Peter Cossins

Jonas Vingegaard was the popular pick as favorite coming into the 2025 Vuelta a España, and in that respect the Dane’s victory in the 80^th edition of Spain’s Grand Tour, his first at the race, is no surprise.

However, the fact that the Visma-Lease a Bike leader confirmed that status shouldn’t detract from the significance of his victory, which has not only ended a Grand Tour drought extending back to his second successive Tour de France victory in 2023, but has also come after Vingegaard fought back from career-threatening injuries sustained at the Itzulia Basque Country in April 2024.

In the immediate aftermath of his victory at the Bola del Mundo summit on Saturday, his third win of the race, Vingegaard was all smiles as he reflected on that triumph, which all but sealed overall victory.

“It means a lot to me. It’s my first Vuelta win and my first Grand Tour win for two years, and to come back from everything that has happened in the last two years is really nice for me. It’s nice that I can show that I can still reach a really high level,” he said.

Like any Grand Tour success, victory didn’t come easily for Vingegaard. He was up against a very competitve rival in João Almeida, who was backed by a super-strong UAE Team Emirates-XRG line-up. The Dane was dogged by illness too.

At Bola del Mundo, he admitted that he’d first started to get ill on the first rest day following his second stage win of the race at the Valdezcaray ski station. He explained that he’d had a sore throat and runny nose until the Bola del Mundo stage, when he felt his health and level improved again.

Like every other member of the Vuelta peloton, he also had to deal with the effect the pro-Palestinian protests had on the race. The unpredictability generated by these demonstrations, which had riders fearing for their safety, undermined tactical planning as well as the racing. Vingegaard, though, remained largely unruffled

“In the [Valladolid] time trial, I benefited from it being shortened, but in Bilbao I think I could have gained more seconds on my rivals,” he said.

Vingegaard paid fulsome tribute to his team after his Bola del Mundo win. That stage was only the latest to epitomize Visma-Lease a Bike’s all-round qualities. Although they raced for close to three weeks without Axel Zingle, who crashed out before the race even reached Spain, they were always there when Vingegaard needed them.

In the mountains, Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman have been as dependable as ever, Matteo Jorgenson has also ridden well, while Ben Tulett has impressed hugely in what was only his second Grand Tour appearance and his first for three seasons.

All four were with Vingegaard on the race’s final climb that rose to the top of the Navacerrada pass and onto Bola del Mundo. “We knew that UAE would go for it and they set a really strong pace all day but Jonas was really good on the last part of the course,” said Kuss. “We still had a lot of guys in that select group, so it was really nice for the whole team, everyone contributed so much.”

Visma DS Grischa Niermann was delighted with that performance too

“It was a fantastic ride by all the guys, and a great final mountain stage for us,” he said, adding that confidence in Vingegaard’s and the team’s form was so high that they were keen to ride aggressively rather than sit in and defend.

“We knew UAE would make the race hard to put pressure on Jonas. But the guys protected him well all day. We talked more about winning in red than defending the jersey. Jonas had the right legs, and everything went very well. He had to feel the moment. The most important thing was to follow Almeida, but when Hindley went and Jonas followed, we knew he would go for the win,” Niermann explained.

Niermann, though, offered perspective on the race as a whole.

“We have to be honest,” he said, “this wasn’t Jonas’s best performance ever. But he was still the best rider in the Vuelta. He won three stages and deserves the overall victory. We can take that to read that Vingegaard can and will be better going into 2026.”

But before looking too far ahead, let’s look back on what’s been quite a year for Visma-Lease a Bike. They dueled fiercely with UAE at all three Grand Tours, Visma’s Simon Yates getting the better of Isaac Del Toro at the Giro d’Italia, Tadej Pogačar striking back for the Emirati-backed team at the Tour, where Vingegaard was his runner-up for the third time, while Vingegaard has got the better of Almeida at the Vuelta.

“Richard Plugge told me that this is our ninth victory in a Grand Tour,” said Niermann of Visma’s team boss. “That’s a nice statistic. You always want to win the Tour – it’s the biggest race in the world. But if you win the Giro and the Vuelta, you can also be quite happy.”

After being below their best during the Grand Tours in 2024, Vingegaard and Visma have proved they’re back.