After starting in Oviedo, the home city of 2008 Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez and Spanish climbing legend José Manuel Fuente, the course bumps along the rugged and beautiful Asturian coast before turning south towards one of the most famous climbs in Spanish cycling. First tackled in 1983, Covadonga last featured in 2012 when Caja Rural's Antonio Piedra completely justified his small team's wild card invite by winning the stage. None of this edition's star names has ever won there, so it will be interesting to see how they tackle it bearing in mind a much tougher mountain stage lies just ahead.
The gaps between the big guns weren't very significant back in 2012. We'd expect that to be the case again today.
Sean Kelly says: "Covadonga is a difficult climb, especially on such a short stage when everyone will be going flat out from the start. That will make it very nervous. The road used to be shocking and although it's better now, this stage could still prove decisive."
Copyright: lavuelta.com
-
![]()
Indurain puzzled by Movistar's leadership changes
'It’s a strategy they didn’t follow in other years' says five-time Tour de France winner -
![]()
Tour of Fuzhou: Rory Townsend wins stage 2
Irishman from Canyon DHB takes victory with team mate Charles Page third -
![]()
Transfer Mechanics: Analysing teams 2020 – part 2
How CCC Team, Deceuninck-QuickStep, Dimension Data, EF Education First and Groupama-FDJ fared on the transfer market -
![]()
Samuel Dumoulin bids farewell to successful 18-year professional career
Tour de France stage winner rode exclusively for French teams during almost two decades as a pro
