La Vuelta Femenina 2025: A Good Race That Still Doesn’t Feel Grand
A week of mountain drama and Dutch dominance couldn’t shake the feeling that this race still plays it too safe.
Hello cycling fans,
We’re well into Grand Tour season now, and while the Giro d’Italia is grabbing headlines, I’ve been thinking about the race that quietly kicked things off: La Vuelta Femenina.
It had star power, stunning landscapes, and strong racing, but it still left me somewhat disappointed. Maybe because I’ve had this feeling before. Maybe because the talent has outgrown the format. Maybe because, in cycling, Grand Tours aren’t just about strength—they’re about stretch.
So I wrote about what worked, what didn’t, and why this race, despite all its promise, still doesn’t quite feel like a Grand Tour. And yes, we need to talk about the Stage 1 chaos (not the good kind of chaos, either).
Let’s get into it.
–Rosael
A Good Race That Still Doesn’t Feel Grand
Demi Vollering was dominant. Anna van der Breggen made a triumphant return. Marianne Vos, now in her 20th pro season, collected two more stage wins and yet another green jersey. And visually, the 2025 Vuelta Femenina was often breathtaking, showcasing Spain’s varied terrain and delivering cinematic backdrops, from sun-soaked sprints to misty, mountainous finales. The race traced a northern arc from Barcelona to the Alto de Cotobello in Asturias, with Stage 7 ending on an eerie note: the summit wrapped in thick fog as Vollering soloed to victory.
But the race didn’t always live up to its setting. Stage 1, a team time trial meant to kick off the week with polish and spectacle, instead devolved into confusion, after a UCI staffing issue exposed cracks in the event’s organization. And that’s the thing, that despite the star power and a handful of engaging mountain stages, the 2025 Vuelta Femenina still left me with an undeniable sense of underwhelm.
Now in its eleventh year, La Vuelta Femenina has evolved from a one-day criterium in Madrid into a full weeklong stage race with mountaintop finishes and international broadcast coverage. Formerly run alongside the men’s Vuelta in September, it found its own identity in 2023 with a spring calendar slot and a new name. The ambition is there. But so are the growing pains. Even as riders like Annemiek van Vleuten have praised recent editions, they’ve also pointed out that the race still hasn’t quite earned the title of Grand Tour—not by UCI standards, nor in spirit.
And maybe that’s the tension: the infrastructure and ambition of La Vuelta Femenina are still catching up to the level of the peloton, which has matured rapidly over the last five years. Perhaps it’s not that the race is falling short, but that this generation of riders is ready for something bigger.
This year’s race didn’t lack talent or effort, far from it. Vollering’s win was clinical, the culmination of FDJ-Suez’s masterclass in team-building and tactical execution. Juliette Labous and Évita Muzic were tireless lieutenants, and the peloton brought depth, grit, and tactical sharpness across all seven days. But that’s just it: the riders delivered, yet the race still felt confined. With only two real summit finishes and limited opportunities for unpredictability, the format didn’t rise to meet the level of the competition. For all its growth, La Vuelta Femenina still feels like a race trying to be a Grand Tour rather than fully stepping into the role.
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A Grand Tour Shouldn’t Start Like This
The opening act of a Grand Tour matters. Unfortunately, this year’s began with a dose of disorganization.
Stage 1, a team time trial through the streets of Barcelona, should have been a clean, high-speed showcase. Instead, it was marred by delays, confusion, and a series of late starts that derailed the efforts of several teams. Movistar was fined 1,600 CHF (1,892 USD) after reportedly arriving late to mandatory bike checks, creating a backlog that affected teams queued behind them. Visma–Lease a Bike and Uno-X Mobility were among those thrown off rhythm, with riders scrambling to the start ramp, clipping in after the countdown had already begun, and losing precious seconds before even getting up to speed.
But Movistar’s lateness wasn’t the only issue. According to Visma, the situation was worsened by the fact that only one UCI official was initially performing bike checks—a bottleneck that should never happen at a top-level race. A second inspector was deployed only after delays had already spiraled, by which point teams like Visma could no longer benefit from the added capacity.
It’s a detail that points to a larger problem. While much is made about professionalism at the team level—compliance with rules, punctuality, and equipment standards—the same expectations should apply to the sport’s governing body. Understaffing a critical checkpoint on a day where every second counts? That’s not just sloppy. It’s unprofessional. And it undermines the very fairness the UCI is meant to uphold.
Visma has filed a formal complaint, and Uno-X’s Anouska Koster voiced her frustration after finishing ten seconds down without any warning that her team’s start time had arrived. The opening stage wasn’t just a missed opportunity, it was a preventable failure in logistics and communication.
Dutch Power, Predictable Plot
To start with the obvious: Dutch riders swept the individual stages, with Marianne Vos (Visma), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Demi Vollering (FDJ Suez), and Femke Gerritse (Visma) divvying up the glory. Vos’ sprints were impeccable. Van der Breggen, now 35 and racing her first WWT stage race since her comeback, nearly stole the show with a stage win and third overall. Vollering, though, was the strongest GC rider—unbothered, perfectly paced, and never truly threatened.
And yet, you couldn’t help but wonder: if the race had gone on a few days longer, could Van der Breggen have mounted a real challenge? Her form improved as the week wore on, and her tactical sharpness was on full display. The foundations for a rivalry were there, but the race just didn’t give it room to bloom.
But while the performances were admirable, the race often felt like a script we’d seen before. Most days, the dynamics played out exactly as expected: a team-controlled lead-in, a decisive late climb, and the strongest climber winning. Only Stage 4, with Van der Breggen’s cunning solo descent, and the Lagunas de Neila double ascent on Stage 5 offered something close to true unpredictability.
