The 2025 Vuelta a Espana continued Sunday with stage 2 – a 159.5-kilometer stage in flat and climbing terrain on a route from Alba to Limone Piemonte in Italy. The Vuelta a Espana is the third and final Grand Tour of the season and pro cycling analysts expected stage 2 to be decided in a battle involving climbers and puncheurs.

The Lidl-Trek team was anticipating the stage and hoping Giulio Ciccone would be able to win on Italian home soil, unless Denmark’s Mads Pedersen proved able to keep up with the climbers on the Limone Piemonte climb to the finish line. UAE Team Emirates’ Joao Almeida and Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike might also choose to have skin in the game in today’s finale as could some of the Italian riders who wanted to show their presence while racing in their home country.

The start list of Vuelta a Espana 2025 featured significant riders such as Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Ben O’Connor (Jayco-Alula), Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Egan Bernal (Ineos-Grenadiers). Defending Vuelta a Espana champion Primoz Roglic was not taking part in this year’s Vuelta as he was engaged in a dispute against his Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe team, which had recently signed Remco Evenepoel.

The Vuelta a Espana started in Italy for the first time in the long and prominent history of the race. Stage 2 started in Alba, home of the Ferrero dynasty, which is known for products such as Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac. The stage would be contested in Piedmont - a region known for truffles, cars, hazelnuts, and not least famous vermouth spirits such as Cinzano, which was invented in the mid-1700s.

Stage 2 got off to a fast start after a neutralized phase. While it was left to the unknown if the cyclists had eaten delicious local truffles with fresh pasta the night before, four riders launched a powerful attack immediately after the start and animated the race action to great satisfaction of the many spectators who were celebrating the race along the route. Perhaps in celebration of Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen’s stage win in yesterday’s stage 1, Gal Glivar launched a fast acceleration effort and was joined by Nico Denz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jakub Ortruba (Caja Rural Seguros RGA), and Liam Slock of Team Lotto-Caps.

Sinuhe Fernandez launched a counterattack for his Burgos Burpellet BH team, but found it difficult to bridge the gap to the front quartet. Denz later chose to halt his breakaway efforts and fell back to the main peloton, while the front trio pressed on with a lead of 01:40 minutes over the main peloton, while Fernandez was struggling half a minute behind them.

Fernandez managed to join the front trio with 130 kilometers left of the stage and perhaps the front trio had waited for the Spanish rider. Team Q36.5 Pro Cycling was spearheading the chase effort in the main peloton while protecting the interests of their team leader Thomas Pidcock of Great Britain.

One hundred kilometers remained of stage 2 and the front quartet was approaching the intermediate sprint in Busca with a lead of approximately two minutes over the chasing peloton.

Slock proved the strongest rider in the intermediate sprint, though it was not fiercely contested. A spectator later lost control of a dog, but no crash occurred.

With 65 kilometers done and dusted in the saddle, the advantage of the breakaway quartet had been reduced to 01:30 minutes as multiple teams in the main peloton were interested in keeping the frontmen on a tight leash to be able to profit from the uphill stage finish.

When fifty kilometers of the stage remained, the front quartet had been granted a lead of approximately two minutes. The teams in the main peloton were slowly gearing up for the uphill finish on the category two climb. It had started raining, but this did not appear to discourage the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team frontmen in the main peloton.

Fernandez got dropped from the breakaway group and was now one minute between the frontmen and the main peloton while exposed to heavy rain, which was likely good for the hazelnut bushes and lemon trees in the Piedmont region, but not for the cyclists.

The wet and slippery roads caused multiple crashes in the race, including a major crash in the front part of the main peloton as it navigated through a roundabout. The crash brought down ten to fifteen riders, including Jonas Vingegaard, Magnus Sheffield, Thomas Pidcock and Victor Campenaerts. Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ) abandoned the race.

The confusion in the main peloton caused the advantage of the front trio to expand to 01:36 minutes with twenty-two kilometers remaining. The temperature had dropped to sixteen degrees Celsius.

The riders were approaching the climb to the finish line. Thirteen kilometers remained on the slippery roads, and the advantage of the front trio had dropped to one minute, while multiple teams in the main peloton had set up launch trains for their stage favorites. The speed was now aggressive, and Team Visma-Lease a Bike, Bahrain-Victorious, Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies and UAE Team Emirates were clearly visible.

Ten kilometers remained and the front trio was now only thirty-eight seconds ahead of the chasers. General classification leader Jasper Philipsen got dropped from the peloton early on the climb.

Liam Slock attacked from the breakaway trio for Team Lotto-Caps and hoped to be crowned most competitive rider in the stage. The other breakaway optimists got reeled in. Slock had also been caught with five kilometers remaining.

Four kilometers of the climb to the finish line remained and riders from Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies, Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates were spearheading the peloton. Michal Kwiatkowski and Wilco Kelderman were pulling. Jonas Vingegaard was in second position with a little more than three kilometers remaining. Mads Pedersen was pulling for Lidl-Trek teammate Giulio Ciccone.

Lidl-Trek riders were leading the peloton with a little more than one kilometer to the finish line in Limone Piemonte. Vingegaard was close behind with other Visma-Lease a Bike riders. Thomas Pidcock was also spotted as were Jay Hindley and Juan Ayuso.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe riders moved to the front with seven hundred meters to the finish line. Marc Soler attacked for UAE Team Emirates with 600 meters left, but he got reeled in.

Tom Pidcock launched an uphill sprint with Giulio Ciccone and Jonas Vingegaard.

Jonas Vingegaard proved the fastest and strongest rider on the day and is the winner of stage 2 of the 2025 Vuelta a Espana. Giulio Ciccone finished second for Lidl-Trek and the Italian rider failed to win on home tarmac. David Gaudu completed the stage podium for Groupama-FDJ, while Egan Bernal finished fourth for Ineos-Grenadiers-TotalEnergies, and Joao Almeida completed the top five for UAE Team Emirates. Felix Gall was sixth, Jai Hindley seventh, Juan Ayuso eighth, and Matteo Jorgenson ninth. Tom Pidcock was tenth.

“I am really happy with this stage victory. It means a lot to both me and my team. I went down pretty hard in the roundabout crash, but it appears I didn’t hurt myself so bad, because I slid thanks to the wet roads,” stage winner Jonas Vingegaard explained to Roadcycling.com before being celebrated on the stage podium.

Jonas Vingegaard is the new race leader and will wear the red leader jersey in tomorrow’s stage. Ciccone is second in the GC, while Gaudu is third, and Bernal fourth.

Monday’s stage 3 of Vuelta a Espana 2025 will be a short 134.6-kilometer stage in hilly terrain on a route from San Maurizio Canavese to Ceres. Expect the stage to be decided from a long breakaway or in a sprint effort.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Vuelta a Espana.