João Almeida (UAE Team Emirate-XRG) grabbed the stage victory from race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as the Dane seemed content to stay at his back wheel on the final few hundred metres of the 12.5 km ascent.
Jai Hindley and Sepp Kuss led the main chase behind the two race leaders on the 202.7km stage with over 4,000 metres of climb where the main contenders group caught up with the last survivor of the day's breakaway, Bob Jungles (Ineos Grenadiers), as the race was decided on the slopes of the Angliru.
Today's stage was again haunted by Gaza protesters who stopped Cepeda, Jungels and Vinokurov at the bottom of the L’Angliru climb. The protesters were removed peacefully by Policemen and the race continued with thirteen kilometers remaining to the finish line at the summit of L’Angliru.
The top two in the general classification battled it out for the stage win, leaving the rest behind in the final five km. Almeida did all the work on the climb and stayed ahead of Vingegaard in the sprint to the line.
"First of all... what a day it was. It was a hard day. I have to thank my teammates. They did a fantastic job today and drove absolutely fantastic – all of them. I think it's crazy that we have two men keeping 25 men on such a tight leash. They did super well", said Vingegaard to TV2 Sport after the race.
"I would have liked to have been able to win the stage. Both for them, but also for my family at home. It's a bit of a shame. But João also deserves the victory today. He drove mega-strong up Angliru. It was a tough climb."
Almeida closes the gap to the red jersey to 46 seconds, thanks to the bonus seconds for the stage win, with Britain's Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) losing time but holding onto third overall, two minutes and 18 seconds off the leader.
Saturday’s stage 14 of Vuelta a Espana 2025 will be a 135.9-kilometer ride in the mountains on a route from Aviles to La Farrapona Lagos de Somiedo.