A savage, relentless climbing pace by João Almeida all the way up the Angliru may not have been enough for the UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer to drop Vuelta a España leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on Spain's toughest single ascent. But Almeida's spectacular summit victory has certainly forced Vingegaard on the defensive, just when the Dane was expected to distance all his rivals and - at least for now - means the Vuelta's battle for GC supremacy is far from over.
On the sun-drenched summit of the Angliru, Almeida and his team were understandably delighted at their latest win of the 2025 Vuelta, their sixth and very arguably their most special to date. After all with two summit victories in this Vuelta alone, on the Angliru, a climb so steep it considerably favoured the lighter climbers, Vingegaard had been widely expected to take a giant leap towards overall victory.
But it didn't happen. Instead it was Almeida who made the running for the entire climb, Vingegaard who did not put in a single attack and Almeida who - albeit by just four seconds time bonus - managed to make a difference on GC.
Latest Videos From
Both the Dane and the Portuguese riders, number 1 and 2 overall, have managed to gain time on their closest rivals after their mountain top duel, with Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) the closest at the line at 28 seconds. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), after a day where he could not match the top two riders, is still third on GC, but by a considerably increased disadvantage of 2:18.
Almeida, on the other hand, remains at 46 seconds on Vingegaard, a gap that more than maintains his hopes of overall victory. With so much mountain climbing to come, starting on Saturday on the Farrapona, it also puts the Portuguese rider, presumably with hugely boosted motivation after the Angliru, in a pole position to try and oust the Dane from the top spot overall.
Is it more possible now for Almeida to win the Vuelta, the 27-year-old was asked, to which he did not hesitate before replying with a determined "Yes".
"We've done a good job, I'm very pleased with that and without a doubt this has been my best season ever so far. I've been working hard and consistently throughout, so I'm very pleased with that," he said.
"We have to keep our feet on the ground and see what we can do, though. There's still a lot of the Vuelta left to come."
Almeida said that he had been "more or less" expecting to be at around a minute behind Vingegaard at this point in the Vuelta, pointing out that throughout the year he has been very consistent. That is something of an understatement, given that in the 2025 season he has won Itzulia, the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse, and he would likely have been the top support rider for Tadej Pogačar in the Tour de France had he not crashed out in the first week.
On the Angliru, though, Almeida did something which up to now in 2025 only Pogačar in person has proved capable of managing to do: beating Vingegaard in the high mountains, albeit by the bare minimum.
"It's crazy, we had a plan in the bus, we really strongly believed Joao could beat Jonas," Felix Großchartner told Eurosport. "It's crazy that he did it, but he did a fantastic job.
"Our plan was to take control of the race two kilometres from the top on the second last climb [the Cordal] because the descent is complicated, then control the entrance to the Angliru as well.
"Jay [Vine] did an amazing pull, and it was nice see that there weren't so many guys left. It's the second time I've done the Angliru, and today I think it became a bit steeper!"
"The plan was everybody to work for João today," team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin confirmed. "We had Ivo [Oliveira] ahead, but it was always with the idea he'd drop back at some point to help him, which is what he did."
"Up to now we've been looking at breaks, but today everybody was working for the overall. And João definitely deserved the victory. He dominated the climb - and as for winning against Vingegaard, that's really impressive."
Almeida himself confirmed that his teammates had played an instrumental role in toughening up the build-up to the ascent, with Großschartner delivering a devastatingly long turn that left Pidcock up against the ropes.
But then it was Almeida who took over on the steepest part of the ascent, first leaving climbers of the calibre of Hindley and 2023 Vuelta a España winner Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and then keeping the pressure up on Vingegaard, no matter how steep the climb.
"My teammates were key today, and then I kept my pace from bottom as best I could," Almeida said. "Jonas was always on my wheel, and in the last kilometre I was on my limit, I guess we both were.
"I was waiting for his attack any time, I thought he would pass me at the finish line.
"But I knew it quite well from two years ago, I knew I had to take the last corner in first and then I would be harder to pass. So all in all, it was an amazing day."
As for what this proves in the bigger picture, Großchartner summed it up perfectly: "I think today Joao showed can also beat Jonas, so it's going to be an exciting last ten days in the Vuelta."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Vuelta a España coverage. Our team of journalists are on the ground from the Italian Gran Partida through to Madrid, bringing you breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage of the Grand Tour as it happens. Find out more.
