This was undoubtedly the most anticipated stage of the 2025 Vuelta a España. On Friday, the peloton headed towards the Alto de l’Angliru, one of the steepest climbs on the professional cycling scene. Rémi Cavagna and Clément Braz Afonso entered the breakaway to anticipate this iconic climb, but the favorites decided to fight for victory in this thirteenth stage. Joao Almeida won in the end, while Rudy Molard finished thirty-third at the summit.
Nearly 4,000 metres of elevation gain, spread mainly over the last sixty kilometres, were on the menu for the Vuelta a España riders on Friday. But above all, a legendary climb was to tackle after the preliminary ascents of the Alto de la Mozqueta (6.4 km at 8.2%) and the Alto del Cordal (5.5 km at 8.8%): the Alto de l’Angliru, its twelve kilometres, its average slope at 10%, and its ramps over 20%! Two hundred kilometres earlier, everything began on relatively flat terrain. “We wanted to be vigilant from the start, because to get the best possible result today, we had to be in the breakaway,” said Frédéric Guesdon. ” Rémi and Clément were mainly designated to go up front, and it went well because they managed to join the breakaway after ten kilometres. It was perfect. Thibaud went fifteen seconds too late and never came back. We then told him to wait for the bunch because we already had two riders in front, and there was no point in spending energy this way.” At the front of the race, Clément Braz Afonso and Rémi Cavagna were joined by around twenty other riders, but their lead quickly stabilized at around three minutes.
“The breakaway could have a better shot tomorrow,” Frédéric Guesdon
“Visma-Lease a Bike didn’t let too much of a gap, so we quickly realized that it was going to be hard to fight for the win or for a top result,” Frédéric added. Yet, Rémi Cavagna gave the breakaway some momentum on the approach and in the first kilometres of the Alto de la Mozqueta, around fifty kilometres from the finish line. “He knew he was going to have trouble getting over the climbs, so he pushed hard to maintain a good gap and allow Clément to do his best,” Frédéric said. “Unfortunately, Clément wasn’t perhaps having his best day and he came up against stronger riders.” A handful of men then broke away from the breakaway and were able to tackle the Angliru with a two-minute lead over the peloton. It surely wasn’t enough to hold off the favorites. Joao Almeida ultimately won ahead of Jonas Vingegaard. “Rudy still did a decent climb, and the others mostly entered the gruppetto because other stages could suit us better in the coming days,” Frédéric added. The experienced Frenchman took 33rd place today and climbed to 20th overall.
Saturday will bring yet another summit finish, at La Farrapona, where David Gaudu won in 2020. “Since the Angliru is iconic, we suspected that Vingegaard wanted to win,” Frédéric added. “The breakaway could have a better shot tomorrow. In any case, if we want to have a chance of winning, we’ll have to try to put someone in front.”
