Stage 1 of La Vuelta a España today: route, profile, schedule, and where to watch online and on TV

The Vuelta a España completes its 80th edition in 2025. It's no ordinary year for the third Grand Tour of the cycling calendar, as the organizers pay tribute to its history with the start in Italy , thus completing its tour of the main cycling nations after France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

With the starting gun fired in the Piedmont region, the birthplace of Angelo Conterno, the first of six Italian winners of La Vuelta, the peloton also passes through France, Andorra, and Spain in an edition that features the novelty of the southernmost point being the capital, Madrid, and only for the final stage.

The 2025 Vuelta doesn't offer many opportunities for pure sprinters. However, this Saturday, August 23rd, is one of them , as the first stage is essentially flat, with the exception of a single third-category climb in the opening section.

It's not just a novelty that it starts in Italy (specifically in Turin and finishes in Novara after a 186.1-kilometer route), but that it does so with a road stage and not a time trial, either individual or team, as has been the tradition in La Vuelta in recent years.

In fact, it's been five years since La Vuelta started with a road stage, giving the sprinters a chance to don the red jersey this Saturday in Novara. For now, everything indicates that the big favorite for overall victory, Jonas Vingegaard, will have to wait to don the leader's jersey.

The first stage of La Vuelta a España 2025 will start around 1:00 PM and is expected to finish around 5:20 PM. RTVE will broadcast all stages free-to-air via its various channels (La 1, La 2, and Teledeporte), as well as on RTVE Play , its streaming and on-demand content platform.

The alternative to the public broadcaster is Eurosport , which broadcasts all stages of La Vuelta on its first channel (Eurosport 1), as well as, of course, on its streaming platform HBO Max . And remember, you can also follow all the news about La Vuelta on abc.es.