The Vuelta’s sprinters get another opportunity on stage 5…probably. But to call it a good ole straightforward sprint might be a stretch.
The 171.1-km ride from Falset to Roquetes has enough climbing in the final third to make life not so fun for the fastest riders. Especially given the tough Alto de Paüls coming just 25 km from the finish.
Vuelta a España Stage 5
There is plenty of time for the breakaway to establish itself early though. The first part of the stage rolling through the hills.
The decisive section arrives with around 50 km left. A 2.9-km climb at 5.7 per cent leads into the Alto de Paüls. That’s not too bad, but it’s still a kicker: 3.5 km long at 7.2 per cent. That is a serious obstacle for riders who need a flat run-in. Then again, someone like Mads Pedersen could use the lumps to put the pure sprinters under pressure. We’ve seen him do this before at the Tour, and it works. By the way, the Danish national team was just selected for the road worlds in Montreal, you can read about that here.
A day for Wout van Aert?
Visma’s Matthew Brennan took the dub the other day, after Wout van Aert tried to get away. In fact, van Aert’s gambit sort of ended up setting up the English sprinter. He was marked by Tadej Pogačar and the duo were ultimately caught. But perhaps Wednesday is the day for the Belgian? Van Aert has an even broader range of options than his British teammate. The 2026 Paris-Roubaix winner can follow the attacks, make it up climb (sort of) comfortably and still produce a fast finish.
So if it’s a reduced bunch, the best bet would be Pedersen or van Aert. Both of them are most likely looking to snag some points for the green jersey. Van Aert’s dream of a red jersey is long gone after Stage 4.
The road is virtually flat inside the final 15 km. So that means any dropped sprinters have a chance to return. But with the final corner only 250 m from the line, whoever reaches Roquetes with winning ambitions will need to be perfectly positioned. That means either a leadout or freestyling.
World champ Pogačar stamped his authority in caps yesterday with a dominant 50-km solo win. He probably could have done something similar on Monday were it not for a brutal hailstorm which caused the stage to be cancelled on the final climb.
You can catch the action on Flobikes.com, and be sure to check in with Canadian Cycling Magazine after the stage.
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