La Calahorra > Collado del Alguacil 187km

The Queen stage of the Vuelta and one of the hardest days for a few years. The riders spend the day in Sierra Nevada, a place many will know well from team camps. The organisers did have to adjust their plans as it wasn’t possible to climb Alto de Hazallanas due to a landslide, this has been replaced by the first ever ascent of Puerto de El Duque, which actually shares its final section with Hazallanas. The numbers make for terrifying reading, 187km and 4900m of climbing, add in the heat and fatigue and anything is still possible.