial to Figueres to the 100,000 protesters demanding the squad’s exclusion in the final stage, more often than not, nobody could be sure of what would happen in the next hours, let alone days. While the organisers insisted ‘there is no Plan B’ to finishing in Madrid, with constant stage route alterations to dodge or limit the impact of the protests and ‘Will the Vuelta continue?’ headlines repeatedly appearing in the media, Plans C, D, E and F were very much in demand throughout.
Furthermore, given the tension and risks to their own safety, throughout the second and third weeks the riders themselves – logically – threatened to stop racing if they could not be sure of some degree of normality. Then, as reporters stood watching policemen firing off rubber bullets and thousands of protesters ripping up barriers and taking invading the finish line – as happened on stage 21 – the competitive side of the Vuelta didn’t exactly feel surplus to requirements. Rather, it was simply eclipsed by something much, much bigger.
In fact, there were only a couple of points – at the summit of the Angliru on stage 13 and again after the second time trial in Valladolid on stage 18 – that it seemed Almeida might, just, manage to put in a serious challenge to Vingegaard’s superiority. As for Pidcock, his best chance to impact, as he forcefully pointed out in the last press conference of the race, fell foul of the Bilbao protests. Meanwhile, just as when the…
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