They are getting underway in Spain. Niedermaier is out sick, so don't expect CSR to complete a hattrick.
The live stream starts at 12 local time, so it's possible they will already have climbed Piornal by then.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyZKRq4rAnw
The last two years the queen stages have been in need of an Extremadura makeover due to bad weather, but that has fortunately not scared the organisers away from cooking up another challenging parcours. And they haven't had to alter it this year, so we are getting the real thing!
The first 15 km are slightly downhill until they reach the bottom of the Alto de la Puria. The QOM sprint is positioned at the top of the first lump on the profile below, ans then they continue onwards to El Torno before they start to descend.
As you can see on the second profile, this descent is steeper than the ascent. This is followed by a short flat stretch through Rio Jerte where an intermediate sprint will be dealt with.
This stage does have its similarities with stage 18 from the men's 2022 Vuelta, where Remco Evenepoel was the fastest on the day. On that occasion they climbed Alto del Piornal twice, from different directions and the Alto de la Desesperá, which is a section of a third ascent of Piornal, once. Now on this stage they will be riding Piornal once from the side they finished in the 2022 Vuelta, as well as in the inaugural 2022 edition of this race, where Megan Monk (née Armitage) took what sadly proved to be the only elite victories in her career. After that they will climbing Alto de la Desesperá twice, but with different run ins.
The will only climb towards the town of Piornal at around 1180m before starting the descent, which is the road from near the top to Barrado on the second profile.
La Desesperá is fairly similar to the Alto de Rozavientos section of Lagunas de Neila, which we know from Vuelta a Burgos as well as last year's Vuelta Femenina, albeit at 600m closer to sea level. It is however at 600m higher altitude than the also similar Mendizorrotz from Itzulia/San Sebastián. Unlike Rozavientos, the steepest part comes at the start of the climb rather than towards the top.
Now when you're finishing off with two ascents of the same climb, there are at least two scenarios you want to avoid. One is to put the climbs too close to each other so that the race could already be decided on the first one, the other is to have them be so far apart that nothing will happen the first time up. On this occasion my worry is that they've done the latter. There are almost 40 km from the top of Desesperá until the gradually start climbing again. This could of course create an interesting scenario if a group goes clear on the first ascent, but I'm not sure that will be the case. Time will tell.
After the first part of the descent from Desesperá which averages 5-6%, they'll cross the finish line in Jaraíz de la Vera for the first time after a few kilometers with smaller negative gradients. Then the road continues downhill to km 0 on the profile below.
After nearly 20 km of flat, it's time to revisit Deseperá. They now climb from the bottom in Valdeíñigos de Tiétar until shortly before km 18 on the profile below. Most of the added climbing is false flat, but it can course still help to tire out the legs a bit more before the tough gradients reappear.
After the top they'll descend all the way down through Pasarón de la Vera which they don't do the first time around. At km 10 they'll turn right where they'll enter the last profile at around km 8.
This false flat finish means it isn't an outright descent finish and it is therefore safe in the eyes of Adam Hansen. I doubt it will end in a sprint, but the descent could be both be used to extend a lead or close a gap depending on who's the strongest on the climb.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram