The many nuances and complications of analysing a team’s performance at a Grand Tour was epitomised by UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s showing at this year’s Vuelta a España. To what extent did the many personal triumphs from the riders on their roster constitute a success, and how much of the internal tension and disharmony take away from that?
The other teams were less divided, but even within them there will be some riders happy with their performances and others not, given they had their own personal ambitions as well as that of the team’s overall plan.
Some teams were obvious successes, some clear failures, and many more somewhere in between. Here, we look at all the participants and consider how happy each of them will be from their showings at the third and final Grand Tour of the 2025 season.
Alpecin-Deceuninck 8 /10
Everything was geared towards the bunch sprints, and Jasper Philipsen delivered on the team’s typically refined lead-out to comfortably dominate them. There weren’t many chances for the sprinters, but Philipsen made the most of them, winning three of the five bunch finishes. 
Arkéa B&B Hotels 4/10
As they search desperately for a new sponsor, the team could have done with a big performance at this Vuelta, and Raúl García Pierna looked like he might deliver just that when he placed third in the stage 7 breakaway, and fifth in the GC group on stage nine. But he crashed out the very next stage, leaving the rest of the squad to fruitlessly chase breaks, while Jenthe Biermans sealed a couple of top fives in the sprints; a rider who, like García Pierna, is set to leave the team, further plunging into doubt their future.
Bahrain-Victorious 6 /10
Ninth overall would not have been what Bahrain-Victorious hoped for going into the Vuelta, given the calibre of Antonio Tiberi and Santiago Buitrago as GC contenders. But for Torstein Træen it was a career-best result, and his four-day spell in the red jersey at the end of the first week is what ultimately saved their race.
Burgos Burpellet BH 4 /10
This was a bruising race for the wildcard entry, as illness spread throughout the roster, reducing them to just four riders by the second week. Consequently, they were unable to make much of an impression.
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 6 /10
The more successful of the two Spanish wildcard teams, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA animated the breaks, with Joel Nicolau especially catching the eye with a two-day spell leading the mountains classification and the super-combativity award. Abel Balderstone also gave them the honour of having the highest ranked Spanish rider by placing 13th overall.
Cofidis 2 /10
Another difficult Grand Tour for Cofidis saw three riders drop out before the halfway stage, Bryan Coquard unable to get involved in the sprints, and Emanuel Buchmann remaining anonymous. Given the threat of relegation from the World Tour hanging over them, they really needed better results. 
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale 6 /10
As at the Tour de France, the team put all their efforts into Felix Gall’s GC bid; but whereas he improved at that race went along to climb to fifth overall, this time he faded from fifth at the end of the second week to eighth by the end of the race. Bruno Armirail had some freedom to ride for himself, and delivered a fourth place in the stage 18 time trial and stage 6 breakaway.
EF Education-EasyPost 3 /10
After the highs of Carapaz’s podium finish at the Giro and Ben Healy’s brilliant Tour de France appearance, this Vuelta brought EF Education-EasyPost back down to earth. Their young roster featuring the likes of Archie Ryan, Markel Beloki and Sean Quinn showed flashes of talent, but didn’t come close to a stage win.
Groupama-FDJ 6 /10
David Gaudu got the team’s race off to a sensational start by winning the uphill finish on stage three. Though that was all he would do all Vuelta, and he failed to mount a GC challenge, that win alone was enough to make the team’s race a success, and the likes of Brieuc Rolland (who twice placed third on mountain breakaway stages) kept them a constant presence in the breakaways.
Ineos Grenadiers 8 /10
It was a feel-good race for Ineos from start to finish, with Ben Turner delivering a sprint stage win in the first week, Egan Bernal completing a moving comeback story by winning stage 16, and Filippo Ganna adding a time trial victory a couple of days later. This is a very different Ineos from what we’ve grown used to, with no interest in chasing the GC, but three stage wins is their highest at any Grand Tour since the 2022 Vuelta. 
Intermarché-Wanty 2 /10
Amid talks of a merger with fellow Belgian team Lotto, the Intermarché-Wanty roster were largely anonymous at the Vuelta. Arne Marit was the only man to deliver a noteworthy result, placing third and sixth in two of the bunch sprints.
Israel-Premier Tech
The controversy of the Israeli team’s ongoing participation in bike races reached boiling point at this Vuelta, and their presence was the target of the protesters that were so prominent throughout the race, arguably underlining how they should not have been competing. From a purely sporting perspective, the team will be happy with Matthew Riccitello's victory in the youth classification.