Multi-Mountain Stages Saved It, But Also Proved the Point
To be fair, La Vuelta Femenina has come a long way. In 2015, it was a one-day affair. From 2016 to 2019, it expanded to two days, then three in 2020, four in 2021, five in 2022, and finally, a full week beginning in 2023. That growth deserves recognition. But after three consecutive editions stuck at seven days, it feels like the race has plateaued, just as the women’s peloton has leaped forward.
With the momentum and visibility that women’s cycling has gained over the past five years, maybe it’s not that this race isn’t good enough, but that the riders have outgrown it. This current peloton, with its depth, tactical sophistication, and climbing firepower, might be ready for more. A nine or ten-day Vuelta wouldn’t just offer more room for GC battles to evolve—it would allow for oddball stages, gambles, comebacks, and chaos (the good kind). The kind of stuff that makes a Grand Tour more than just a checklist of stages.
Stages 5 and 7 were the real highlights. On both days, riders faced multiple categorized climbs before the final ascent. These weren’t mere summit finishes bolted onto flat stages; they were attritional, nuanced, and shaped by more than just the final 3 km. Mareille Meijering’s (Movistar) bold attack on Stage 5 and the late moves by Muzic and Mavi García (Liv AlUla JAyco) before the final climb on Stage 7 gave glimpses of the kind of open, chaotic racing that makes Grand Tours feel alive.
And yet, we only got two of these stages.
Imagine what the race could be with four or five hilly and mountainous days. Or a gravel stage. Or cobbles. Or a transition stage that blows up in crosswinds. Right now, La Vuelta Femenina is longer than it used to be, but not long enough to truly unspool a narrative, to reward off-script risk-taking or late-week turnarounds.
The Wildcards
It’s worth acknowledging the bright spots beyond the headliners. Gerritse claimed her first WWT win on Stage 3 and wore red for two days. Spain’s Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) impressed on the climb to Neila, while 20-year-old Marion Bunel (Visma) showed promise on the toughest ascents. Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) finished in the top 20 on every stage, a quiet but telling display of all-around consistency. And Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) showed GC potential after finishing fourth overall.
Still, these breakthrough performances felt like side notes, not centerpieces. The race didn’t offer enough space, physically or tactically, for true outsiders to shake things up. The course design, despite its improvements, still leans conservative. Most teams raced like there was one opportunity all week to try something, and they weren’t wrong.
What Will It Take to Match the Moment?
A Grand Tour should be more than a showcase of strength. It should unravel. It should surprise. It should leave room for the kind of chaos that opens up the race, invites bold moves, and makes space for reinvention. That takes time. It takes more challenging stages, wilder terrain, and the willingness to let the race breathe.
The Giro d’Italia Donne and Tour de France Femmes aren’t perfect either. They’ve each gone through cycles of growing and shrinking, often tied to unstable sponsorship, patchy broadcast coverage, or shaky organizing frameworks. The Giro, especially, has long suffered from inconsistent support, while the Tour de France Femmes has made huge strides since its return, but is still building toward true longevity.
So what needs to change for women’s Grand Tours to grow into the races the peloton deserves? Is it time, more days, more climbs, more unpredictability? Is it resources, greater investment, deeper coverage, or simply the courage to design bolder routes? Most of all, it requires real commitment from the sport’s power brokers. The UCI, along with race organizers like Unipublic, ASO, and RCS Sport, need to step up, not just with words and rebrands, but with vision, professionalism, and long-term support.
The talent is there. The depth is there. The audience is growing. What’s missing is the infrastructure to match it. And until that happens, even the strongest racing will struggle to leave the mark it should.
In Other News: Vittoria Bussi Breaks UCI Hour Record for a Third Time
This past Saturday, Vittoria Bussi broke the UCI Hour Record again—for the third time—riding 50.455 km in one hour at altitude in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The 38-year-old Italian isn’t just an endurance specialist; she holds a DPhil in pure mathematics from the University of Oxford. Notably, Bussi dedicated her historic feat to her two cats, Gauss and Chanel, hoisting their photos overhead on the Bicentenary Velodrome.
Bussi first broke the record in 2018 at the same velodrome, riding 48.007 km to surpass the previous mark set by U.S. American Evelyn Stevens in 2016, who had ridden 47.980 km. That record came on Bussi’s third attempt; her first fell short by over 400 meters, and she abandoned her second just the day before her breakthrough ride. The persistence paid off: she became the first woman to surpass the 50 km mark in 2023, and now she’s extended her own record by nearly 200 meters.
As reported by CyclingWeekly, Bussi called the Hour “a love story,” not just with her cats, but with the solitude and intensity of the discipline itself. For her, this record has always been more than numbers on a track. It’s a meditation on time, and a way of showing that sport isn’t just about athletic performance, but about meaning, devotion, and self-expression. “The Hour taught me that one of the most important things in life is to understand the preciousness of time in every single instant,” she said.
I think that’s such a beautiful way to see cycling, and one I can relate to, having started my cycling journey at the track.
What’s your own love story with the bike? Let me know in the comments.
You put my frustrations into words. I was wishing the race was a couple of days longer throughout as you could see the narrative shaping up exactly as any preview worth its salt would have predicted, with the possible exception of van der Breggen's solo victory. The growth in women's cycling over the past few years deserves to be met with an increase in significance in the Grand Tours but as you rightly point out, it's down to the race organisers to do more than just phone it in. Here's hoping we see positive change sooner rather than later!