2025 Vuelta a España route woos Tadej Pogačar with ascents of Angliru, Bola del Mundo and third-week ITT

The 2025 Vuelta a España route looks tailor-made for a possible participation of Tadej Pogačar with 10 summit finishes, an ascent of the mythical Angliru and a long, late individual time trial, all components that could attract the UAE Team Emirates champion.

Revealed on Thursday evening in Madrid's IFEMA trade and congress centre, the 2025 Vuelta a España also kicks off for the first time in Italy and - almost equally as unusual - features a team time trial midway through the first week.

But as so often happens with the Vuelta, the GC battle will begin in earnest once the race hits the high mountains. The overall contenders face crunch uphill challenges as soon as stage 6 to the category 1 finish at Pal in Andorra, although the race's emotional and climbing highpoint will doubtless come on stage 13, with the summit finish of the mythical Angliru.

Yet more historic elements feature in the 2025 route, like stage 18's individual time trial in Valladolid, a city steeped in Vuelta time trial history and with victories against the clock by champions of the calibre of Tony Rominger, Bernard Hinault and Raymond Poulidor. And the inclusion of another hugely emblematic summit finish, the Bola del Mundo, just 24 hours before the finish in Madrid, could also help Pogačar opt for the Vuelta a España over a return to the Giro d'Italia next season.

Striking a markedly international note for its 80th edition, the Vuelta visits a record-equalling four countries in 2025, getting underway in Turin, Italy on August 23, before going to France, Andorra and, of course, Spain. The Vuelta has not visited so many countries since 2009, when the race began in Assen, Holland, then briefly visited Germany on stage 3 and Belgium on stage 4 before returning to home soil.

Italy's opening series of four flat and hilly stages next August, though, will not likely produce major differences between the main contenders. And even after a transfer back through France, the flat 20-kilometre team time trial in Figueres on stage 5, while a firm fan favourite, will arguably not open up large GC gaps, either.

However, a first major summit finish at Pal in Andorra on stage 6, an even tougher Pyrenean stage to Cerler the following day, and another well-known Vuelta summit finish at Valdezcaray on stage 9 could well prove much more significant long term. Then the second week kicks off with a bang, too, with a return to Larra-Belagua in the Pyrenees, the scene of Remco Evenepoel's revenge victory in the 2023 Vuelta after his defeat on the Tourmalet just 24 hours earlier. 

Both the hilly stage 11 around Bilbao and the category 1 ascent late on the stage to Corrales de Buelna the following day, could see more GC action. But it is the Angliru, back on the menu for the third time in five years on stage 13, which will doubtless be the climbing star of the Vuelta show next summer.

First introduced in 1999, ever since then the 12.5 kilometre, narrow, poorly-surfaced and agonisingly steep ascent has produced some epic GC battles. For Pogačar, winning on the 10th ascent of the Vuelta's best-known and most daunting climb - and where his idol Alberto Contador brought down the curtain on his career with a stunning solo win in 2017 -  would surely represent yet another major high point in his already glittering palmares.

Rather than the Angliru providing a definitive GC hierarchy, though, there's plenty more in store in the Vuelta's last eight stages. Hard on the heels of the Angliru, the 2025 Vuelta peloton will ascend the nearby Alto de Farrapona on stage 14 - where Alberto Contador delivered yet another body blow to Chris Froome's hopes of victory in 2014. 

Albeit on radically different terrain, Valladolid's flat 26-kilometre time trial across the exposed plains of northern Spain on stage 18 will also give the GC leader another important setpiece opportunity to stretch out his overall advantage. 

Last but not least, the Bola del Mundo on stage 20, an ascent featuring ramps of up to 20% on cement trackways and peaking out at over 2,200 metres above sea level, will provide the last major, challenge for whoever is leading the Vuelta. 

The Vuelta then switches back to its roots again on stage 21, with a largely ceremonial ride through the streets of the capital city, likely culminating in a bunch sprint, and perhaps Pogačar first-ever overall victory in Spain's Grand Tour.

Stage 1: Torino to Reggia di Venaria - Novara, 183km

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Stage 2: Alba - Puerto Limone, 157km

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Stage 3: San Maurizio Canavese to Ceres - 139km

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Stage 4: Susa to Voiron - 192km

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Stage 5: Figueres to Figueres (TTT) - 20km

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Stage 6: Olot to Pal. Andorra - 171km

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Stage 7: Andorra la Vella.Andorra to Cerler.Huesca La Magia - 187km

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Stage 8: Monzón Templario to Zaragoza - 158km

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Stage 9: Alfaro to Estación de esquí de Valdezcaray - 195km

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Stage 10: Parque de la Naturaleza Sendaviva to El Ferial Larra Belagua - 168km

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Stage 11: Bilbao to Bilbao - 167km

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Stage 12: Laredo to Los Corrales de Buelna -143km

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Stage 13: Cabezón de la Sal to L'Angliru - 202km

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Stage 14: Avilés to Alto de La Farrapona. Lagos de Somiedo - 135km

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Stage 15: Veiga/Vegadeo to Monforte de Lemos

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Stage 16: Poio to Mos.Castro de Herville - 172km

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Stage 17: O Barco de Valdeorras to Alto de El Morredero.Ponferrada - 137km

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Stage 18: Valladolid to Valladolid (ITT) - 26km

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Stage 19: Rueda to Guijuelo - 159km

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Stage 20: Robledo de Chavela to Bola del Mundo. Puerto de Navacerrad - 159km

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Stage 21: Alalpardo to Madrid - 101km

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