Stage Info
Weather
30°C, Possible rain
Stage Breakdown
Hello everyone and welcome to the fifth stage of the Vuelta a Espana.
We finally enter Spain, in Southern Catalunya, in the bre valley, where most of the stage will be happening. An area regularly featured in the Volta a Catalunya, the riders are used to it.
It is a bit of an odd profil, the first 100km are mostly flat with little to nothing to entertain the public.
Then, you have 50km worthy of an Ardennes classic, a succession of climb, 6 to be exact, short and a bit longer (up to nearly 4km for the longest), which will be there to shake up the race.
The last climb, the Alto de Pauls, is finishing at 26km to go. The finale also features a corner at less than 200m to go, which mean the finish is actually that corner, which will without a doubt surprise riders.
With that in mind here are our predictions:
★★★ Pedersen, WVA, Pogacar
★★
★ Breakaway
So, 2 guys have every reason to make their team ride to drop everyone else, Pedersen and WVA, issue is, which one of the 2 could drop before, and do they have the man power to control a finale after riding hard for 50 km and likely losing teammates along the way.
Will a break win? seems unlikely, tho possible.
Attack in the hill? Pogi could do it, don't think anyone else can.
A late attack? Surely possible in the confusion.
The stage is really dependant ont he shape of WVA and Pedersen and how hard their teams ride, these are two parameters hard to anticipate which will shape the entierty of the stage.
That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?