La Vuelta a España kicks off in less than a week: on Saturday, August 23, the first stage will begin in Turin, as part of a four-day route in Italy (in total, La Vuelta 2025 will span four countries: Spain, Italy, France, and Andorra). It will then continue across the north of the country, ending as usual in Madrid on September 14.
Tadej Pogacar, four-time Tour de France champion, including this summer, confirmed he will miss the Spanish Tour this year. This cycling competition has usually been dominated by Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič from Red Bull Bora, winner in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2024, will also miss this year. Same thing with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe rider Remco Evenepoel, absent from the German team, which means that the Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard stands as favourite. He was 4 and a half minutes behind Pogacar at the Tour, but still was over five minutes better than anyone else, and he is happy that he is still improving.
This morning, his team, Visma | Lease a Bike, announced the full line up for this year's edition of La Vuelta. Alongside Vingegaard, he will be joined by Belgian rider Victor Campenaerts, American riders Matteo Jorgensen and Sepp Kuss, Dutch riders Wilco Kelderman and Dylan Van Baarle, British rider Ben Tulett, and rider French Axel Zingle.
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Team principal Grischa Niermann said that "Vingegaard is our leader and our best chance of taking the general classification", but they have a team that can support Jonas in any situation. "I'm here for the general classification, and with the support of this team, it seems a realistic goal", said the Dane (via Eurosport), whose best position in this race was second, with two stage wins, in 2023, when his teammate Sepp Kuss won.