Last Sunday, we hurriedly kissed the Classics season goodbye at Liège-Bastogne-Liège to turn right around and find the first Grand Tour of the year staring us straight in the face. The 10th edition of La Vuelta España Femenina starts on Sunday in Barcelona. It will be the first fight for a leader's jersey since early February for this newly reshuffled peloton.
Some teams found their footing throughout the spring and will go into La Vuelta feeling confident, while others have a lot to prove. Defending champion Demi Vollering's FDJ-Suez team looks formidable, with not only Vollering lining up on form but also their other new signing, Juliette Labous, and a stage winner from last year, Évita Muzic. Dutch superteam SD Worx-Protime seemed a bit tired at the end of their spring campaign, and the list of teams that came up short so far in 2025 is long. There are a lot of questions that could be answered by the end of this race, but equally a lot more that will arise.
Seven days of racing, seven chances for glory, and one absolutely brutal stage to close it out. This year's Vuelta is going to be wild. Let's go.
How to Watch
La Vuelta is organised by the ASO, so plan your viewing accordingly.
Streaming is on: TNT Sports (UK), Eurosport/Max (EU), Peacock (US), FloBikes (CAN) and SBS On Demand (AUS)
Stage start times are listed below. As always, our How to Watch guide has full details on streaming options for the entire Women's WorldTour season.
Joe Lindsey
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The Route
Stage 1 Team Time Trial: Barcelona - 8.1 km - Sunday, May 4 at 12:51 CET
For the fourth year in a row, the women's Vuelta will kick off with a team time trial. It's a short one, only 8.1 km down the (normally) busy streets of Barcelona. The women will start at midday, and the weather is expected to be quite nice. There's a possibility of rain, but because it's been so wet in Catalunya this spring, hopefully the roads will have less oil on them and thus won't be as slick as the men's Vuelta in 2023.
The out-and-back course is a flat one, with one roundabout, one U-turn and a few corners at the very beginning and very end. It starts in the "grid" of Barcelona, before a right and then left turn takes the riders onto a larger road. The majority of the race takes place on Av. Diagonal, which is a massive straight line, very wide, with no twists or turns to speak of. The U-turn takes place right next to the Jardins del Palau de Pedralbes.
Last year's TTT was also pretty flat, but double the length, plus the teams are different enough this year, so it is hard to compare. Lidl-Trek took top honours in the opening stage in 2024, with Elisa Longo Borghini, Brodie Chapman, and Elynor Backstedt, who have all three departed the team for UAE Team ADQ. Visma-Lease a Bike was a very, very close second with Riejanne Markus and Anna Henderson, who have joined Lidl-Trek. And don't count out Movistar, with Marlen Reusser, Cat Ferguson, Liane Lipert and Olivia Baril. Assumptions can be made based on spring form and which team has the most aero women, but this opening stage is harder to predict than some in the past.
Stage 2: Molins de Rei to Sant Boi de Llobregat - 99 km - Monday, May 5 at 14:30 CET
Stage 2 starts off with a Category 2 climb right out of the gate. The stage takes place just east of Barcelona, great news for the team staff.
The stage itself is a short one, just shy of 100 km, so it's not out of the question that there will be riders warming up on stationary bikes before this one, ready for attacks to fly on the slopes of La Palma de Cervelló.
After the initial climb the peloton hits to a rolling road that continues for much of the stage. There are no additional classified climbs, and nothing that could be considered an uncategorized nuisance, until they get to the final 25 km.
With 15 km to go, they will race down into the city. The descent is relatively gradual, there are sections of -8%, but it will make any chase more difficult if there is a break-up up the road. It will also make for some fast leadouts from the sprinter's teams before they get to the finish in Sant Boi de Llobregat.
The finish itself is technical. There is a sharp left-hand turn with 1.3 km to go, another bend 300 meters later, then another left-hander immediately before the road takes a sharp left into the finish line. The final turn is only 100 meters from the line and on a 2.6% grade.
Most likely, this is a stage for the sprinters, although there's really no telling how the peloton will ride something like this, considering the tactics we've seen so far this year. Normally, one could say it was a stage for Marianne Vos, who knows how to expertly navigate the tricky finale and was once the best climber of the sprinters. It could also go to the breakaway, or we could see one gutsy move take the stage and maybe even the jersey.
Stage 3: Barbastro to Huesca - 132.4 km - Tuesday, May 6 at 13:40 CET
There are no categorised climbs in the third stage, although there are some uncategorized lumps. The final 24 km is a very gradual rise, with the steepest grades only hitting 4% in the very beginning before levelling off at a false-flat .4-1% for the last 11 km. It is pretty likely that the third stage ends in a sprint.
