La Vuelta a España stage 1 preview - Pedersen versus Philipsen for the maillot rojo?

For the second consecutive year, and sixth time in the race’s history, the Vuelta a España kicks off on foreign soil, and for the first time, in Italy.

The Piemonte region was part of the 2024 Tour de France Grand Départ, with Turin hosting the finish of stage 3, won by Biniam Girmay. The region starts the proceedings here in the Vuelta with a stage that looks set for a bunch sprint to decide the first red jersey of the race.

Key information:

• Start: 12:55 (CET)
• Estimated Finish: 17:20 (CET)
• Stage type: flat
• Stage length: 186.1km
• Elevation gain: 1,337m

Follow stage 1 live at Domestique with our live reporting!

The Venaria Royal Palace in Turin will host the start of the 2025 Vuelta a España, having kicked off the start of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, a stage won by Jhonatan Narváez, beating future teammate Tadej Pogačar. That was a punchy finale, but a different type of finish is expected here in the Vuelta.

There is one categorised climb on the menu, and it’s the third category, La Serra Desnivel. The climb is 6.4km in length with an average gradient of 5.3% and will serve as the setting for the first battle for mountain points. 

With this being the only categorised climb in the opening stage, whoever claims the maximum three points at the top will wear the blue and white polka-dot jersey on the podium at the end of the day. 

In terms of how this climb will influence the stage outcome, there shouldn’t be any problems for the sprinters, even if they are distanced on the slopes, because 115.6km of the stage remains at the point of the summit.

Shortly after the climb awaits the intermediate sprint, where the contenders for the points classification will have their first opportunity to get stuck into the action. 

The remainder of the stage is mainly flat, and the tension will build towards a likely bunch sprint,  something which hasn't happened at the Vuelta since 2007 when Italian sprinter Daniele Bennati got the better of Óscar Freire and Alessandro Petacchi to take the spoils - one of six Vuelta stage wins in the career of the Italian.

Key points

• La Serra Desnivel | 3rd category - 6.4km a 5.3% - 115.6km to go
• Intermediate sprint - 90.6km to go

With four grand tour stage wins already in 2025, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) stands out as one of the big favourites to take the red jersey on the opening stage. The Dane had a spell in the pink jersey in the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, also, and will be looking to replicate that performance by adding a red jersey to his collection.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) will also be one of the main favourites for the opening stage, having abandoned the Tour de France on stage 3. If Philipsen can get the job done, he will take his second Grand Tour leader's jersey of the season, having worn yellow at the Tour in July after his opening day success.

Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) has already won a Grand Tour bunch sprint in 2025, having sprinted to victory on stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia in May and will be looking to upset the applecart once more, whilst Ethan Vernon (Israel Premier-Tech) is another outsider. The 24-year-old Brit is often there or thereabouts and won a sprint at the Volta a Catalunya back in March.

Vuelta a España stage 1 favourites

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mads Pedersen, Jasper Philipsen
⭐️⭐️ Casper van Uden, Ethan Vernon, Madis Mihkels
⭐️ Orluis Aular, Arne Marit, Axel Zingle, Stanisław Aniołkowski, Bryan Coquard, Ben Turner

Here is a guide on how to watch the 2025 Vuelta a España live. Below you can find the broadcasters for the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia.