Visma Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates dominated the 2025 Grand Tours, contesting the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France victories. Simon Yates took the Giro pink jersey from Isaac del Toro with a decisive penultimate-stage ride to Sestrière. Tadej Pogačar beat Jonas Vingegaard to win the Tour de France. The Vuelta a España begins on 23 August in Turin and projects another Visma-versus-UAE battle. Jonas Vingegaard starts as the overall favourite while UAE fields João Almeida and Juan Ayuso as dual GC threats. Team depth and mountain support will determine the eventual red jersey winner.
With the third Grand Tour kicking off this Saturday, August 23, in Turin, Italy, the Vuelta a España looks set to be another UAE vs Visma battle and decider for Grand Tour supremacy in 2025. The men in yellow and black will have the overall favourite - Vingegaard - who is looking to better his runner-up finish at the Tour, while the Emirati outfit brings two of their top GC stars to try and capture the red jersey - João Almeida and Juan Ayuso.
The rivalry between the super teams turned somewhat sour during the Tour and a third GT content is one season brings the possibility for more butting of heads. Key to surviving the 21 stages and fighting out the key mountain stages will be their respective support squads. Both sides, thanks to their wealth of budget and talents, will start the Vuelta with impressive rosters, but whose is actually stronger - both in theory and on current form?
UAE have been far away the best team in cycling this season, but this Vuelta could bring the Grand Tour squad to 2-1 with Visma possibly starting with a stronger eight. We've matched the eight UAE and Visma riders one-on-one to try and gauge who will be better when push comes to shove and the likes of Vingegaard, Ayuso or Almeida call for backup on the road to Madrid.
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