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The day after the all important time trial will be another hilly stage with a potentially important final 25 kilometres for the general classification men.
The 204 kilometres trek on Stage 18 has ‘breakaway win’ written all over it.
The stage starts in the town of Roa, with the riders facing a fairly routine first hour and a half of racing in terms of parcours. However, with the chances for stage wins running out, making the break today could become quite a difficult task.
After 75 kilometres the riders will start to climb, with two category-three climbs in succession. The first, the Alto de Santibañez de Ayllón should not trouble the riders, being just under 8 kilometres at 3.5 per cent, while the second climb almost immediately after, the Alto del Campanario is just over 6 kilometres at 4 per cent gradient.
Both are fairly simple climbs on this transitional stage thus far. The riders will then descend for 10 kilometres and at the 100-kilometres-left mark start to face very lumpy roads which will continue all the way into the bottom of the final climb 75 kilometres later.
These heavy roads will hurt the riders legs before the final test of the category one climb of the Puerto de la Quesera. This climb is nothing that should really scare or threaten any of the general classification favourites in terms of gradient, with the average for the 11 kilometres being around 5.5 per cent. However, the length of both the stage and the final climb, and after a full gas effort the day before, some may crack.
The climb is completed with only 13 kilometres left in the race, and with a quick descent into the finish, any time loss up the climb may not be recovered.
A key GC day for the riders to be vigilant, but not attack you would think. I think could be a day for the breakaway.
Riders to look out for today include Nicolas Roche, Julien Simon, Jelle Vanendert, Sylvain Chavanel, Ruben Plaza, Giovanni Visconti, Steve Cummings, Nathanel Berhane, and Moreno Moser.
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