The key mountain stage of the Vuelta a España takes place on Saturday, with over 5,000 metres of vertical climbing, a summit finish on the much-feared Col d'Aubisque, and some potentially decisive developments in the battle for outright victory in Madrid on September 11th.
"It's a very important stage, this one is the queen stage of the Vuelta, and Nairo Quintana's [current GC] advantage of 54 seconds over Chris Froome (Team Sky) is maybe not sufficient, not with a time trial of 37 kilometres to come," ASO boss Christian Prudhomme tells Cyclingnews.
Prudhomme expects a major battle between the two: "Quintana (Movistar) maybe needs a minute or more on Froome. What we've seen so far is that Froome is marginally better than Quintana on the short, explosive climbs [stage 3 and stage 10] but on the long cols [stage 8 and stage 10] it's more Quintana who's had the upper hand."
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"Now we've reached the Aubisque, and a stage almost entirely on French soil. In a Vuelta, which is 100 percent Spanish but which has ASO behind it too, is a really nice symbol of the co-operation between France and Spain through cycling and ASO."
"There have been two finishes in the Tour de France on the Aubisque" - 1985 with a win for Stephen Roche and in 2007 for Michael Rasmussen - "and it's going to be a hugely important stage for the Vuelta."
Prior to the Aubisque on the 196 kilometre stage are three category 1 climbs, the Col Inharpu at kilometre 62, the Col du Soudet [24 kilometres at km 118.2) and the Col de Marie-Blanque [km 157]. But it is the Col d'Aubisque [km 196: 16.5 kilometres at average of 7.1 percent.] which will almost certainly see the real showdown between the major favourites.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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