Dénia > Xorret de Catí. Costa Blanca Interior 164km

It’s stage 8 and the race continues to head south, this time down towards Alicante. FDJ are in the race lead, and they’ll be looking to stay in red for as long as they can. That means it’s very unlikely we’ll see another breakaway the size of the peloton, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a GC day.

Last time the stage finished here, it was Julian Alaphilippe who took a wonderful win, who’ll be the lucky man this time round?

Weather

The current forecast is for rain, not what the doctor ordered.

Key Points

This is the first climb of the day; it starts after just 20km of racing. Hello breakaway! 8.2km at 5.6% is tough enough for a strong break to form and never be seen again, perfect for climbers who struggle to make moves on the flat.

Xorret de Catí is the final climb of the day, it’s a horrible little devil of a hill. 3.8km at 11.5% with a maximum of 21.2%, it’s hard and long enough to create gaps between the best GC riders, but not massive gaps, it’s not a day where you can win the red jersey, especially as they’ll be a 12km/h headwind. From the crest there’s just over 3km to go.

The descent is steep and very fast, but it’s straight and untechnical. The road rises at the flamme rouge, then goes down again before the final rise to the line which starts with 300m to go.