The 17th stage of the Vuelta a España turned into a battle between white jersey hopefuls, as Giulio Pellizzari romped to an impressive solo victory at the Alto de El Morredero summit finish in north-west Spain.
As well as being Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's first stage win of the race, it was also the 21-year-old's first career win – and what a way to take it.
Behind him Matthew Riccitello (IPT), second on the youth classification, had also hung with the small group of elite favourites from which Pellizzari attacked, and he attempted again and again to chase the Italian down – to no avail.
At the finish line, 16 seconds behind Pellizzari, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) sprinted away from the group to take the four bonus seconds for second place as well as two seconds on closest GC chasing rival Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Holding on to his GC lead Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) came in close behind, followed by Joāo Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Riccitello.
After the stage both Vingegaard and Almeida confessed to not feeling at their very best, with the Dane conceding he was happy to have survived without losing time.
"I think the five or six of us were equal today," he said of the final selection. "I didn't have the very best day for me but I survived. That's the days you need to survive – the days you don't feel 100%. If you can get through those without losing any time, that's a good day."
Almeida said of Vingegaard: "He was not looking super. But I didn't as well. I think we're all a little bit in the same boat."
Asked about the fact he was distanced in the early part of the climb he said it was a strategic move that he knew would work out: "They were attacking quite hard, and I knew it was not a sustainable pace for them," he said. "So I just did my pace, and I knew I would get them back."
Vingegaard was also asked about tomorrow's 27km time trial at Valladolid, which mimics the one there in the 2023 race. That day saw him lose half a minute to Almeida.
The Dane said: "To be honest that was an awful time trial for me back then, so hopefully I can make it right this time. It's a flat time trial. Hopefully I can do well tomorrow."
How it happened
This upside-down horseshoe-shaped parcours around the hills and mountains of north-west Spain was all about the final climb.
There were plenty of lumps and bumps along the 143.2km stage between O Barco de Valdeorras and Alto de El Morredero, including the cat-three climb of the Passo de Traviesas at 75km.
But the final climb to the summit finish at El Morredero, with its vast, fire-blackened slopes only adding to the intimidation factor, towered over the stage and always looked like it would decide the winner.
Any early breakaway was always going to struggle to survive on its steep slopes – the 8.8km distance at 9.5% gradient tells the story.
All the same, a sizeable group went clear early on in the stage, determined to be the one that got away.
An initial eight-man break, including Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) clipped away with around 20km gone, and was soon joined by four more riders to make up enough firepower to last all the way to the El Morredero.
But the group never got more than around two minutes, and a last-ditch attempt to go free by Tiberi and Tejada in the final stages only lasted 11km.
With Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Visma-Lease a Bike pulling hard at the bottom of the final climb, even Almeida was distanced for a short while. But its steep gradients quickly sorted the wheat from the chaff, with only the top six on GC left – Vingegaard, Almeida, Pidcock, Hindley, Pellizzari and Riccitello.
Hindley tried to escape, but Pidcock was more than a match for the Aussie, and in the end he could only watch as his young team-mate Pellizzari disappeared up the road with 3.5km to go and, impressively, held on for the win.
Results
Vuelta a España 2025, stage 17: O Barco de Valdeorras > Alto de El Morredero, 143.2km
1. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, in 3:37:00
2. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +16s
3. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hangrohe, +18s
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +20s
5. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +22s
6. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +26s
7. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +53s
8. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, at same time
9. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +58s
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:44
General classification after stage 17
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 64:54:55
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +50s
3. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling, +2:28
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:04
5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:51
6. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +4:57
7. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +4:59
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +6:24
9. Torstein Træen (Nor) Bahrain Victorious, +7:06
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +10:16
