Vuelta a España 2025 stage 2 preview
August 24, 2025 Stage 2: Alba - Limone Piemonte 159.6km
- Start time: 13:35 CET
- Finish time: 17:21 CET
- How to watch stage 2 of the Vuelta a España
- Favourites to win the stage: João Almeida, Jonas Vingegaard, Junior Lecerf, Tom Pidcock, Santiago Buitrago
The first summit finish of the Vuelta a España comes early on stage 2 to Limone Piemonte. While not the hardest of the race's 10 summit finishes, it should be more than enough to unseat sprinter Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) from the race lead.
The stage begins in Alba for a second outing in Italy, and is fairly flat until the final climb.
Clocking in at just 159.6 kilometres, it's a relatively short stage and, with so many fresh legs in the peloton Limone Piemonte's relatively benign 5% average gradient over 10km might not be enough to put any of the Vuelta a Espana contenders into difficulty, especially in the absence of Tadej Pogačar.
However, the climb will be an opportunity to test the wits and fitness of some of the second-tier challengers.
Keep an eye on Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), who is the highest-placed of the declared contenders in the Vuelta current GC standings.
Climbs
- Limone Piemonte (cat. 2), km. 159.6
Sprints
- Busca, km. 68.4 - time bonus
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
As it happened: Powerful UAE Team Emirates take top 2 places on stage 2 of Tour Down Under
Peloton tackles 148.1km from Norwood to Uraidla -
Tour Down Under: Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narváez go 1-2 after powerful attack on Corkscrew climb on stage 2
Australian takes over race lead as Mauro Schmid sprints to third from chase group almost one minute back -
'There were a few things going on' - Ethan Hayter won five time trials in 2025 but a nutrition problem disrupted his road racing
British rider hoping to payback Soudal-QuickStep for support in weeklong stage races in 2026 -
'The wind was 89 kilometres per hour' - Wicked weather derails Brendan Johnston from fastest known time attempt on Perth to Sydney ride
After finishing FKT attempt, Australian withdraws from RADL GRVL to recover from injured ankle and sets sight on Unbound Gravel 200



