photo credits @ La Vuelta
Andorra, the fourth country visited in this year’s Vuelta a España, brought yet more changes to an already eventful race. A climbing festival en route to the Pal ski resort favoured the early attackers, with Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) soloing to a third stage win in the Spanish Grand Tour, adding to his earlier success in 2022. A resident of Andorra, he also claimed the polka-dot jersey as leader of the KOM standings, a competition he had already won in 2024. In his wake (+54’’), Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) takes La Roja. He is the third Norwegian to lead the Vuelta, after Thor Hushovd (3 days in 2006) and Odd Christian Eiking (7 days in 2021). Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl–Trek) and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) attacked on the final ascent, but they finished together, while Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dropped out of contention.
Race Highlights
The uphill start of the Coll de Sentigosa saw a breakaway group containing Vine, Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Louis Vervaeke, Giamnarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Archie Ryan, James Shaw (EF Education-EasYPost), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Træen and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) escape the peloton early on.
Behind the escapees, Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike drove the peloton. However, the breakaway group’s advantaged continued to increase, reaching a maximum gap of 6’30’’ as the race entered Andorra with 35 km to go.
From there, the group’s margin started to dwindle ahead of the Alto de La Comella, prompting Vine to attack before the summit, subsequently opening up a one minute lead along the descent.
The Australian rider never looked back from there, while Træen managed to drop his rivals and take La Roja ahead of Armirail.
Behind them, Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek upped the ante, dropping Ayuso with 6 kilometers to go.
But, inside the last 3 kilometers, the Italian rider attacked, a move that was quickly countered by Vingegaard and Almeida, to no avail as the main GC contenders finish together, 4’19’’ behind Vine.
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