João Almeida wins Vuelta a España Stage 13 after a special climb, says he’ll never give up to be the top of overall rankings 

João Almeida impressively conquered a tough climb at the top of Alto de L’Angliru to win the Stage 13 race of the 2025 Vuelta a España. The rider from UAE Team Emirates-XRG marked the team’s sixth stage victory in this tournament. 

With his win, the athlete expressed: “This is a special one. I still don’t believe it… Thanks to my teammates, they were key today. They did an amazing stage. I just put my pace from the bottom, and I just did the best I could.” 

Almeida surged ahead of the main group near the bottom of the climb, and he managed to keep his lead, just in front of crowd favourite Jonas Vingegaard. However, Vingegaard failed, and he took the advantage to clinch the victory. Despite this, Jonas  Vingegaard managed to keep the overall race lead and the red jersey. 

“Jonas was always on my wheel, the last kilometre I was on the limit, I guess we were both on the limit. I was waiting for his attack any time. I thought he was going to pass me at the finish line,” Almeida admitted. He also remarked that he thinks this is the hardest climb in the world, and that he is very sore after the race. 

When he was asked if this stage win somehow boosted his confidence to claim the overall rankings from Vingegaard, Almeida stated: “I have a lot of time to make up to Jonas; he’s looking phenomenal, it’s going to be hard, but we’ll never give up.” 

 

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Overall, Vingegaard leads the race by 46 seconds over Almeida. Moreover, Pidcock placed third, having a time of 2 minutes and 18 seconds behind Vingegaard. 

Here is the final list of winners after the Stage 13 race: 

1. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in 4:54:15
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the same time
3. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +28s
4. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +30s
5. Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +52s
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +1:22
7. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +1:16
8. Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) at the same time
9. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +2:15
10. Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) +3:06

Here are the overall ranking results after the Stage 13 race:

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in 49:30:54
2. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +46s
3. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +2:18
4. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +3:00
5. Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +3:15
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:01
7. Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +4:33
8. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +4:54
9. Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) +5:21
10. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5:26