Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard set himself up to win the 2025 Vuelta a Espana when he increased his overall lead with victory on Saturday's penultimate stage, leaving his closest rival Joao Almeida in his wake in the final kilometre.
After almost three weeks of racing, the Vuelta, and stage 20's 165.6-km ride from Robledo de Chavela, all came down to the last gruelling kilometres to the summit finish at Bola del Mundo, and Visma-Lease a Bike rider Vingegaard went for glory rather than simply defending his red jersey.
Portugal's Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG) began the day 44 seconds behind the Dane but did not have the legs to challenge and trailed in fifth on the stage, 22 seconds behind Vingegaard, who holds a one minute 16 second lead going into Sunday's final stage to Madrid.
Vingegaard's team-mate, and 2023 winner, Sepp Kuss was second on the stage, 11 seconds behind the winner, with Australian Jai Hindley.
Ireland's Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) finished the stage 22nd, 4:54 down on Vingegaard, and the Cork man remains just outside the top 20 in the general classification, placing 21st.
