Stage 6: Reus - Valls, 154km
GPM:
Alt de La Mussara (cat.2) 13,2km @ 5,4%
Coll d’Alforja (cat.3) 5,0km @ 4,7%
Alt de L’Albiol (cat.2) 9,0km @ 6,1%
Alt de Mont-Ral (cat.2) 11,4km @ 5,3%
Alt de Lilla (cat.3) 5,4km @ 5,1%
A relatively short intermediate stage on day 6 for the riders, unlike any of the stages so far it’s not an easy opening before the climbing begins, instead the ascents are dispersed throughout the stage - however none of it is especially challenging in terms of gradients and so I anticipate this is likely to be a baroudeur’s type stage where the fight to get into the breakaway could be key as this is a stage which gives beaucoup opportunities to the escapees to make it count, with multiple platforms to attack that might not work too successfully against a whole péloton, but against a reduced group they could - and this is the kind of point in the race that the leaders might consider allowing the break to go and take the jersey, or some riders might have lost enough time by now to be allowed to take the stage, something akin to the 2010 Giro stage won by Matthew Lloyd at the same point in the race.
Reus
With a population of just over 100.000, Reus is a city of ancient provenance, known in Roman times and likely before - the most common theory around its name is that it refers to a Celtic term for a crossroads. It was a bastion of Republicanism in the Civil War and was extensively bombed by Franco’s regime, which led to the military being stationed here throughout the dictatorship. The arrival of a large workforce from Morocco along with the existence of an airport popular with low-cost carriers as an alternative entry point to Barcelona and to coastal resorts like Salou and Cambrils has led to its rapid expansion in the last 50 years. It is also world renowned as a centre for production of vermouth, and as the birthplace of iconic Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí - although little of his life’s work took place in Reus and none of his buildings are present in the city, a museum to him is one of the primary tourist attractions. It is one of the biggest cities in Spain without a pro football team, after CF Reus Deportiu went bankrupt and folded mid-season in La Liga-2 in 2019. Merging the remainder of the team with CF Reddis (named after the old Roman name of the city), they re-established themselves in the amateur ranks, but have yet to reclaim professional status. The Vuelta has only been here twice, in 1969 and 1979, and even the Volta a Catalunya hasn’t been here since Daryl Impey won in 2017 - although the women’s equivalent came through in 2025 with Elise Chabbey victorious.
As you can see from the map, the stage start and finish here are very close to one another, as we take a complex route looping around the Muntanyes de Prades range. In fact, the first half of the stage is a large circuit that almost brings us all the way back to the stage start, not dissimilar to in stage 3. We start climbing almost immediately from the start, with the cat.2 Alt de La Mussara, sometimes also called Coll de les Llebres (and going by this name in the one pro race it has been seen in, the 2022 Volta a Catalunya), cresting inside the first 20km. We will be seeing part of this climb again, too.
As you can see, not the toughest of ascents, but challenging enough from the gun, sustained for a good distance and with most of its toughest gradients in the first half, at least after it kicks up in Vilaplana. The upper plateau of the Sierra will provide the backdrop for the next 20k or so, so there is no respite after the climb either, before we have a long and gradual descent, broken up by the cat.3 Coll d’Alforja, which amounts to the fairly unthreatening, consistent first 5km of this profile, before we return to Vilaplana.
Muntanyes de Prades
This time around, we climb to the Font del Roure mirador before turning right toward L’Albiol, a small town in the mountains. This climb when it is used in amateur racing is known as the Alt de L’Albiol, and essentially consists of the same climb as La Mussara, from the roundabout at Vilaplana (ca. km2 on the above profile) to the junction for L’Albiol (ca. km11). The long descent takes us back onto the coastal plateau and over to the town of Alcover, just a town over from Valls, our finish town, but we’re not going there yet, instead we are taking on a solid uphill grind of the Alt de Mont-Ral, a relatively unthreatening climb yet one which does at least crest with a final 1500m over 7% that might allow for some action if this is being settled by the break, and if it isn’t then at least at 45km from home then it may well be that the sprinters say goodbye here, at least some of the less adept ones when it comes to climbing. This is more one for the likes of Mads Pedersen than the likes of Dylan Groenewegen, shall we say. A long and gradual descent then takes us to Vilaverd and Montblanc, and then we have our final climb of the day, a Volta a Catalunya classic finish, the Alt de Lilla and then descent into Valls.
The Alt de Lilla, however, is not very threatening. It averages just over 5%, never gets much above that, and is a wide open highway, meaning it barely even looks like a climb when they race it. Despite a long lay-off in the 80s and 90s, it has become a common sight in the Volta a Catalunya, appearing almost annually in the 2010s, and most of those stages ended in sprints, won by the likes of Simon Gerrans and Alejandro Valverde. Only two did not, with Valverde (a different occasion from the aforementioned) in 2015 and Wout Poels in 2016 finishing a few seconds ahead; Poels was allowed to settle it from the break, with the GC bunch coming in 30 seconds down, while 2015’s stage was much more disrupted and also featured crashes in the run-in. It also appeared once in La Vuelta, in 2023, but then the finish was further away, in Tarragona, so its presence was even more token, and Kaden Groves won the sprint on that occasion. However, while the sprint is still the most common outcome after the Alt de Lilla, most of those stages were relatively flat otherwise, few if any are as tough beforehand as my stage here, so it could be a bunch or an escapee group that arrives in Valls.
While Valls has never been a stage finish in La Vuelta before, it has been the finish of many Volta a Catalunya stages as mentioned, and also has hosted a couple of stage starts in the national race, a 2013 stage won by Warren Barguil and the Igualada stage in the 2019 edition, won by Nikias Arndt. It does, however, host an annual amateur race in the early season which includes this same finale, but after an easier route with two laps of a large circuit. This race is the Clàssica Xavier Tondó, inaugurated in 2012 after the untimely death of the local hero rider who fought for almost a decade on small squads in Spain and Portugal to earn a chance of a top tier berth, winning the Volta a Portugal in 2007 and earning his way eventually to Cervélo Test Team in 2010, where he finished top 10 in the Vuelta and won a stage of Paris-Nice, finally achieving his dream in 2011 signing for Movistar, only to then die in a freak accident when he was trapped between his car and a garage door in Pradollano while training. He did have the unusual distinction of winning his last ever race, the Vuelta a Castilla y León, but he never got to enjoy the success he’d fought so long for. I drew my own Memorial Xavier Tondó race in this thread all the way back in 2012, which was based not around Valls but Olot, where he had lived later in life and where the everyman sportive in tribute to the man took place, where I elaborated on his life and career, but Tondó was one of my favourite riders back then and his death was one of the ones that’s hit me hardest in the sport.
This is sort of a transitional stage, but a range of outcomes are possible depending on who fights their way into the break on the Alt de La Mussara, and how tight - if at all - the GC men want to keep the leash. Sepp Kuss might have won his Vuelta thanks to being allowed to escape in a stage at this point in the race, but that was a more conventional mountaintop finish; the stage that won Marco Giovannetti the 1990 race, however, was more like this, with the Puerto de las Palomas and a descent into Ubrique to finish, and the four or so minutes Giovannetti gained over the péloton was sufficient to hold the charge of Delgado later in the race away. So this one could be a banana skin.


GPM:
Alt de La Mussara (cat.2) 13,2km @ 5,4%
Coll d’Alforja (cat.3) 5,0km @ 4,7%
Alt de L’Albiol (cat.2) 9,0km @ 6,1%
Alt de Mont-Ral (cat.2) 11,4km @ 5,3%
Alt de Lilla (cat.3) 5,4km @ 5,1%
A relatively short intermediate stage on day 6 for the riders, unlike any of the stages so far it’s not an easy opening before the climbing begins, instead the ascents are dispersed throughout the stage - however none of it is especially challenging in terms of gradients and so I anticipate this is likely to be a baroudeur’s type stage where the fight to get into the breakaway could be key as this is a stage which gives beaucoup opportunities to the escapees to make it count, with multiple platforms to attack that might not work too successfully against a whole péloton, but against a reduced group they could - and this is the kind of point in the race that the leaders might consider allowing the break to go and take the jersey, or some riders might have lost enough time by now to be allowed to take the stage, something akin to the 2010 Giro stage won by Matthew Lloyd at the same point in the race.

Reus
With a population of just over 100.000, Reus is a city of ancient provenance, known in Roman times and likely before - the most common theory around its name is that it refers to a Celtic term for a crossroads. It was a bastion of Republicanism in the Civil War and was extensively bombed by Franco’s regime, which led to the military being stationed here throughout the dictatorship. The arrival of a large workforce from Morocco along with the existence of an airport popular with low-cost carriers as an alternative entry point to Barcelona and to coastal resorts like Salou and Cambrils has led to its rapid expansion in the last 50 years. It is also world renowned as a centre for production of vermouth, and as the birthplace of iconic Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí - although little of his life’s work took place in Reus and none of his buildings are present in the city, a museum to him is one of the primary tourist attractions. It is one of the biggest cities in Spain without a pro football team, after CF Reus Deportiu went bankrupt and folded mid-season in La Liga-2 in 2019. Merging the remainder of the team with CF Reddis (named after the old Roman name of the city), they re-established themselves in the amateur ranks, but have yet to reclaim professional status. The Vuelta has only been here twice, in 1969 and 1979, and even the Volta a Catalunya hasn’t been here since Daryl Impey won in 2017 - although the women’s equivalent came through in 2025 with Elise Chabbey victorious.
As you can see from the map, the stage start and finish here are very close to one another, as we take a complex route looping around the Muntanyes de Prades range. In fact, the first half of the stage is a large circuit that almost brings us all the way back to the stage start, not dissimilar to in stage 3. We start climbing almost immediately from the start, with the cat.2 Alt de La Mussara, sometimes also called Coll de les Llebres (and going by this name in the one pro race it has been seen in, the 2022 Volta a Catalunya), cresting inside the first 20km. We will be seeing part of this climb again, too.

