Stage 17 (Villadiego - Los Machucos. Monumento Vaca Pasiega)
Mountain Stage, Summit Finish (180.5km)
The Stage
One of the last two realistic chances to climb up the general classification with the Angilru being the second last stage – and that comes on Saturday. Ending for the first time at Los Machucos, it is an imperative day for all involved with either the polka dot or general classification battle.
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The Route
Uncomplicated to start, with a slight rise from the start as they pass through La Nuez de Arriba and then there isn’t much of note before the first of the day’s three categorised climbs.
The Category 2 Portillo de Lunada is an 8.3 kilometre-long climb at 5.7% that should soften up the legs plenty before a long and apparently spectacular descent then leads towards the sprint in Solares, at the base of the Puerto de Alisas (pictured), 10 kilometres at an average of 6% - for all that the opening to the climb is an easy one and the real climbing is more like 7%.
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The descent leads into today’s finale.
The Finish
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Infernal. Los Machucos makes its debut in the Vuelta and it looks like it will be back for a while. Hard starts to a climb have been a feature of this race but even by the Vuelta’s standards, this will be bringing riders to a standstill; The first kilometre alone has a section of 17.5% but you do not have to wait long for it to get even more extreme as 2.5km into the climb, it rears up to an eye-watering 28% (yes, 28%) before a brief respite for 400 metres and then two kilometres where the gradient doesn’t dip below 10%. 4.4km into the climb the road goes upto 22%; 500 metres late r the road will touch 17%, and then to finish the 7th kilometre, there’s a section at 16%.
There is a brief dip towards the line but not without a kicker at 11% as a last chance to earn the victory.
The Rider
You know what’s coming. A climber – a fly-weight probably.
The Contenders
A large amount of the roads here are relatively uncomplicated which lends itself towards the general classification men fighting things out for all that there are many climbers who are easily far behind enough to be let go.
Assuming that the main contenders fight it out then Miguel Angel Lopez has to be considered the favourite with two stages under his belt so far, although he is now sure to be more tightly marked by other main contenders. Chris Froome has his stage win and his great team of helpers, although it is much harder to pull a rider up these steep slopes.
Vicenzo Nibali has struggled with the really steep sections so far during the race so this might be a dangerous day for him and a few others who haven’t thrived on sharp ascent so far at shorter distances. They include Fabio Aru, who seemed to be going backwards before the rest day,
Alberto Contador paid the price for going very early on Sunday but he’s been one of the best on the steepest sections along with Michael Woods so both of them could take a hand here and we did see Esteban Chaves cope well with the best of the steeper sections. There is also the factor of second week form coming into play, as many of the aforementioned names could simply be better over longer climbs or reaching their form peak right now, and this should be a fascinating battle.
Break contenders would be led by Rafal Majka, Romain Bardet, and Darwin Atapuma whilst Davide Villela will surely be out to try and get points ahead of Saturday’s huge finale.
