CYCLING – AFTER six stages of the 2025 Vuelta a España, Bahrain Victorious hold the overall race lead in a Grand Tour for just the second time in the team’s nine year history.
El Maillot Rojo is back on the shoulders of a TBV rider thanks to Torstein Traeen, who claimed it from the breakaway on a mountainous 170.3 kilometres from Olot to the ski resort of Pal in Andorra.
The 30-year-old Norwegian climber was part of a 10-man group which formed after 17km and included strong riders such as Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates – XRG).
It is a strange coincidence that the other time TBV took this jersey was also by finishing second on S6! (Dylan Teuns, 2019).
On a hilly parcours which featured the 11km second category Collada de Sentigosa and the first category Collada de Toses (the opening C1 climb of this Vuelta), the escapees’ advantage grew steadily, reaching over five minutes with 50km to go. The gap widened further, passing six minutes as the race entered Andorra for the final 35km.
As the category two Alto de la Comella approached, Jay Vine attacked and opened up a significant gap. On the final mountain test, (another C1, with five km left), Traeen accelerated and chased Vine to the summit finish in Pal, crossing the line in second, 54” behind, with Fortunato rounding out the podium in 3rd at +1’10”.
Traeen’s effort was rewarded with the incredible joy of leading the year’s final Grand Tour, ahead of Armirail (+31”) and Fortunato (+1’01”). The 30 year old, who won his first professional race with Bahrain Victorious last year at the Tour de Suisse on the San Gotthard, admitted he still hasn’t fully realised what he has achieved.
“It’s a bit unrealistic, I have to admit. It’s my first time in the red jersey and in the leader’s jersey of a Grand Tour. It’s obviously pretty special and quite unexpected. This morning the plan was to join the day’s breakaway and try to go for the stage victory. When I saw that Jay Vine was among the attackers, I thought it would not be easy to beat him. However, I was in a good position to try to take the red jersey. It was such a hard day. There were moments when the effort was extreme, and it was also pouring with rain in some parts of the race. I just kept pedalling and went as hard as I could, thinking about the goal of the red jersey. Now that I’m wearing it, I want to try to defend it tomorrow,” he said.
Lead sports director Franco Pellizotti said: “For the team, it is a great satisfaction to have the red jersey. Torstein had great legs today, and given how strongly he rode on the last climb, he could even have fought for the stage victory. As a team we rode well, placing the right man in the right break. It’s a big satisfaction for us to have taken this jersey. Behind, the guys also rode well to support Tiberi. He’s showing he is growing day by day and is able to stay with the best riders.”
Today La Vuelta will see another challenging day, as Stage 7 (187km from Andorra la Vella to Cerler, Huesca La Magia) is the most mountainous of this 80th edition, featuring over 4,200 metres of elevation gain.
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