This year's course for the Vuelta a España is sort of like an expanding helium balloon, as the peloton goes deeper into the three weeks and further south into Spain, the climbing continues to grow. However, stage 6 delivers a rush of intrigue with gravel making a return on the final climb of a mountain day in northern Valencia.
The Vuelta calls this 177.4km route on August 27 "ambush territory". Canadian climber and three-time Vuelta stage winner Michael Woods calls this "compelling, interesting, high drama", but those superlatives are more for race spectators and television viewers, not the pro riders.
"Like the 2022 Tour or 2024 Tour, with gravel sectors, or the Giro in the past, having a Strade Bianche-style stage [2021], it does introduce a lot more chaos. And from a spectator's perspective, it's awesome. These stages were amazing stages to watch, compelling, interesting, high drama. So I can see why Grand Tours are interested in putting them in," Woods told Cyclingnews.
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"I think most riders would prefer them not to be there, particularly if you're in the GC position. Rarely, as a GC rider, are you looking to gain an advantage in those scenarios. You're more just trying not to lose."
Woods will line up for Team Canada at this year's Road World Championships in Montreal, but no longer competes with a full calendar of WorldTour events. Even though he admitted he had an offer to continue with a 16th pro road campaign this year, he instead found his own sponsors for the privateer path.
Two years ago, Woods won a Canadian road race title and a third career stage at the Vuelta a España. He won a stage across five appearances at the Tour de France, finishing the 2025 Tour with Israel-Premier Tech for his 13th Grand Tour appearance, and an injury later in the year led him to retire. But he's still up to speed on the pro peloton and what's coming with a very mountainous Vuelta this year, including a return with some gravel.
"For this route, it's the same when the Vuelta had a gravel section in the Andorra stage [in 2019], where you have to ride a couple of kilometres on it, and it makes it more interesting," he said.
"I actually think it could impact the race because it's a challenging section. But I don't think it will undo anybody because of the gravel. It's so short, and it's uphill.
"The only real thing that's going to change is just how the rider goes up. Technically, like for me, I always disliked it when that [gravel] was introduced because it disadvantaged someone who can stand [to climb]. It's easier to stay seated [to climb on gravel], and that way you don't lose traction with your rear wheel."
Woods has had a mixed bag of results and experiences at his bucket list of global events so far. He has had top 10s at two UCI Gravel World Series races, including second at OG Classique in Quebec. At his debut at Unbound Gravel 200, he suffered a number of crashes, flats and a scratched cornea, which saw him pull out after the 151-mile time check, though going deeper into the 204-mile race than other former WorldTour riders like Paul Voss, Romain Bardet and Thomas De Gendt.
He also crossed the finish line first among elite men at the Canadian Gravel Championships, but that race division, and several others on the longest course, were cancelled due to high temperatures, so he only has the memories that he "suffered like a dog for this" and not an official title.
Most recently, he finished 14th at Leadville Trail 100 MTB. At least he was able to get a Leadville mountain bike race in the books, though he was concerned he had travelled from his home in Andorra to North America for a second time, and his efforts would not count, or there would be no race at all.
"Leadville was such a cool event. I'm really glad I went," Woods said. In his debut at the mountain bike race, he was in the top 15, 111:46 behind winner Keegan Swenson, but also the third-best of the elite men not part of the Life Time Grand Prix.
"Powerline being gone took out some of the technicality of the race and made it a bit less demanding. So yeah, it would have been cool to do the original course, but it's just amazing that they were able to pull it off, considering all the wildfires."
The Vuelta a España introduced gravel for the first time in 2019. That year was notable not just for the gravel, but who won that stage - it was Tadej Pogačar's first Grant Tour victory. He wears the red leader's jersey for the first time in his career in the early days of this year's Vuelta. If he likes to climb while seated, the 3.5km of gravel will pose no obstacle just before the summit of the Cat.1 Puerto El Bartolo, with under 20km for the finish.
"Guys are going to obviously be aware of it. There's going to be for sure extra protocols around flats," Woods warned.
"It's really not going to impact the race that much. This one's going to be pretty insignificant in the sense of its location. It isn't the final."
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