La Vuelta 2025: Marc Soler seals another win for UAE Team Emirates-XRG as Jonas Vingegaard edges further ahead in GC battle, Tom Pidcock loses time

Marc Soler sealed a memorable win on home turf at La Vuelta, storming up La Farrapona to claim a solo victory that marked a seventh stage triumph of the race for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Jonas Vingegaard edged in front of his general classification rivals at the line to take second place and some bonus seconds. Watch La Vuelta 2025 live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Highlights: UAE smile again as Soler soloes to famous win at La Vuelta

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Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates XRG) powered to a superb solo victory after a gruelling climb up La Farrapona on Stage 14 of La Vuelta.

The Spaniard, who made it into the early break, attacked going onto the challenging final Cat.1 climb. He rode hard to hold off the chasing pack of GC riders to claim his first stage win of this year's race - and his team's seventh.

Soler led the way on his own as his team-mates, including the red jersey-hunting Joao Almeida, were in pursuit in the GC group.

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He proved impossible to catch as the group of big names behind left it late to make their move, with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) sprinting into second on the line ahead of Almeida.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) lost a handful of seconds to Jai Hindley (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) but held onto his third spot on GC ahead of Sunday's easier finish.

The second of two stages spent in the Asturias region, at less than 83 miles from start to finish, managed to pack in almost as much elevation as the much longer previous day to the Angliru.

Twenty four riders, from a cross-section of teams across the race, made it into the fuga del dia - the break of the day - which settled down after 22km of racing. Soler, a rider who had previous on the final climb, having finished second there three years before, was an early favourite if the escape was allowed to stay away.

As the gap between break and bunch quickly extended above four minutes, that seemed the most likely outcome. By the top of the first significant and hardest climb of the stage, Puerto de San Lorenzo, that had naturally reduced to 3’30'' but the smart money still favoured someone from the front.

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Only when UAE took it up from behind - even with two of their riders up the road - was that called into question. Ivo Oliveira, Domen Novak, Juan Ayuso and Jay Vine rode in one long line ahead of their leader Almeida, putting their rivals under pressure and sending some who could not handle the heat straight out the back door.

James Shaw (EF Education Easy-Post), who had attacked his breakaway companions over the summit of the first category one, was rising again before anyone else. Shaw’s stage hopes were soon dashed as Soler, perhaps concerned at the pace his own team were pushing in the peloton, attacked the rest of the break before the official start of the final climb.

Norwegian Johannes Staune-Mittet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) managed to stay with Soler for a short while but was not able to contribute enough for the Spaniard, who soon shed the ballast. The shallower gradients and headwind meant it was a risk but one he was prepared to take.

Behind, the peloton had reduced thanks to the heavy work of Nico Denz (Red Bull) for Hindley, and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE). The Danish rider had dropped back from the break, and was ready to take over after Vine, Ayuso and Felix Grossschartner had given all they could.

Soler pressed on, unsure of the gap to the peloton, which had reduced to just the GC’s top 10 riders minus Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) who had been broken by the first big test. With three kilometres remaining the white jersey of Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull) took over to help his leader Hindley, whose impressive Angliru performance had put him within sight of the podium. In the end Hindley was able to take 10 seconds back on Tom Pidcock.

Soler made it to the finish for a fourth Vuelta stage of his career, but with questions over his team’s tactics. Should he have come back to support Almeida’s GC ambitions? Did UAE really believe in their leader?

As he had the day before, Almeida tried an attack towards the top of the climb, but this time he could not hold off Vingeaard, who was able to come around for second place and six bonus seconds, taking his overall lead to 48.

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Soler cut a stunned figure at the finish, unable to "explain how we won 50% of the stages of La Vuelta."

Almeida, for his part, said the original plan had not been for Soler to go in the breakaway but "we decided it was a good idea, especially with a headwind in the final. Maybe I need him in the final." In the end, however, "we had nothing to lose" in going for the stage win. Vingegaard is still, he admitted, "super strong."