'It can suit me' - Langellotti the dark horse for Vuelta's first mountain test
His name wouldn’t have featured among the contenders a few weeks ago, but after his breakout displays at the Tour de Pologne, Victor Langellotti is now among the favourites for victory on stage 2 of the Vuelta a España to Limone Piemonte.
Langellotti scored Monaco’s first-ever WorldTour win when he scorched to victory at Bukowina on the penultimate day of the Tour de Pologne, catching and passing Brandon McNulty with a searing late uphill effort.
That win was enough to put Langellotti into the overall lead, and although he lost the jersey to McNulty in the final time trial, he came away from the race with his standing enhanced. Indeed, Langellotti’s performances in Poland earned him a spot in Ineos’ Vuelta line-up, and while Egan Bernal is the team’s GC leader, the Monégasque will have a degree of latitude on some of the punchier finales, starting at Limone Piemonte.
“I'm quite happy about the shape, it’s pretty good and I could show it in Poland, so it means all the preparation has been good,” Langellotti told reporters in Turin on Saturday.
Although Jonas Vingegaard, Giulio Ciccone and Juan Ayuso are among the more obvious favourites for Sunday's finale, Langellotti's punch makes him a threat.
“We’ve done a good job at the training camp in Andorra before the Vuelta, and obviously I come here with some expectations. I would love to win a stage – that be the main goal and obviously Limone Piemonte is a pretty good stage finale for me. It can suit me pretty well, so tomorrow we’ll give it a shot.”
At 30, Langellotti was a surprise signing for Ineos last winter after seven years at Burgos-BH, but he has impressed his teammates – starting with Michal Kwiatkowski, who reportedly declared that he has one of the most impressive one-minute power outputs he has ever seen.
Langellotti will look to deploy that particular skill on the category 2 ascent to Limone Piemone, which climbs for 10km at an average of 5%. On the evidence of the Tour de Pologne, few will want to bring him to the final 500 metres on Sunday, not least given Langellotti’s local knowledge.
“I know it a little bit, it’s not so far from Monaco, so sometimes back in the in the winter I'd go there to do some skiing,” he said. “It's a long drag up towards and the last 3km kick harder. The key will be to be in very good position and wait for the moment to attack or launch the sprint.”
Langellotti is riding the Vuelta for the second time, having made his debut in 2022 in the colours of Burgos-BH, when he spent three days in the king of the mountains jersey before abandoning on stage 8.
“I have very good memories of the Vuelta 2022,” he said. “For me, it was a dream to be part of a Grand Tour, and wearing the mountains jersey was amazing.”
Langellotti will also hope to be on the start line of next year’s Vuelta, which will begin in Monaco. His father, Umberto, head of the Monaco cycling federation, credited the Tour de France Grand Départ of 2009 for developing youth cycling in the principality.
“I'm very pleased about that, it's an honour to host a Grand Tour start and obviously I'm looking forward to it,” Langellotti said. “But first of all, here we are in Turin, first of all it's the Vuelta 2025 and then we'll see. But obviously I'm very pleased about this Vuelta too.”