With the unclassified climbs in the first half of the stage, we will probably see a breakaway formed of smaller teams. There are too many good opportunities for someone to lob an attack in those first 50 km for nothing to happen. However, some crosswinds are predicted for the final 25 km after the race makes a sharp right and heads towards the finish in Huesca.
The winds shouldn't be strong enough to split the peloton into pieces, but if the weather predictions for wind speed get any stronger, it is the ideal location for late race splits to happen.
Stage 4: Pedrola to Borja - 111.6 km - Wednesday, May 7 at 14:10 CET
On Wednesday, the women have their first multi-mountain stage with two categorised climbs. The first is a Cat 2 midway through the stage, the second a Cat 3 near the end.
The Cat 2 is a long, slow slog of about 30 km, although the climb is only officially registered as 5.5 km long. From 33 km into the race, the road is constantly climbing at 1-4% until about 52 km into the stage, where it pitches up to 6% or more. This first ascent only averages 5.5%, so it's not a general classification climb, but it will tire out the legs a bit.
The next climb, Puerto de El Buste, is only 5 km long and 5.4% average, but when the riders hit the top, there is only 11.4 km left in the race and it's all downhill. The descent is semi-gradual and not overly technical, but it will make it hard to chase anything down nonetheless.
It's not a GC stage, but we could see some selections, especially over the second/final climb and into the finish.
Stage 5: Golmayo to Lagunas de Neila - 120.4 km - Thursday, May 8 at 13:45 CET
Day five is the first of two major tests for the general classification riders. The seventh stage will be a real kick in the pants, but the fifth stage is the first mountain top finish of the week.
There are two categorised climbs on tap for the fifth stage, however, they are actually the same climb done twice. After the first ascent, the peloton will take a left and do the climb again, but for the second ascent, they will continue past the turn to climb for another couple of kilometres.
The climb - Lagunas de Neila - has featured in both the men's and the women's Vuelta a Burgos before, and both Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen have won atop it. Vollering took victories twice on the ascent, in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, she won the fourth and final stage by 17 seconds ahead of Juliette Labous, however, the Frenchwoman went on to win the overall. In 2023, the climb featured in the final stage yet again, this time Vollering won the stage and took the overall from her teammate Lorena Wiebes. In 2021, Van der Breggen out-sprinted Annemiek van Vleuten at the top of Lagunas de Neila and took the stage and the overall of the race by only three seconds. In third that year was none other than Van der Breggen's teammate ... Demi Vollering.
The climbing starts roughly 94 km into the 120.4 km stage. This Cat 2, Alto de Rozavientos, is 4 km in length and averages 8.1%. The bottom slopes are gradual, in the 5-7% range, while the final kilometre is 11-14%. It's on these steeper slopes near the top where selections will be made, especially considering where the road goes next.
The remaining riders will descend from Alto de Rozavientos, flip a U-turn, and do the same climb again. Again, the hardest part of the climb is the top, but this time the 11-14% grades won't end after only a kilometer. Once they pass the familiar turn, the road will settle down for only about 1 km before it kicks again to the finish. Again, the slopes here are 11 %+, with a 17% stat thrown in, you know, for fun.
What will be interesting on this stage is how hard teams hit the first ascent of the climb. Looking back at the Giro d'Italia Women in 2024, when the race tackled two ascents of Blockhaus (it was a very similar situation, with the first ascent cutting the climb short and the second passing the turn they had done previously to continue to the summit proper), the peloton was hesitant to really hit both climbs with passion and what ended up happening was a relatively boring first climb. Fireworks didn't fly until well into the finale of the second ascent. We could see much the same race here, but it really depends on how riders think they will be able to take on the climbing Goliath that is FDJ-Suez.
The French team has not only Vollering but also Labous and Muzic. Any of those three could win the stage, and all three of them working together is a terrifying thought for anyone hoping to best Vollering at the end of this race. This stage will be the first time we see the (French) team assembled purely to win the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in action during a stage race on a long climb. Teams who want to rival them could send riders up the road early to try to get a head start on the climbs. Perhaps some teams will want the first ascent of the climb to be easy enough for them to retain some numbers going into the second ascent. With the long stretch of flat, more than one card can be played here, but will teams be gutsy enough to try?
Stage 6: Becerril de Campos to Baltanás - 126.7 km - Friday, May 9 at 11:05 CET
A slight reprieve in between general classification battles, the sixth stage looks to be a great day for a breakaway. It's not super long, only 126.7 km, with a few uncategorised climbs in the final 25 km of the stage and some good opportunities to slip away in the early kilometres. The final climbs aren't completely insignificant, mainly because of where they are in the stage. The steepest bit of all three is only 8%, mostly they are in the 2-6% range, and they are 2.3 km, 2.1 km, and 1.8 km in order of first to last. What makes them more of a factor is that they descend straight into each other. There is some rest on the top of the first two climbs where the road plateaus, but the descents are fast and technical, so the peloton will be stretched out when the next climb starts.
