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Details: August 30, 2025
The GC riders get a day off because this one is for the pure sprinters. Stage 8 is a relatively short day at 163KM from the Monzón Templario which was the headquarters of the Knights of Templar in the 11th Century, to Zaragoza, a more modern place but with significant architectural and artistic history of its own. After leaving Monzón, the race generally heads West on wide roads with almost no difficulties along the way. The intermediate sprint in Peñaflor de Gallego with 42KM to go should wake up the peloton and get the sprint teams ready for the finale. The riders pass through the finish line with 23KM to go for one lap through the streets of Zaragoza. The final 3KM are simple with a gentle left turn to take the riders along the banks of the Ebro River then another sweeping left through the wrong side of a roundabout at 1KM to go. The final kilometer is very slightly uphill so hitting the front at the right moment will count for a lot.
Most knew the likely outcome of today's race so only three riders were interested in the break. Joan Bou of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, José Luis Faura of Burgos-Burpellet BH, and the hometown hero Sergio Samitier of Cofidis who was raised in Barbastro where the route passed through after just 11KM of racing, made the break away. With 125KM to go, they had 3 minutes 30 seconds on the peloton being led by Alpecin-Deceuninck and Israel-Premier Tech. The three leaders continued through the brown, rolling landscape into Huesca with 100KM to go with all of their lead maintained.
The chase slowly wound in the break until 43KM to go when Lidl-Trek accelerated to snag the last remaining points at the intermediate sprint in Peñaflor de Gallego. Mads Pedersen won the sprint from the peloton with Ethan Vernon and Jake Stewart of Israel-Premier Tech following behind. With the increased speed, the gap came down to 1 minute 40 seconds but there was no resetting of the pace because Alpecin-Deceuninck picked up where they left off and continued riding. The break entered Zaragoza and crossed the Ebro River into the city center with a reduced lead of just 40 seconds.
Most of the circuit was on wide highway roads with more than enough room to move up which made it next to impossible to hold position. The break was caught with 17KM to go as the GC trains had the dominant positions at the front. Visma-Lease a Bike commanded the left side of the road through all of the turns of the circuit until 5KM to go when they finally started to filter back through the bunch to allow the sprint teams to start their lead outs. Lotto took up the left side of the road with Alpecin-Deceuninck and Intermarché-Wanty also very well position with numbers at the front.
Lotto did a phenomenal job and inside 1KM, they had two men in front of Elia Viviani. From 500M to 200M, sprinters were darting around trying to find an open lane to sprint from. It was Viviani who opened the sprint first from the center of the road at just 125M to go. He had Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck on his wheel and the Italian could feel the speed coming from behind. He moved from the center all the way over to his left but Philipsen snuck through and pipped Viviani on the line to take the win with Ethan Vernon coming across in third. The race jury made the decision that the move from Viviani was too severe and he was relegated from second place to last man in the group. Vernon was awarded second place which moved Arne Marit of Intermarché-Wanty into third.
Tags: La Vuelta Ciclista a España, 2025, September, Stage 8, La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2025, Monzón Templario, Zaragoza, Joan Bou, José Luis Faura, Sergio Samitier, Ethan Vernon, Elia Viviani, Jasper Philipsen, Arne Marit