Vuelta a España stage 20 preview - Final showdown on Bola del Mundo

Key Information

• Date: Saturday, 13 September
• Start: 13:00 (CET)
• Expected Finish: 17:17 (CET)
• Stage type: Mountain
• Stage length: 165.6km
• Elevation gain: 4,226m

Robledo de Chavela hosts the start of the final mountain stage of the 2025 Vuelta, something which has never happened before. The town is home to NASA’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, which is only one of three stations in the world that follow space missions. 

From the start, the riders will need to equip their climbing legs with two early-category ascents in the first 30km. First is the Alto de La Escondida, 9km at 4.1%, followed by the Puerto de La Paradilla, 5.8km at 5.4%. 

The stage follows a nice sequence with the climbs only getting tougher as the stage goes on. Next up is the category 2, Alto del León, which is 7km in length, averaging 7.3%.

Following the summit of the Léon climb is the flattest section of the entire stage. Around 40km of steady roads leading towards the first of two ascents of the Puerto de Navacerrada, with a twist. The first ascent is straightforward, a difficult category 1 ascent which is 6.9km at 7.6%. 

However, the second ascent of the climb will be tackled from a different side and will continue to climb towards the infamous Bola del Mundo, which will host its third-ever Vuelta finish, all of which bookended the GC battle on stage 20.

On debut in 2010, the climb saw Ezequiel Mosquera do battle with Vincenzo Nibali, with the Spaniard beating the Italian to the stage win, but ultimately not proving enough to take the race leader’s jersey off the shoulders of the Shark of Messina. Mosquera was later stripped of his results from the 2010 Vuelta after testing positive for hydroxyethyl starch in the race. 

Denis Menchov climbed to victory on stage 20 in 2012, beating Richie Porte from the breakaway, while Alberto Contador did enough behind to secure his seond Vuelta GC win.

The climb stands at 12.3km in length in total with a punishing average gradient of 8.6%. However, it’s the finale of the climb which is the most significant and will decide the outcome of the 2025 Vuelta.

Inside the final 3km, the gradients average above 12%, reaching sections of over 20%. The climb doesn’t relent at the crest, with gradients of around 15% to the finish line, meaning the gaps can be created even in the final metres of the stage, and the GC battle of this Vuelta. It’s a mammoth final summit finish of the Vuelta, where there will be no place to hide.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) is just one mountain stage away from his first Grand Tour victory in over two years and his first success away from the Tour de France. However, as he has been aware of for the entire race, the victory isn’t yet secured, and the ten seconds that João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) gained in the individual time trial further compounded this. 

The gap was reduced to forty seconds between the pair, but Vingegaard gained an important four seconds at the intermediate sprint on stage 19, meaning that Almeida needs to find 44 seconds to draw level with the Dane. Therefore, the onus is on Almeida to make the difference; Vingegaard, on the other hand, is able to glue himself to the back wheel of the Portuguese rider and focus on remaining there until the summit.

Almeida has shown his strength consistently throughout this Vuelta, but the fact still remains that he has yet to put a gap into Vingegaard at the top of a summit finish over the last three weeks. 

The stage victory on the Angliru was extremely impressive by Almeida, one of his career–best performances, with Vingegaard unable to attempt an attack. However, Vingegaard would take this scenario once more, as it simply wouldn’t be enough for Almeida to dethrone the Dane.

As it stands, Vingegaard remains in the driving seat and has illustrated he has enough in check to hold his advantage over Almeida, though the brutal final 3km of the climb to Bola del Mundo remain enough to create jeopardy and suspense, as a lot of time can be lost on this climb if cracks in one's armour are found. 

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) has never finished in the top ten overall at a Grand Tour previously, yet the British rider is one stage away from reaching the podium in Madrid, illustrating the magnitude of his progression as a GC racer over the last three weeks. 

A major positive for Pidcock is that he has looked arguably the brightest so far in the third and final week, distancing his rivals in an uphill sprint to the line at El Morredero on stage 17, before a strong individual time trial on stage 18. 

In that time trial, Pidcock put a further three seconds into the man who is hunting for the final podium spot in Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), extending his advantage over the Australian to 39 seconds. 

Hindley will have confidence based on the outcome of the Angliru stage, where he was able to find 48 seconds on Pidcock, plus four bonus seconds. If he can find a similar outcome, it will be enough to leapfrog Pidcock onto the podium. However, a big difference is that this is the last test of the Vuelta, meaning the riders will find every possible reserve of power and energy, with no holding back.

Hindley does have the advantage of the team card, with Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) one place back in fifth, and a further 1:01 behind. 

Naturally, Red Bull would be in a strong position to use their numbers to their advantage with perhaps a long-range attack to force Pidcock’s hand. However, the summit of the penultimate ascent of the Puerto de Navacerrada is just short of 50km from the finish with a long valley section before the final climb, which isn’t ideal for a long-range effort. 

Perhaps Red Bull will look to deploy a similar tactic as they did on stage 17 to El Morredero, with Hindley and Pellizzari both launching attacks to put Pidcock under pressure. However, although this landed the team the stage win with Pellizzari, Pidcock was up to the task, distancing Hindley and co in the steep ramps to the line, meaning that Red Bull will need to find something more to crack the increasingly strong and confident Pidcock, and that won’t be easy.

Following a strong time trial, Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) moved ahead of Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) into sixth, in his breakout Grand Tour. The current momentum seems to be with the American, who holds a slender three-second lead, but Gall has the experience and know-how, leaving an intriguing battle for sixth overall. 

It’s not completely out of the question that Riccitello could still leapfrog Pellizzari into 5th, and take the white jersey, though this would likely require the Italian to have an off-day. 

Former race leader Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious) has an opportunity to become the second Norwegian to finish in the top 10 of the Vuelta a España, following in the footsteps of Carl Fredrik Hagen, who finished 8th in 2019. If Træen, who has been well supported in week three by his teammates, can find 16 seconds on Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike), he will match his compatriot’s best of 8th. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) currently rounds out the top 10, and alongside Kuss, could be crucial support in the finale for Vingegaard.

If the stage is to be decided from the breakaway, watch out for the likes of Jay Vine, Juan Ayuso, and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Egan Bernal (Ineos), Lorenzo Fortunato, Wout Poels and Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), Santiago Buitrago, Finlay Pickering and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic PostNL), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural), Clement Braz Afonso and Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ) Giulio Ciccone and Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek).

Vuelta a España stage 20 favourites

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida
⭐️⭐️ Jai Hindley, Tom Pidcock, Giulio Pellizzari
⭐️ Matthew Riccitello, Felix Gall, Juan Ayuso, Jay Vine, Egan Bernal, Santiago Buitrago, Mikel Landa, Eddie Dunbar

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. 

With a VPN you can watch the Vuelta safely and smoothly, wherever you are. We’ve got three great deals for you, and by using them you help us keep our content free.

NordVPN:Get 73% off a 2-year plan, plus 3 extra months free.
Surfshark: Save up to 87% on your first 27 months of VPN.
ExpressVPN: Get 61% off a 2-year plan, plus 3 extra months free.