Pola de Allande > La Cruz de Linares 179km

Just when I think I’ve seen everything professional cycling can throw at me, along comes a stage like today. Surely, I’ve seen it all now. Anyway, the race rolls on, and it’s time for another huge day in the mountains, this stage has 4156m of climbing for the riders to deal with. 

Weather

Beautiful sunshine, a belter of a day.

Key Points

The climbing properly starts after 33km of racing, the break is likely to form at some point during the section above.

Puerto de San Lorenzo comes next, it’s a very difficult cat 1 climb, it should put serious fatigue into the legs.

This is the final climb of the day; the riders have to climb it twice in the final 34km. It is 8.5km at 8.3%, the opening 4.5km averages a big 10.6%.