Not even a heavy crash with 30 kilometres to go on stage 2 of the Vuelta a España could prevent Jonas Vingegaard from fulfilling his role as overall favourite, with the Danish racer not even waiting until the Vuelta returned to Spain on Tuesday to claim the overall lead.
Vingegaard's searing late acceleration past local favourite Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) at the mist-enshrouded summit of Limone Piemonte was a narrow win, by less than half a tyre’s width. But given the weight of expectations on his shoulders, as well as his bad crash, it was a hugely impressive victory.
In one fell swoop, Vingegaard has delivered an early blow that nets him his third Vuelta stage win and first-ever lead. Rather, just like when Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) conquered the maglia rosa on stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia in 2024 in the not-so-distant - geographically speaking - summit finish of Oropa. The Dane has also sent a clear message to his rivals that he wants to control the Vuelta from the word go.
He certainly has less of an advantage than Pogačar after Oropa in May 2024, when the Slovenian's solo to the finish meant he was already 45 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Overall, Vingegaard's lead is only a scant four seconds on Ciccone, and a further 23 riders are within 25 seconds or less.
However, the way Visma raced up the final climb, with Sepp Kuss, Victor Campenaerts, and Wilco Kelderman all working hard for him, was already a major statement of intent. After Vingegaard's victory, the team time trial on stage 5 should also play into his hands, and there can be no doubt, now that from here to Madrid, the Visma racer will be the rider to beat.
"It wasn't particularly that I wanted to make a statement; it's more than when a stage victory is up for grabs, you're not going to leave it there, you don't let it go by," Vingegaard insisted afterwards in a brief press conference.
"So of course I wanted to win a stage where possible and I'm super happy with how I felt."
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His injuries from the mass pile-up involving four Visma riders, he said, were thankfully only minor, given it had been a high-speed crash, with the wet road ensuring that his fall left him with just a few scrapes.
"At the first moment you feel a bit sore, and when I came back on the bike I felt the knee [hurting] a little bit, but after that I felt better and better," he reported.
"I don't have any major problems, just some minor scratches and stuff."
Further evidence of his good condition could be seen in the way Visma laid down a blistering pace on the lower slopes of the climb. Lidl-Trek were able to match them in the last two kilometres, but Vingegaard was always well-positioned in the much narrower, steeper finale, ready to pounce.
It was a photo finish for the stage but Vingegaard knew he had it (Image credit: Getty Images)
"The final was actually pretty hard, the pace was really high on the climb, you can draft a lot on this particular climb, because it was a bit more shallow," Vingegaard recounted.
"But then in the last 200 metres, Giulio attacked and to be honest, with 100 metres to go, I felt I couldn't pass him. Then after the last corner, I realised it was longer to the finish than I thought, but then I could just get past."
It's been over a year since Vingegaard last took a victory in a Grand Tour, at Le Lioran in the Tour de France, and just slightly less since he last won at the WorldTour level in the 2024 Tour de Pologne. Despite being unable to get the better of Pogačar in the Tour de France, barring one summit finish in the third week, Vingegaard said there was no question that the Vuelta stage win was one he needed on a personal level.
"I wouldn't say so, of course, after the Tour I was really motivated for this race, to show up here in as good a shape as possible, but I wouldn't say I really needed this victory," he said about his first victory since the Volta ao Algarve in February.
"If that was the case, I would have pulled the whole day with the team, and we decided not to pull, because as I said previously, we're going to choose our fights, and today we didn't want to spend too much energy."
However Vingegaard chooses to look at it, from his rivals' perspectives, taking a triumph so early in the race is very much a confirmation of his status as a key reference point.
The red jersey is in the power of the top favourite already, and the next question will be whether the Dane is prepared to relinquish it to a non-contender in order to save his team's energy in the three weeks still to come.
"Obviously, it's still too long to Madrid, so we'll take it day by day," Vingegaard said, "and then we'll see later on if we want to give away the jersey in a good way." But for now, in any case, in the 2025 Vuelta GC battle, the momentum is already going exactly the way he wants.
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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