Jayco-AlUla 2 /10
Last year’s runner-up Ben O’Connor did not deliver the GC challenge the team had hoped for upon signing him, and abandoned the race following the aftermath of a crash during the second week. That left them scrambling for breakaways, with Eddie Dunbar impressing the most, but they finished the race winless, ending a run of four successive Grand Tours with a stage win.
Lidl-Trek 7 /10
That man Mads Pedersen was once again the centre of attention, entertaining us all with his restless attacking racing in all terrain, riding consistently throughout to run away with the green jersey, and at last grabbing a stage win in Galicia from the breakaway after a series of near misses. But this was a collective effort from Lidl-Trek, Pedersen capitalising on having multiple teammates with him when in the break, and sacrificing himself for the likes of Giulio Ciccone on other days.
Lotto 4 /10
The way Elia Viviani sprinted in Zaragoza, beaten to the line only by Jasper Philipsen, encouraged Lotto to target the sprints, and they took it upon themselves to help control the peloton on the flat stages. But opportunities were scarce, especially after the final stage cancellation, and the fact he was relegated in that Zaragoza stage for deviating from his line meant he never actually bettered his fourth-place finish from the opening day.
Movistar 5 /10
Normally such a force at their home Grand Tour, the absence of injured Enric Mas left Movistar without a GC contender, and thus their first Vuelta in eight years without a finisher in the top ten. Instead, they targeted stage wins, and came agonisingly close on several occasions, Orluis Aular, Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo all picking up runner-up finishes during the second week, and Aular adding a couple of third-place finishes in the bunch sprints.
Team Picnic PostNL 3 /10
With sprinter Casper van Uden withdrawing after an underwhelming start and none of their young roster breaking through with a surprise performance, the Vuelta failed to live up to the success Picnic-PostNL enjoyed at both the Giro and the Tour. Kevin Vermaerke was their standout rider, frequenting many breakaways and getting a sixth and seventh finish from them.
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team: 8 /10
This was a landmark race in both the career of Tom Pidcock, and the stature of the Q.36.5 team. His surprise third place finish overall proved that he can compete for GC at Grand Tours, and the wildcard invite - for whom this was just their second ever Grand Tour appearance - can now dream bigger and start to build upon his success at this race.
Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe 7 /10
The two-pronged approach of Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari made Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe one of the leading teams in the mountains, and though they weren’t quite able to get the former on the podium, fourth and sixth palace respectively is still a very good turn. Pellizzari will be disappointed at losing the white jersey at the very last hurdle, but his stage win atop Alto de El Morredero was one of the most impressive of the race.
Soudal-QuickStep 4 /10
Had Mikel Landa been fully fit, an eleventh place finish on the GC would have been disappointing, but, in the context of his overall recovery from injury, the 11th place managed by his deputy Junior Lecerf wasn’t so bad. It had been hoped that Landa would come into his best towards the end of the race, and he indeed came very close to a stage win in Bilbao, beaten to the line by Egan Bernal.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG 9/10
Where to begin with trying to assess the merits of UAE Team Emirates XRG’s Vuelta? On one hand, seven stage wins is a huge haul by any measure; on the other hand, they far from represented a unified front, with Marc Soler (one stage win), Jay Vine (two stage wins and the mountains classification) and most controversially of all Juan Ayuso (two stage wins) achieving their success at the expense of aiding João Almeida’s red jersey bid. 
Whether or not a more unified approach would have made the difference in dethroning Jonas Vingegaard will never be known, but the fact the Dane was always the top favourite to take the red jersey, and that Almeida still managed to finish second place while the others were out hunting for personal glory
Visma-Lease a Bike 10 /10
While UAE Team Emirates-XRG were riding chaotically, Visma-Lease a Bike rode a textbook Grand Tour throughout, and controlled the GC race from start to finish. Jonas Vingegaard won three stages en route to the overall title, and was well-supported by his climbing domestiques Matteo Jorgenson, and Sepp Kuss, who were able to look after him and help him through an illness that slowed him down towards the end of the race.
This is Visma-Lease a Bike’s second Grand Tour title of the season having missed out in all of them last year, and this was a satisfying blow over their great rivals UAE Team Emirates-XRG following all the pain Tadej Pogačar has put them through.
XDS Astana 3 /10
This wasn’t the same attacking, adventurous XDS Astana of the start of the season, and Nicolas Vinokurov was the only one of their line-up to make much of an impression in the breakaways. Harold Tejada did manage a quiet twelfth overall finish.
