Ólvega > Zaragoza 151km

The only sprint in the second week, and potentially the last one until Madrid. Just two sprinters have won a stage in the race, that leaves a lot of fast men with one thing on their mind. Groves didn’t win last time round, he’s beatable, which will give many teams the hope they need to join the chase. 

Weather

Roasting hot, temperatures will nudge over 30 degrees. The wind is about 15km/h and will be headwind for most of the stage. There is a short crosswind section with 80km to go, but the wind would need to be stronger than predicted for us to see echelons.

Finale

The first difficulty is the little loop you can see with 4km to go. The peloton cross over the bridge, then have to take a narrow slip road before moving onto the road beside the river. They stay on this road until 1.2km to go, when they make a fast left and hit the finishing straight. 

Just under the flamme rouge the road kicks up but it barely lasts 200m, the riders won’t feel it. The bend in the road means the finish can’t be seen until around 350m to go, and it’s a wide finishing straight. As finishes go, this is the easiest one we’ve had so far.