Remiremont > Morteau 159km What a horrible decision by Danny Stam. The yellow jersey is lying on the floor, and you make the call to let Vas and Wiebes to keep riding and go for the stage, instead of sending at least one of them back to help. Without a shadow of a doubt, it would have been a different call if Vollering was staying in the team next year. Fingers crossed everyone involved in the crash is okay, especially Vollering, everyone wants to see a fair battle for yellow. Stam should be shown the door, it’s long overdue.

When does a route become too hard? I think this could be it, and it’s not good for the race. The organisers have put together a race with 61,522m of climbing, compare that to 46,664 at the Giro and 53,618 at the Tour, this Vuelta has a ridiculous amount of elevation gain. It will likely lead to a lot of negative racing and a substantial number of breakaway wins, but what do I know. The big news is Roglič is here, he’s looking to win his 4th red jersey, which would put him equal with Roberto Heras as the most successful...

Bastogne > Amnéville 152km The race heads to France. This is a hilly stage, 2122m of climbing is a lot for the riders to deal with. The good news for the fast finishers is a lot of the climbing will be taken at tempo, but the final climb will still require a big effort for most to get over. 

Valkenburg > Liège 122km Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best stage of the race. With about 45km to go, the riders hit the finale of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. I’ll refrain from calling it a mini-LBL, this stage only has 1972m of climbing compared to 2829m in the real race. What we have is a very challenging end to a stage, one where many scenarios could play out. After today’s exceptional performance by Vollering, SD Worx are in yellow, but will they chase and go for another stage win?

Dordrecht > Rotterdam 70km Day 2 of the race is split into two stages, but instead of sticking to tradition and calling them 2a and 2b, they are called stages 2 and 3. First up, in the morning, is a short stage and it’s one for the sprinters. Just 70km in length, there’s not even a QOM or sprint point to raise excitement levels.

Rotterdam > The Hague 123km The opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes starts in Rotterdam and finishes in The Hauge. It’s pan flat with the novelty of having a QOM point at an elevation of 2 metres above sea level, I suppose they needed to find some way of handing out the jersey. It’s a nailed-on sprint, and they two big favourites are both Dutch, they have some extra motivation to take the win.

After Demi Vollering blew everyone away last year, she’s back to defend her title, but with rumblings of discontent from the SD Worx camp, there is some hope for her rivals. The race is made up of 8 stages, one day has two stages, with the big mountains saved for the end. Although it’s the Tour de France, the race starts with three finishes in the Netherlands and one in Belgium, before eventually heading into France on stage 5. The Queen stage is the final one, the first time the race has included the mighty, Alpe d’Huez.

San Sebastián > San Sebastián 235km The organisers continue to tinker with the route of this beautiful race. Last year, they moved the Jaizkibel and Erlaitz climbs further from the finish to try and stop Remco from going long. In response, he still attacked on the Erlaitz, despite being 75km from the finish and the TV cameras weren’t even on yet! He’s not here, so they’ve moved these climbs back towards the finish, it’s unlikely we’ll see a big solo move. They’ve also found a new final climb, more about that later. The Olympics has also meant the race has...

Frías > Treviño 156km The final stage in Burgos is one I’d love to go the way of the break, but it looks like it’ll be another sprint. There is some hope for the morning attack, but it’s got to contain riders from teams like Visma, Ineos, Movistar and Trek. If some of these “big” teams get involved, it will be hard for Jayco, Q36.5 and DSM to chase it down.

Sta María del Campo > Pampliega 18.5km ITT The day which will decide the GC. The riders are faced with an 18.5km ITT through the wide-open countryside on the outskirts of Burgos. It’s a day for the specialists, there’s only 114m of climbing throughout the stage, it’s all about horsepower.