Vuelta a España 2019 – Stage 8 Preview

Post Series: Vuelta a España 2019

Awesome mur finish today! The breakaway didn’t make it, but the four strongest man in the race made it quite a battle. It was the old dog Valverde who managed to take a Vuelta stage-win in his world-champion jersey. The difference in the GC between the top-4 is less than 30 seconds, which is bound to make things spectacular this sunday.

But first up is another stage which has potential for the breakaway lottery, or not?

The Route:

Stage 8 (166.9km) takes us from Valls to Igualada trough a lot of rollain terrain and a difficult climb!

Stage 8 profile

Plenty of space for a breakaway to form, with a cat-2 climb at less than 30 kilometers before the finish line. People who watched stage two will get a dejavu by seeing this profile, ‘should we put our money on Quintana again?’. Our answer to that is given sunday’s stage, a repeat of that scenario is very unlikely. We can’t see tomorrow turn out into a GC battle, but we also can’t exclude it given that we have seen weirder things so far.

A tough climb where the non-climbers will be dropped. A strong climber that manages to escape here might be able to take enough time to keep the gap all the way to the finish line.

The Weather:

It will be hot with temperatures of around 30 degrees.

The Race:

An early break will make it to the finish line, with the strongest rider(s) escaping on the cat-2 climb and finish solo/ reduced bunch sprint. We’re targetting either riders with an uphill kick who can TT their way to the finish, or faster men who can hang on on the climb and finish it off in a (reduced) sprint.

With that said, let’s head over to the favorites!

The Favorites:

Neilson Powless
On the verge of something amazing! Made a very strong impression during the Tour of Poland and so far so good during the Vuelta. If Jumbo Visma gives him a day off Roglic-duty, we could see the American challenge for the win. Should be able to tackle the climb and has the TT’ing strength to maintian a gap to the finish line.

Jesus Herrada
With a stage-win in his pocket the Cofidis climber will be allowed all freedom to go for more. The Vuelta is already a great success for the Spanish climber, but does he have more in store?

Daniel Felipe Martínez / Lawson Craddock
A strong time-trialist and a strong climber. With EF down to only a handfull or riders with TJ/Uran/Carthy dropping out and Higuita being hurt, they should start targetting stages. Daniel Felipe Martinez is one of the two feasible options for tomorrow, and we won’t be suprised to see him featured in the breakaway.

Lawson Craddock is the other option. He made some attempts to be in the breakaway in earlier stages, and should be targetting tomorrow’s stage as well!

Felix Großschartner
We’ll just keep promoting him until he decides to go for glory, will tomorrow be his big moment? The stage suits him very well!

Tao Geogegan-Hart
Repeat: He is either sick or he has something up on his sleeve! In a breakaway he should be one of the stronger man.

Wout Poels
Another impressive day on the front. Very keen to get in a break, but little success so far. Will tomorrow be his day, or will he keep his powder dry for sunday?

Thomas de Gendt
Breakaway specialist who managed to win four times already in this region. The terrain here is seemingly perfect for him, and he is another one of those riders who can maintain a gap all the way to the finish line. With his breakaways starting to get notorious, other riders will be unhappy to take him with them until the final climb. One to watch tomorrow!

Remi Cavagna
Won a stage with an impressive solo during the Tour of California and loves himself a breakaway! Climbs very well, possesses an uphill kick and is a decent TT’er. This is a great chance for him to break free and fight for his first grand tour stage victory!

Alex Aranburu
Has the punch to challenge for the win if he makes it to the line with the front group. Was very impressive during stage two and finished with the sprinters on today’s mur finish half an hour down. If he makes it into the break many riders will be affraid of dragging him to the finish-line, as he is strong enough to deliver the pro-continental teams their second stage-win in a row if it comes to a sprint! It would make race dynamics more interesting as it will force the climbers to put their cards on the table at the very start of the final climb if they want to drop him.

Patrick Bevin
We haven’t seen a lot of him so far at this years Vuelta, but this stage is made for him! He has the durability to survive the climb and has both a strong TT and a decent sprint. If he has the form he will definately challenge for the win tomorrow.

Outsiders: Dion Smith, any pro-conti climber.