Someone like Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly) could seize an opportunity here to attack if the vibes are in the right place. Or someone like Lidl-Trek's Henderson, someone who knows how to descend. If the peloton does simply roll over these kickers, the finish is on a 3.5% grade. So it's not really a sprint, but it could be for someone like Wiebes or Vos. In order for it to be a sprint, however, the sprinter's teams will need to back their sprinter on this finish, which doesn't apply to every sprinter in the race.
An additional factor in this stage could be wind. Because of how the course is laid out, with multiple changes of direction, and because it takes place in mostly wide-open areas, crosswinds could make an appearance.
Stage 7: La Robla to Alto de Cotobello, Asturias - 152.6 km - Saturday, May 10 at 10:00 CET
The final stage is not only the hardest in terms of climbing, but it's also the longest stage of the race. Similar to the fifth stage, the seventh stage will tackle the same climb twice, but this time, there's another climb thrown in the middle.
The race starts on a gradual uphill before a 13 km long descent that is technical in the beginning, albeit on a three-lane road. The first categorised climb of the day is 81 km into the race. The Cat 2 Alto de la Colladona, a 5.5 km long ascent averaging 7.4%, is also the final climb of the day.
The next climb, Alto de la Colladiella, hits 23 km after the top of the first climb. This one is 6.4 km long and averages 8.2%, with some steep sections in the beginning and the end.
The riders then circle back to race up Alto de la Colladona again, but this time they will veer right for some bonus climbing. Alto de Cotobello.Asturias is 10.3 km long and averages 8%. It will finish off the stage and the race overall, the perfect final battleground for the women to fight for red.
Because there is still a good bit of road between the first two climbs, and before the final ascent begins, the race will likely not kick off until Alto de Cotobello.Asturias. The first two ascents will shed some riders from the peloton, and a lot of teams will be down to single or double riders by the time they reach the final climb, but the attacks probably won't fly until the final 10 km. Before then, it will be a steady pace that will break the legs, especially after a week of racing already done.
The final stage is a pure climbers' race. It's one for the GC favourites, and it's going to be a great show. Riders like Neve Bradbury, Cédrine Kerbaol, Justine Ghekiere, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, Pauliena Rooijakkers, Niamh Fisher-Black and Liane Lippert will want to test themselves against Vollering, to see how they stack up and what work needs to be done before the Tour de France Femmes in a couple of months. Which leads us to the players ...
The Riders
The Spring Classics this year have been brutal. After almost every race, riders were saying how hard the racing was from the start. So the start list of the Vuelta is an interesting combination of riders who didn't rack up that many race days this spring (Vollering) and riders who are at the tail end of a block, and probably looking forward to the day after stage 8 (Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney). The general classification is also a mix of tried and true GC riders and newcomers to the genre, which will make stage 5 all the more interesting.
General Classification Contenders
The top dog going into the Vuelta is, of course, the defending champion Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez). Vollering won the race last year while in terrific form despite some seriously questionable team tactics from SD Worx-Protime. Now, Vollering is on a team that backs her 100% and has picked up the perfect roster of riders to help her win races.
She showed decent form at the Ardennes, bringing home two podium finishes in La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and although it's not the winning form we've seen in previous classics seasons, she was still potentially the best GC rider at those races. What gives her an edge over everyone else, as previously mentioned, is her team. FDJ-Suez is the GC team this year with the addition of Juliette Labous and Elise Chabbey. Their Vuelta squad also includes Évita Muzic, who won a stage against Vollering last year. Where they may lack firepower is in the opening Team Time Trial, but hopefully it won't be significant time loss.
After a rollercoaster of a spring, Anna van der Breggen will make her WWT stage race comeback at La Vuelta. It's a race she is familiar with, even if she has been out of the peloton for three years. Van der Breggen was the director when Vollering lost the race after pee-gate in 2023. She returns to the race now as SD Worx-Protime's GC contender, although she would probably tell you she's just in it to test out the legs in a major stage race. It will be a huge test for the four-time Giro winner. She raced Setmana Valenciana earlier in the year and finished third overall behind Vollering and Marlen Reusser.
Van der Breggen knows how to race a stage race, she knows exactly what she needs to do to win, and she has a strong team around her, but the question is can she tap into the force that powered her to so many general classification victories in the past or does she need a little more time to find her legs? And if she needs more time, who is SD Worx-Protime's GC rider without Lotte Kopecky?
