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Vuelta a Espana Stage 15: Live race updates, blog

4th September, 2016
Distance: 118.5km
Start: SabiƱanigo
Finish: Aramon Formigal
TV: Live on SBS and Eurosport
Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia should see Vincenzo Nibali recover lost seconds. (Image: Team Sky).
Roar Guru
4th September, 2016
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1984 Reads

After a brutal test to the summit of the Col d’Aubisque yesterday, the riders will be once again in the Pyrennes, however, on the Spanish side of the border, as they tackle the 118 kilometres of Stage 15. Join The Roar‘s live coverage of Stage 15 of La Vuelta Espana from 11pm AEST.

Short mountain stages in Grand Tours have offered up some fantastic racing over the last few years, and today’s route does offer a chance for some attacking racing from the climbers. However, the climbs of today are nowhere near as hard as what was offered up on yesterday’s stage.

The race starts in the town of Sabinanigo and will climb out for a short period from the start, before settling into a very gradual descent to the bottom of the third category climb of the Alto de Petralba.

The climb is a 6.3 kilometre-long trek at 5% and should offer the first opportunity for riders to form the breakaway, if one isn’t already formed on the valley road before the climb.

It’s then a descent of 15 kilometres before the riders hit the hilly roads which lead onto the second category climb of the Alto de Cotefablo. The climb is 12.5 kilometres long at 4.3%.

It’s completed around 40 kilometres from the finish of the day’s stage, and could be a launching pad for the general classification riders to attack, much like Simon Yates did yesterday.

If that type of attack is an option for some of the general classification favourites, they will need to have teammates in the break to help them extend whatever gap they have on the early slopes of the descent.

Following the summit of the penultimate climb, the riders will descend for 15 kilometres into the town of Biescas, the site of the only intermediate sprint on the day’s route.

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The intermediate sprint comes with 28 kilometres to go and signals the start of the long drag up to the finish line.

The final climb of the day, the category one climb to the finishing town of Sallent de Gállego, is 14.5 kilometres long at only 4.6%, however, the final climb really does start from the intermediate sprint point.

The categorised part of the final climb comes with 4 distinct sections.

The first part; from 14.5 kilometres to go to 11 kilometres to go, features sections averaging around 10 percent, however, the bottom slopes are closer to 4 percent.

The next part is much easier, with the road averaging around 4.5 percent from 11 kilometres to go, to 6.5 kilometres to go. Once again, the steepest sections of this part of the climb are near the top of it, with sections around 6 to 7 percent with 7.5 kilometres to go.

It’s then a slight descent from 6.5 kilometres to go for around one kilometre, before starting the final part of the climb.

The 4.5 kilometres to go point signals the start of the last part of the climb, with the road averaging around 7.5 percent for the final kilometres.

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While the gradients are not as steep as what the riders face on the earlier mountain top finishes, the constant climbing over the previous two days could take its toll on the general classification favourites.

It’s sure to be an interesting stage, so join The Roar’s live coverage from 11pm AEST to see Quintana, Froome, Yates, Chaves, Konig and Contador battle it out on the final stages in the Pyrenees.

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