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Vuelta a España Vuelta a España 2020: Stage 7 (Vitoria-Gasteiz > Villanueva de Valdegovia, 159,7 km)

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Vitoria-Gasteiz
It has been over 60 years since a La Vuelta stage first departed from Vitoria-Gasteiz. These avenues, though modernised, have remained almost intact over the decades. The excellent preservation work that has been carried out in its iconic medieval city centre has made Vitoria-Gasteiz a must-see destination for history lovers. Its history is also linked to cycling, as its cobblestone streets are the birthplace of Igor González de Galeano, La Vuelta podium (1999), who also wore the yellow jersey i the Tour de France for an entire week, in 2002.
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Villanueva de Valdegovia
Villanueva de Valdegovía is a small rural Basque town with a very particular feature that attracts the attention of all who visit it: the Varona Tower. This historical complex, made up of a palace and a defensive tower, is considered the best-preserved medieval fortress in the Álava territory. Following the passing through of the World Tour peloton in 2018, during the Tour of the Basque Country, its tower is now getting ready to leap to the grand stage with La Vuelta.
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On Orduña
 
We'll see something imo, the race has been too open until now.

Movistar should try send Soler up the road again at least which will probably force some kind of action as teams can't keep letting him just roll off the front.

Behind that there's a whole bunch of riders who clearly think they can get back into this too if no team is taking real control of the race, so wouldn't be at all surprised to see riders like Henao, Martin, Gaudu etc trying to skip clear again which could drag a few others out to play.

Then riders like Grosschartner and Chaves will take an opportunity on the final climb if the legs feel good as they might be given enough space to get clear if the others were to look at each other.

And lastly Carapaz continually shows that if his legs feel good he will attack so I'd not be shocked if he decided to see whether he can make Roglic work today before something more decisive tomorrow.
 
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A lot of the race will have a side wind. Wonder if some echelons may form in between the climbs. In Movistar shoes i would try to put someone a bit bigger like Erviti or/and Oliveira (even if Soler himself is quite high) to be there on the flat run-in to the finish which will have a headwind and attack with Soler on Orduña and see what happens. If someone like Roglič has trouble and there's help from other 2ndary GC teams like Bora or Michelton then go deep to the finish as the time splits between the groups should be significant. The main problem is that the next stage ends on a hard climb and there's plenty of oppurtunity (Angrilu) to shake up the game. This stage should have been a part of the 3rd week tricky tests that Vuelta does every two years.
 

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