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney isn't leading Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto at the Vuelta this year. The Tour winner said after Liège-Bastogne-Liège that she would go to the Spanish race in a support role only, which means the team is backing Neve Bradbury for a GC result. Bradbury, who finished third at the Giro d'Italia Women last year, has suffered from illness almost all Spring, including the Ardennes. She was unable to start La Flèche Wallonne due to illness and wasn't even on the start list for Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto is also bringing Chloe Dygert to the race. Dygert made her road comeback at the Vuelta in 2023, where she finished on the podium of the first three stages. The climbs might take her out of the GC question, but with Dygert, you never really know.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) has a Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift cobble at home and had a stunning first sprint back in the peloton. Now she turns her attention to the reason for her comeback: the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. La Vuelta is the first step. Ferrand-Prévot raced the UAE Tour earlier in the year, but it wasn't anything to write home about. She finished 18th on the mountain top stage, won by Elisa Longo Borghini, over three and a half minutes down. But a Ferrand-Prévot who raced to third in Strade Bianche, second in the Tour of Flanders, and then to Paris-Roubaix victory is the type of Ferrand-Prévot who can land on the podium of her first Grand Tour back. She will have the youngster Marion Bunel alongside her should she stumble, winner of last year's Tour de l'Avenir. Bunel is very much in her "watch and learn" era, but when it comes to the climbing stages, if Bunel is with the big dogs on the climbs, she will have free rein from Visma.
Third overall at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) has really come into her own as a general classification contender. The Dutchwoman has been one of the best climbers in the peloton for years, but her move to Fenix looks to be the best thing to happen to her career. Not only that, but the team itself was hands down one of the best teams of the spring. Going into the Vuelta, they have a clear leader in Rooijakkers, who was riding well in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but they also have Tour stage winner Yara Kastelijn riding support.
If Rooijakkers' progression and the team's strength weren't enough, Fenix have also picked up Annemiek van Vleuten as a Performance Mentor in 2025. Van Vleuten famously won the Vuelta in 2023 but has also won four Giros and the Tour in 2022. If anyone knows how to win a stage race, it's Van Vleuten, so having her in the team's corner will be massive.
Movistar have two potential contenders, but neither has proven themselves in the months leading into the Vuelta. That doesn't mean they don't have a chance at an overall result. Liane Lippert, who came into last season late due to a stress fracture in her hip, was on track to be the team's GC successor when Annemiek van Vleuten retired. That didn't exactly go to plan last season, and the German rider is still getting back into peak form. Her spring was decent by any standards; her best result was third at the Tour of Flanders, and she recently finished fifth at La Flèche Wallonne. Movistar's other possible GC rider is Marlen Reusser, who stated last year she was targeting the overall at the Giro; however, Reusser also missed most of 2024 due to injury and illness, and has been making her way back to her winning ways. She scored one victory for her new team in the early season, but it wasn't a WorldTour race, and she finished second overall at Setmana Valenciana, but that was February, and this is May.
Lastly, and speaking of duos, there's Lidl-Trek. The American team come in with two new signings to lead the team. Niamh Fisher-Black and Riejanne Markus. Fisher-Black is one of the best climbers out there and has been on the same team as Van der Breggen and Vollering for years. She knows the tricks but hasn't been able to net herself a GC result yet. Markus is new-ish to the GC life – only a few years ago she was a time trialist and domestique extraordinaire – but last year she finished a very quiet second at the Vuelta, so the potential is there. Markus hasn't been able to replicate that result; she came up short at the Tour and ended up 44th overall. It will be interesting to see how Lidl-Trek plays this one with Fisher-Black, who has been a leader at Grand Tours in the past for SD Worx-Protime, and Markus, who is new to this GC game.
Sprinters
Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), winner of many, many, many stages of races, including four Vuelta stages in the last two years.
The Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto duo of Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka and Maike van der Duin. Both are young and still learning the ropes, but together they are double the chances.
Movistar's Cat Ferguson, who has never raced a WorldTour stage race before, but has already finished third at Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
Letizia Paternoster, who has been amazing this spring but has yet to take a victory for Liv AlUla Jayco in 2025.
And finally, Lara Gillespie. One of the revelations of the season so far. Second at Omloop van het Hageland, third at Le Samyn, third at Nokere Koerse and third in a stage of the UAE Tour. A big win is coming for the UAE Team ADQ rider from Ireland.
Other riders to watch
EF Education-Oatly: Letizia Borghesi / Kristen Faulkner / Magdeleine Vallieres
Human Powered Health: Thalita de Jong makes her return to the peloton post-early season injury.
Lidl-Trek: Ellen van Dijk
Liv AlUla Jayco: Monica Trinca Colonel / Mavi Garcia
Picnic-PostNL: Nienke Vinke / Pfeiffer Georgi / Franziska Koch
SD Worx-Protime: Mischa Bredewold / Femke Gerritse
UAE Team ADQ: Erica Magnaldi / Brodie Chapman
AG Insurance-Soudal: Justine Ghekiere / Ashleigh Moolman Pasio
A full start list can be found here.
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