Stage 18 (Suances - Santo Toribio de Liébana)
Rolling Stage, Uphill finish (169km)
The Stage
A tricky day on which anything could happen. The climbing is all backloaded into the second half for the stage before the last ‘wall’ finish of the race.
The Route
The first 40 kilometres hug the north-west coast near Santander and they are all on rolling roads. The first 5 km are uncategorised uphill and then they loop through Pechón and Pesués and head inland.
The road heads south past Abanillas and Labarces before they hit the feed zone at Cabezón de la Sal.
They then hit the first of four categorised climbs here, The Collada de Carmona, 4.8 kilometres at 7.2%, and they then descent straight into the Collada de Ozalba, which is 6 kilometres long at 6.6%.
That’s not the end of it because it’s straight into the intermediate sprint at Sobrelapeña, a 7 kilometre-long climb at 6%, and then they descend before a 15km run to the finish.
The Finish
Actually, rises for a good amount of time until the final categorised climb and the finish, the Santo Toribio de Liébana. It’s listed as 3.2km at 6.4, but the last 2.2km is listed as 9%, so it’s similar to the earlier finishes we’ve had.
The Rider
A puncheur’s day, although climbers may have interest if they can contest the stage win.
The Contenders
This is classic breakaway material. We know who’s likely to be strong enough to get away now and previous escapees have form. Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko has ridden strongly all race and was strongest on a similar finish to Alecossebre on Stage 5 when Marc Soler finished strongly.
Julian Alaphilippe used the breakaway to take the victory on the Xorret de Cati when he beat Rafal Majka and Jan Polanc, who has gotten into a number of escapes for UAE Team Emirates.
Matej Mohoric has shown his talents already by winning Stage 7 and is another choice for the Emirati team whilst Alexis Gougeard could be a card for AG2R to play along with Tobias Ludvigsson. Thomas de Gendt and Alessandro De Marchi are others.