Pamplona – Viana
Distance: 180km
Highest point: 635m
Category: Rolling
Easy does it
When Vuelta route director Abraham Olano looked for a course for the race’s opening road stage, he looked to Navarran cycling heroes Miguel Indurain and Vicente García Acosta and considered the difficulty of the stages just ahead. Consequently, they decided against the inclusion of the tough ascent of the Etxauri. Although the road bumps up and down, there is just one categorised climb, the cat 3 Alto de la Chapela, where the first rider over the top will guarantee himself at least a day in the King of the Mountains jersey. The slightly rising final kilometre won’t deter the bunch sprinters.
Markel Irizar: "I know this area well and it can be windy around. This should be one of the easiest stages but it depends where the finish is exactly. Often races finish on a short, 800m hill in Viana. It could complicate things for the sprinters."
-
'No reason to panic' – Remco Evenepoel drops down Volta a Catalunya standings as Florian Lipowitz closes in on podium
Belgian says 'I've felt worse two days after a fall' as tactics favour his German teammate -
'Today I lost a life for sure' - Tom Pidcock 'OK' after crashing into a ravine in the Volta a Catalunya out of sight of race
'I was far from the road and nobody knew I was there,' says Briton, bolstering UCI case for GPS tracking -
'I gave up, actually, because they were so close' – Mathieu van der Poel made to look human despite completing E3 Saxo Classic hat-trick with 'one of my best efforts'
Dutchman talks through 63km solo win after chasing quartet fumbled the catch in the final kilometres of a dramatic edition -
'It's not up to us' or 'there is no more time to gamble'? How big teams in the peloton failed to chase down Mathieu van der Poel in E3 Saxo Classic
Peloton was at one point only 30 seconds behind solo Dutchman, with numbers for many teams, but directors from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek disagree on where chasing responsibility lies
