Thursday, August 28th, 6th stage: Olot > Pal. Andorra – Andorra
The fourth country on the map of La Vuelta 25, brought yet more changes to an already eventful race. A climbing festival en route to the Pal ski resort favoured the early attackers, with Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) soloing to a third stage win in the Spanish Grand Tour, adding to his earlier success in 2022. A resident of Andorra, he also claimed the polka-dot jersey as leader of the KOM standings, a competition he had already won in 2024. In his wake (+54’’), Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) takes La Roja. He is the third Norwegian to lead La Vuelta, after Thor Hushovd (3 days in 2006) and Odd Christian Eiking (7 days in 2021). Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl–Trek) and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) attacked on the final ascent, but they finished together, while Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) dropped out of contention.
Andorra is the fourth country on the map of La Vuelta 25 – the edition with the most international course in the event’s history – and it is set to shake the overall standings again with a demanding mountain stage from Olot to Pal, featuring some 3,500 metres of elevation over 170.3 km of racing.
A 176-man peloton set off after Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal Quick-Step), Simon Carr (Cofidis) and Arjen Livyns (Lotto) dropped out due to illness, according to their teams’ reports. On the other hand, Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), a Dutchman born to a Catalan mother, enjoys a home start and many riders are looking forward to reaching Andorra, where they’ve settled.
A strong breakaway: Vine, Fortunato, Castrillo…
The uphill start up Coll de Sentigosa (cat. 3, 11.4km at 4.1%) sees a strong group get on the move: Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Louis Vervaeke, Giamnarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Archie Ryan, James Shaw (EF Education-EasYPost), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious), and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana).
Træen is the best classified rider in the overall standings (+58’’), ahead of Armirail (+1’02’’), Vervaeke (+1’33’’) and Fortunato (+1’43’’). Vervaeke also chases the polka-dot jersey. He goes 2nd atop the Coll de Sentigosa, and then first at Collada de Toses, the first cat.-1 ascent of La Vuelta 25 (summit at km 66.4, to take the lead of the KOM standings.
Vine goes solo
Behind the attackers, Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike drive the bunch. The gap gradually increases, up to a maximum of 6’30’’ when the race enters Andorra (35 km to go). Then, several teams accelerate ahead of the Alto de La Comella (cat. 2, summited with 21.1 km to go) and the gap rapidly decreases.
Jay Vine feels the pressure and accelerates before the summit. He keeps pushing on the downhill and tackles the final climb (9.6 km at 6.3%) with a lead of 1’ to his breakaway rivals and 5’ on the peloton, who took it easier after the summit.
Træen takes La Roja from Vingegaard
Vine doesn’t look back and flies to his third La Vuelta stage win, after previous successes in 2022. Behind him, Torstein Træen (+54’’) manages to drop his rivals and take La Roja ahead of Bruno Armirail, 4th on the day (+1’15’’) behind Fortunato (+1’10’’).
Behind them, Giulio Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek up the ante and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is dropped with 6 kilometres to go. Inside the last 3 kilometres, Ciccone attacks. Jonas Vingegaard and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) also try to make differences but the main GC contenders finish together, 4’19’’ behind the day’s winner.
Stage 6
- Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates XRG) 4h12’36”
- Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) +0’54”
- Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana Team) +1’10”
GC
- Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) 20h25’46”
- Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) +0’31”
- Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana Team) +1’01”
