Simon Yates, Tadej Pogačar... and one more champion to come to conclude the season's Grand Tours.
The Vuelta a España may traditionally be the least prestigious of cycling's three Grand Tours, but known for unpredictable and aggressive racing, steep climbs and as a breeding ground for some of the world's best young prospects, it has a unique place in the calendar.
There may be neither Pogačar, four-time Tour de France champion and the world's best cyclist, or his fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič, four-time winner of the Vuelta, but there is star power nonetheless.
Jonas Vingegaard, fresh from finishing second in last month's Tour de France, is targeting his first career victory in the Vuelta, with his major competition set to come from UAE Team Emirates' Iberian pairing of Juan Ayuso and Joao Almeida.
The route is an arcing sweep through Spain's beautiful northern provinces -- via a four-day opening sojourn to Turin and the Franco-Italian border -- climbing through the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa, and Sistema Central.
Twenty-three teams, twenty-one days, four jerseys -- this is The Athletic's guide to the 2025 Vuelta.
Jacob Whitehead: Ayuso. Three months ago, the 22-year-old faced a big race at the Giro d'Italia and it was a test the Spaniard failed, though he wasn't helped by the bad luck of a crash on Stage 9 before withdrawing in the race's final week.
But with teammate Pogačar the obvious general classification priority, and with Isaac del Toro and Almeida competing for leadership as well, Ayuso's opportunities are becoming increasingly slim.
This August, he is only slated to share leadership duties with Almeida, with whom he has quarrelled in the past. It demonstrates how a teenager once held up as cycling's greatest general classification (GC) prospect has somewhat stagnated over the past 18 months.
Having podiumed on debut as a 19-year-old in 2022, and facing a weaker field this time around, Ayuso may need to improve on that result to reestablish his reputation -- and receive future opportunities either at UAE or elsewhere in the peloton.
Jessica Hopkins: This could be the last time Jai Hindley lines up as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's leader in a stage race, let alone a Grand Tour.
The team does not have a shortage of stars. Florian Lipowitz, 24, finished on the podium of this year's Tour de France, surpassing 2024 Vuelta winner and multi-Grand Tour winner Primož Roglič who finished eighth. Red Bull is also home to 21-year-old Giulio Pellizzari, who finished sixth in the 2025 Giro d'Italia.
So while Hindley is GC proven in his own right, having won the 2022 Giro, he is unlikely to be the team's leading man in these races again. This is a great opportunity to ride his own race.
Whitehead: There aren't many pure sprinters at the Vuelta. Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) and Jake Stewart (Israel-PremierTech) have both had impressive seasons, but the most dominant sprinter in the race is Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen.
The Dane opted to skip the Tour to allow teammate Jonathan Milan to chase the green jersey, instead concentrating on both the Giro and Vuelta. Pedersen dominated the Giro, taking four stages and the ciclamino sprinters' jersey, and will be expected to achieve similar results over the next month.
Traditionally, the Vuelta is often slightly less optimized for sprinters, but, nevertheless, there are opportunities for him on stages one, three, four and eight in the first half of the race alone.
Hopkins: Unless a certain Slovenian is involved, the rider with the most stage wins in the Tour de France or Giro d'Italia will often go to the sprinters.
In the Vuelta, however, the stage profile is more heavily weighted towards the GC contenders and climbers, and this year is no different.
With 10 summit finishes -- vastly outnumbering the four flat stages that could see sprints (although one has an uphill finish) -- and five high mountain stages, Vingegaard will look to capitalize.
Not only is he by far the best GC man in the race, but he will want to show it after limited racing this season. After crashing in Paris-Nice, Vingegaard only raced in June's Critérium du Dauphiné to prepare for the Tour de France.
The Dane is in fine form, however, and will be the favourite to collect many of the stage wins in his search for his first Vuelta title.
