The 2025 Vuelta a España may have come to an unceremonious halt with a little under 60km of the stage to go on Sunday, while the official podium ceremony also fell victim to the chaos around the race finish in Madrid, but there was no missing out on the hard-earned celebrations at the end of a gruelling three weeks of racing.
To make sure the evening kicked off in the right way – with colourful jerseys awarded atop podium steps and ample quantities of sparkling wine to spray – what appeared to be a parking lot was quickly transformed. A makeshift backdrop hung haphazardly as race winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) stood in his red jersey with the trophy proudly on display on top of a drink cooler with a number one scrawled on it in black marker. Runner-up Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and third-placed Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) took their places on the slightly smaller cool boxes alongside, with the British rider even squeezing a couple of curious pooches onto the makeshift step with him.
The improvised podium of ice chests – or what Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) may have well referred to as eskys when he climbed atop one to celebrate winning the climbers jersey – also welcomed the full spectrum of classification winners, including youth category victor Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in green along with the polka-dot jersey clad Vine.
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The usual formal ceremony may have been replaced with a cobbled-together podium that perhaps would have even the smallest grassroots race organisers hanging their heads in shame, but the images and videos shared liberally on social media by Visma-Lease a Bike revealed an atmosphere that belied the surroundings.
"This is why we love cycling," said Visma-Lease a Bike on one of the posts. "An intimate, well-deserved ceremony for all the winners of this Vuelta a España!
The smiles were wide and the celebrations uninhibited, with the post-race party – otherwise known at stage 22 – seemingly perfectly at home kicking off in a car park. In fact, such was the atmosphere conveyed by the snippets of the impromptu ceremony that it seems the key protagonists in the 2025 Vuelta a España may have just had one of the most memorable podium celebrations in the history of the race.
