Today’s stage of the Vuelta a Espana from Andorra la Vella to Cortals d´Encamp has been billed by many as the hardest Vuelta stage ever. Manager of the Movistar team, Eusebio Unzue told Cyclingnews earlier in the year that it was “the hardest stage I have ever seen in a Grand Tour.”
The stage, which Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) helped to design features one Category Two climb, four Category One climbs, and a Special Category climb. It includes approximately 5,000 metres of vertical climbing.
The riders will be climbing straight from the start as they take on the Cat. 1 Collada de Beixalis which they will summit after just 12 kilometres. The climbs has a maximum gradient of 14% so some riders could be in difficulty from very early on.
Next up are another two Cat. 1 climbs, the Coll d’Ordino and the Coll de la Rabassa.
The fourth climb of the day, the Collada de la Gallina is deemed to be the toughest of the day and the riders will reach this after 100 kilometres. The 12 kilometre long climb has a maximum gradient of 17% and an average gradient of 8%, so it’s going to hurt.
The penultimate climb is the Cat.2 Alto de la Cornella, before the summit finish to Alto Els Cortals d´Encamp. The final climb is steeper in the lower slopes, so for any GC contenders looking to gain time, the first 5 kms may offer the best opportunity.
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) goes into the stage wearing the leader’s red jersey, but there are nine riders within two minutes of the Dutchman.
Rodriguez is in second place 57″ down, with previous leader Johan Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) a further 2″ behind in third. Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) and Fabio Aru (Astana) complete the top five.
However, the challengers for Dumoulin’s jersey may come from the next riders in the top ten, Alejandro Valverde and his Movistar team mate Nairo Quintana and behind them in eighth place is Chris Froome (Team Sky). The Briton looks to have come into good form in the race after a shaky start, coming close to winning on Monday.
In the past, the really difficult stages can be a bit of an anti-climax as the difficulty seems to discourage riders from attacking early on. However, today’s stage is just 138 kilometres long which may encourage aggressive riding. We should know more about who are the real overall challengers for victory at the end of today.
