Vuelta 2025 Favourites stage 13: Ouch… El Angliru!!!

The Angliru made its Vuelta debut in 1999 and returned the following year. But the most legendary edition came in 2002. Hail, rain, and fog battered the riders so severely that they slipped on the steep ramps. A puncture? Too bad. Team cars couldn’t get through as their wheels skidded on the slick tarmac. Riders had to continue on foot, or zigzag their way up on their rims.

What will this edition bring? Let’s hope it’s not a repeat of 2002, but a fair fight in which the strongest rider prevails. The course is designed exactly for that: to leave only the toughest standing. The first 150 kilometres offer little challenge, but in the final 50 kilometres the real battle begins, often against punishing gradients.

After the Alto de Mozqueta (6.3 kilometres at 8.4%) and Alto de Cordal (5.5 kilometres at 8.8%), the riders face the Angliru as the final test. The climb stretches 12.4 kilometres at an average of 9.7%, but it’s the last 7 kilometres that matter. There, the gradients escalate from steep to steeper to steepest to… sheer madness. Attacking is virtually impossible on ramps hitting 23.5%. It’s a pure attrition battle. One by one, riders fall away, and those who survive the longest are rewarded with a slight descent in the final few hundred metres to the line.

Favourites 13th stage 2025 Vuelta a España

*** Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida
** Juan Ayuso, Mikel Landa, Jay Vine, Sepp Kuss
* Tom Pidcock, Giulio Ciccone, Giulio Pellizzari, Lorenzo Fortunato

Another interesting read: route 13th stage 2025 Vuelta.