Whitehead: Pellizzari is another talented climber on Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's books. The 21-year-old is the least experienced on the roster, but looked sensational at his home Giro in spring, finishing sixth overall -- though he likely would have been significantly higher had he not lost time while working in service for Roglič during the first two weeks of the race.
His raw climbing ability is among the best in the race, his form is strong coming in, and his willingness to attack early and aggressively makes the Italian easy to root for. With 10 uphill finishes, expect a debut Grand Tour stage win.
Hopkins: He might not be the favourite for the overall win, but INEOS Grenadiers' Egan Bernal is finally looking like his old self after a life-threatening crash in 2022.
The two-time Grand Tour winner had a solid start to his summer with a seventh place in the Giro, and showed glimpses of his previous form with attacks and tenacious riding. Having skipped the Tour, the question is can his form continue to improve?
Another rider with a high ceiling is former INEOS rider Tom Pidcock. The Brit doesn't have the same firepower around him after his transfer to ProTeam Q36.5 and didn't compete for the general classification in this year's Giro, finishing 16th without a stage win.
He has said multiple times, however, that the move has revitalized him and a second-placed Strade Bianche finish earlier in the season has proved he's one to look out for in this Vuelta.
Whitehead: There are no apologies here for being unoriginal. It's the Alto de l'Angliru -- arguably the most difficult climb regularly used at any Grand Tour.
Over 12km long, averaging 10.1 percent, and with slopes of 24 percent at its steepest, the beast of the Asturias on Stage 13 could be the decisive moment of the general classification. Coming at the end of the race's longest stage, after two category one climbs, the time gaps could be massive.
This will all take place in Spain's most beautiful region.
Hopkins: The return of the team time trial on Stage 5 is also one to note. It's been a while since we've seen one in a Grand Tour.
The Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France haven't seen a TTT since 2019, and the last one in a Grand Tour was the opening stage of the Vuelta in 2023, one that race organizers might prefer to forget. Thunder and lightning caused delays to the race, leaving the final few teams racing in both rain and darkness.
This year, the Vuelta is shooting for redemption.
Whitehead: Do you remember the Vuelta stage that began in a supermarket? That's not the start of a bad joke, but a genuine potential answer to this question.
But no, there are other novelties -- not least the emergence of several young stars, which comes around every August like the blackberry harvest.
Last year's was Pablo Castrillo, who excelled in winning two stages for the tiny Kern Pharma team, but which also saw a debut for Lidl-Trek's Mathias Vacek, and a breakout Grand Tour for Irishman Eddie Dunbar.
This edition? Twenty-year-old French prospect Léo Bisiaux could shine after a good summer so far, though it's a shame that Visma-Lease a Bike have opted against taking 20-year-old British talent Matthew Brennan...
Hopkins: Held towards the end of the season, the Vuelta is unique.
It doesn't quite have the same prestige as the other two Grand Tours, and is often used in part as a comeback tour for those injured earlier in the season, such as the returning Jasper Philipsen, or an introduction for younger riders -- despite the stacked field.
So I am going to have to piggyback onto the point about emerging talent. After all, with the dropout of EF Education-Easypost's Richard Carapaz, EF is fielding a team with five riders that can compete in the youth classification.
Whitehead: "Are they playing 'Southern Spain is lava?'" was one online take on this year's route. Once in Spain itself, the route is sucked to the country's northern borders and coastline.
Some of this is simply geography -- of Spain's major mountain ranges, only the Sierra Nevada are in the south proper. With 2025 marking the Vuelta's 90th anniversary, organizers were keen to mark some of the race's historic climbs -- which are traditionally collected in the north.
Weather is also a consideration, with southern Spain in August having the potential to be unraceable.
But in reality, much of this is merely variation -- both 2022 and 2024 saw a majority of stages in the south, while 2023 hosted a cluster of days in the east. This year, organizers wanted one of the hilliest routes in history, initially looking to attract Pogačar. The north simply offers the most opportunities.