The Vuelta a España's first major incursion into the mountains on Monday is certain to cause fireworks among the GC riders, predicts former multiple Vuelta podium finisher and longstanding Andorra resident Joaquim Rodriguez.
The stage features 3,000 metres of climbing and has a 20-kilometre ascent of the long, but not excessively tough, first category Col de La Perche in France early on. As a result, the weakest riders could find themselves in trouble well before la Vuelta's stage 3 briefly dips into Spain and then, after a lengthy trek along a Pyrenean plateau, hooks back northwards into Andorra on the valley road from the Catalan frontier town of La Seu D'Urgell.
However, Rodriguez, now an advisor with the Bahrain-Merida team, argues that it is the combination of the first category Col de la Rabassa, with its summit 28 kilometres from the finish and, above all, the second Category Alt de la Cornella, seven kilometres from the finish in Andorra la Vella, that can really do damage.
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"It's a strange stage, because normally we have summit finishes in Andorra, but this time, unprecedentedly, the finish is in the middle of town, and that'll make it more difficult and nervous than usual," Rodriguez told Cyclingnews.
He concurs with the well worn theory that such an early mountain stage is not a day to win the Vuelta, but certainly one where it can see a GC rider's options go up in smoke for good. "If a rider finds themselves in trouble on the Rabassa, or even the Cornella, they can lose a heck of a lot of time in a very short distance."
Tactically, too, the race could see some interesting developments, argues Purito, whose experience in Vuelta racing and stage routes does not just come from a lengthy career that ended last year. Rodriguez also co-designed the 2015 Vuelta stage in Andorra, dubbed the hardest ever stage in the modern-day history of Grand Tour racing.
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