La Vuelta 2018 Stage 7: Puerto Lumbreras - Pozo Alcón (185.7 km)

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Once the flag is dropped the road rises slightly, which is typical for what the day holds in store. A route that’s going up and down without ever getting steep. Two 3rd category climbs are the biggest hurdles – the first one after 117 km, the second one opening up the finale with 12.7 km left to race. After the top the route continues with short drops and ramps to a false flat to the line.

The 7th stage of La Vuelta ends on a local circuit of 50 km, which features the above mentioned climb. The finale opens on a 4.5 km slope at 5.4% before a 4.1 km downhill leads to a 1.7 km climb at 7.8%. Then the road continues as a false flat for 5.5 km. A sharp left-hander appears 300 m before the line.

Fernando Escartín’s commentary:

FLAT. The mountain pass, located in the final part of the stage, will lead to significant breakaways. The expected outcome is for less than one hundred riders to reach the end with the option of winning with a sprint to the finish-line.

Profile:


Last 5km:


GC:
1 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 22:26:15
2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:00:41
3 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:48
4 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:51
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:53
6 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:11
7 Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:14
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team
9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:18
10 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:23

TV Coverage:
Live on Eurosport1 at 1:30pm
Highlights at 7pm (ITV4), 8pm (Eurosport1), 9:30pm (Eurosport2) and 11:30pm (Eurosport1).

Nico's Diary:
https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/nicholas-roche-trophy-was-nice-but-will-be-hard-to-divide-between-eight-37268950.html

Odds:
Valverde 4/1, Kwiatkowski 10/1, Sagan 15/2, Martin 14/1, Teuns 16/1

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7-rider breakaway: Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Michael Woods (Education First-Drapac), Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo), Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo), Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Alex Aranburu (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias).

The gap is at 2'45 with 148 km to go.

Didn't see this yesterday. Barriers were blow across the road by a helicopter causing a crash.

Puncture for Dan on the climb. Kwiatkowski off on the decent it's been reported but I didn't see it.

EDIT: Replay there showed the Sky guys sliding out on a corner.

MPFGLB

Very haphazard finale

Good attack by Gallopin ...a bit like he is in San Sebastian

On today like today and yesterday we see more changes on GC than on MTF days

Zakarin has not given up the hope considering he did most of the pulling of Kwaito to the line