La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2025 Stage 20

September 13, 2025 The final showdown of the Vuelta has arrived with the 20th stage which will push every rider to their limits. The race starts and finishes in the region of Madrid but the procession will have to wait until tomorrow. Leaving Robledo de Chavela, the riders set off for 165KM to Bola del Mundo with five categorized climbs in between which total over 4,100M of climbing. The first climb starts almost immediately from KM0, a third category 9KM climb at 4%. Another third category follows quickly after before the first big test of the day. With 112KM to go, the riders start the Alto del León, a 7KM climb at 7.3%. A relatively long flat section of nearly 30KM comes after as the route heads North through Ortigosa del Monte and Real Sitio de San Ildefonso and the base of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains. The 7KM, 7.5% Puerto de Navacerrada rises out of Real Sitio de San Ildefonso up to nearly 1,900M above sea level. A long descent through Cecedilla and Guadarrama places the riders at the base of the Puerto de Navacerrada again, but this time coming from the way they just descended with an extra 3KM of climbing all the way up to Bola del Mundo at 2,200M above sea level. In total, the final climb is 12.4KM at 8.6% with the last 3KM averaging over 12%. There will be no place to hide and it will be mano a mano among the GC favorites to see who comes out on top. The weather was perfect at the start which was very active when the flag dropped. Riders were spread in small groups everywhere by the top of the first climb. A large group of at least 35 riders got away on the descent and started the next climb with about 25 seconds advantage on the peloton which was settling under the pace of UAE-XRG. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe added a man to the chase and when the break reached the base of the Alto del León, their lead was 1 minute 40 seconds. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and UAE-XRG continued their chasing to the bottom of the Puerto de Navacerrada for the first time at 56KM to go, 90 seconds behind the break. Lidl-Trek had numbers in the break with their eye on Giulio Ciccone going for the stage win. They pushed as hard as they could manage on the Puerto de Navacerrada and cut the break down to 12 riders with 2KM still to climb. Julien Bernard and Carlos Verona did the bulk of the work but Juan Ayuso was driving the peloton behind and had the break at just 1 minute when they arrived at the top with 49KM to go. A group of five got away on the descent from the rest of the break away including Egan Bernal of Ineos, Jardi Van Der Lee of EF-Education EasyPost, Mikel Landa of Soudal Quickstep, Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, and Ciccone. UAE-XRG were still riding in the bunch and caught all but the five leaders who had retained their 1 minute gap with 24KM to go. On the loop back around to the bottom of the mountain, the leaders were splitting up. Ciccone was feeling good and attacked on the hills leading up to the Puerto de Navacerrada. With 19KM to go, a group of protesters came quickly on to the road right in front of the leaders. The riders were able to get through but the peloton were just 1 minute down the road and approaching quickly. When the bunch arrived, most were able to sneak around on a turning lane before re-entering the route but at least one rider at the back was caught up and subsequently dropped from the peloton. At the official start of the Puerto de Navacerrada at 12KM to go, Landa was 10 seconds ahead of Ciccone, Bernal, and Van Der Lee and still 1 minute ahead of the peloton. Landa and Ciccone joined up but Felix Großschartner and then Jay Vine were setting a hard pace which put Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R, Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike and fifth overall, Giuolio Pellizzari of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe out the back. Landa led Ciccone through the right turn at 3.3KM to go to head towards the top of the Bola del Mundo but the favorites group led by Vine were just 10 seconds behind. The catch was made 300M later and, as Vine pulled off, the road turned to concrete and the gradients tipped up to 18%. João Almeida went to the front to employ his tactic of trying to ride everyone off the wheel. Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe went to the front with 2.3KM to go to put pressure on Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 in a bid to take third overall for himself. Little gaps would form but Hindley, Vingegaard, Almeida, Pidcock, and Sepp Kuss were locked together. Vingegaard made an acceleration with 1,200M to go and forced open the first gap between he and Almeida for over a week. Vingegaard took a deep breath with 250M to go before the last ramp to the line but the victory was his. He gave a yell with what little oxygen was left in his lungs and had to be pushed by a team soigneur to keep from falling over. Kuss took second on the stage, 11 seconds down on his teammate with Hindley taking third, crossing the line 2 seconds later. Pidcock and Almeida finished within 25 seconds of Vingegaard as did Matthew Riccitello of Israel-Premier Tech who fought the whole way up the climb and caught on to the favorites in the last 500M. Riccitello's ride moved him ahead of Pellizzari in GC, placing the American fifth overall and also the owner of the Best Young Rider's White Leader's jersey. Vingegaard sealed the overall victory over Almeida and Pidcock to make it two of three Grand Tours won in 2025 by Visma-Lease a Bike.