As you can see, not the toughest of ascents, but challenging enough from the gun, sustained for a good distance and with most of its toughest gradients in the first half, at least after it kicks up in Vilaplana. The upper plateau of the Sierra will provide the backdrop for the next 20k or so, so there is no respite after the climb either, before we have a long and gradual descent, broken up by the cat.3 Coll d’Alforja, which amounts to the fairly unthreatening, consistent first 5km of this profile, before we return to Vilaplana.

Muntanyes de Prades
This time around, we climb to the Font del Roure mirador before turning right toward L’Albiol, a small town in the mountains. This climb when it is used in amateur racing is known as the Alt de L’Albiol, and essentially consists of the same climb as La Mussara, from the roundabout at Vilaplana (ca. km2 on the above profile) to the junction for L’Albiol (ca. km11). The long descent takes us back onto the coastal plateau and over to the town of Alcover, just a town over from Valls, our finish town, but we’re not going there yet, instead we are taking on a solid uphill grind of the Alt de Mont-Ral, a relatively unthreatening climb yet one which does at least crest with a final 1500m over 7% that might allow for some action if this is being settled by the break, and if it isn’t then at least at 45km from home then it may well be that the sprinters say goodbye here, at least some of the less adept ones when it comes to climbing. This is more one for the likes of Mads Pedersen than the likes of Dylan Groenewegen, shall we say. A long and gradual descent then takes us to Vilaverd and Montblanc, and then we have our final climb of the day, a Volta a Catalunya classic finish, the Alt de Lilla and then descent into Valls.
The Alt de Lilla, however, is not very threatening. It averages just over 5%, never gets much above that, and is a wide open highway, meaning it barely even looks like a climb when they race it. Despite a long lay-off in the 80s and 90s, it has become a common sight in the Volta a Catalunya, appearing almost annually in the 2010s, and most of those stages ended in sprints, won by the likes of Simon Gerrans and Alejandro Valverde. Only two did not, with Valverde (a different occasion from the aforementioned) in 2015 and Wout Poels in 2016 finishing a few seconds ahead; Poels was allowed to settle it from the break, with the GC bunch coming in 30 seconds down, while 2015’s stage was much more disrupted and also featured crashes in the run-in. It also appeared once in La Vuelta, in 2023, but then the finish was further away, in Tarragona, so its presence was even more token, and Kaden Groves won the sprint on that occasion. However, while the sprint is still the most common outcome after the Alt de Lilla, most of those stages were relatively flat otherwise, few if any are as tough beforehand as my stage here, so it could be a bunch or an escapee group that arrives in Valls.

While Valls has never been a stage finish in La Vuelta before, it has been the finish of many Volta a Catalunya stages as mentioned, and also has hosted a couple of stage starts in the national race, a 2013 stage won by Warren Barguil and the Igualada stage in the 2019 edition, won by Nikias Arndt. It does, however, host an annual amateur race in the early season which includes this same finale, but after an easier route with two laps of a large circuit. This race is the Clàssica Xavier Tondó, inaugurated in 2012 after the untimely death of the local hero rider who fought for almost a decade on small squads in Spain and Portugal to earn a chance of a top tier berth, winning the Volta a Portugal in 2007 and earning his way eventually to Cervélo Test Team in 2010, where he finished top 10 in the Vuelta and won a stage of Paris-Nice, finally achieving his dream in 2011 signing for Movistar, only to then die in a freak accident when he was trapped between his car and a garage door in Pradollano while training. He did have the unusual distinction of winning his last ever race, the Vuelta a Castilla y León, but he never got to enjoy the success he’d fought so long for. I drew my own Memorial Xavier Tondó race in this thread all the way back in 2012, which was based not around Valls but Olot, where he had lived later in life and where the everyman sportive in tribute to the man took place, where I elaborated on his life and career, but Tondó was one of my favourite riders back then and his death was one of the ones that’s hit me hardest in the sport.
This is sort of a transitional stage, but a range of outcomes are possible depending on who fights their way into the break on the Alt de La Mussara, and how tight - if at all - the GC men want to keep the leash. Sepp Kuss might have won his Vuelta thanks to being allowed to escape in a stage at this point in the race, but that was a more conventional mountaintop finish; the stage that won Marco Giovannetti the 1990 race, however, was more like this, with the Puerto de las Palomas and a descent into Ubrique to finish, and the four or so minutes Giovannetti gained over the péloton was sufficient to hold the charge of Delgado later in the race away. So this one could be a banana skin.