La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2025 Stage 19

September 12, 2025 Mads Pedersen was the only sprinter to survive on Stage 15 and capitalized on that with a stage win. More, if not all, of the sprinters will be there at the finish today in what is the penultimate opportunity for a bunch finish. Starting in Rueda, home of the DOP wine denomination of the same name, the race course runs South to Salamanca for the intermediate sprint with 103KM covered of the 162KM in total. Through Salamanca, the riders continue South on wide highways to the finish town of Guijuelo but they will do a 5KM fish hook bend back to the North to finish just outside of central Guijuelo. The finale isn't completely straightforward however. There is a 2KM descent that takes the riders to 5KM to go before the last 2.3KM that drag uphill at an average of 3%. The fight for the break was far less interesting than it has been in previous days. Jakub Otruba of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA was the first attacker and he was initially joined by Victor Guernalec of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Guernalec decided it wasn't for him to slog through the head wind all day and he left Otruba to plow his lonely furrow across the exposed plains of Castile and León. With 122KM to go, Otruba had 4 minutes on the peloton but the average speed was just 36KM/HR and the bunch had plenty of firepower sitting patiently for later in the stage. Whether it was mental fatigue or desperation from being out alone for so long, we may never know, but Otruba went into a banned position with his rear end in the air and his upper body over the bars on one of the short downhills. Fortunately for Otruba, he was just given a yellow card but he could easily have been removed from the race for his infraction. Lotto and Alpecin-Deceuninck had been setting the pace in the bunch but with 85KM to go, Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE-XRG pushed forward to be present in case the wind was to become a factor. On the approach to Salamanca and the intermediate sprint, Visma-Lease a Bike were massed at the front which allowed Jonas Vingegaard to pop out and take 4 bonus seconds after Otruba went through first. UAE-XRG were caught napping and missed the opportunity at least to put a quicker rider up front to nullify the bonus but instead, Vingegaard moved 4 seconds further ahead of João Almeida on GC. The bunch woke up from their slumber with 54KM to go as Ineos accelerated out of Salamanca on wide open roads. The wind was blowing at 15KM/HR but it was enough to entice Lidl-Trek to get involved as well. Otruba was caught in the flurry of motion but ultimately the wind was not strong enough and the bunch calmed down with 49KM to go. With the peloton meandering along, Sergio Geovani Chumil and Mario Aparicio of Burgos-Burpellet BH decided to roll the dice and attack together with 41KM to go. There was no reaction from the bunch. With 35KM to go, Alpecin-Deceuninck had five riders at the front and decided to hit the gas. Vingegaard was with them and the group got a gap. UAE-XRG responded after a moment and dragged it back together but for the second time today, UAE-XRG were inattentive. The speed stayed rapid and Chumil and Aparicio were brought back into the peloton. Ineos took control with 8KM to go on the approach to the short descent coming into Guijuelo. They stretched the bunch out in single file but with limited resources, Movistar was able to take the lead to position themselves for Orluis Aular. When the road started to gently rise, the bunch slowed which allowed more teams to come to the front. Ineos hit the front again with 2KM to go but Lidl-Trek, Israel-Premier Tech, and XDS-Astana were sitting just behind. Filippo Ganna of Ineos did a long, hard pull for Ben Turner but had to cede the front with 600M to go to Alpecin-Deceuninck who arrived with multiple men in front of Jasper Philipsen. The timing from Alpecin-Deceuninck was sublime. They dropped Philipsen off with 150M to go and a head start of a few bike lengths on everyone else. Philipsen carried his momentum home to take his third stage win of the race. Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek used his brute strength to take second place with Aular just behind in third.