OK, La the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, let\u2019s try that again. After Monday\u2019s shortened\u2026well, cancelled stage, there\u2019s no rest for the gang in Spain. Although, they did have a little break in the finale when a brutal hailstorm forced almost 200 cyclists into a hotel. The race was neutralized\u2013much as a result of Tadej Poga\u010dar, who served as the patron of the peloton, then ultimately cancelled. The summit finish was skipped, but good news, sports fans, there\u2019s plenty of suffering ahead.<\/p>\n
Stage 4<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a straight into the mountains. Stage 4 is only 104.8 km, but it\u2019s hardly easy\u2013the day\u2019s race packs almost 3,000 metres of climbing into a punishing loop around Andorra la Vella.<\/p>\n
The opening challenge is the enormous Port d\u2019Envalira. The 25-km climb averages about 5 per cent. But, there are some nasty ramps reaching 11 per cent, before a long descent. The road then rises sharply again on the Collada de Beixalis, a 6.7-km ascent averaging 8.5 per cent and hitting 16 per cent.
Next comes the 9.8-km Col d\u2019Ordino at 7.1 per cent. After another descent, riders face the final climb, Alto de La Comella. It is only 4.2 km at 5.6 per cent, but the closing lumps are steep. Plus they come with the finish less than five kilometres away, so it will be clutch for riders going for the GC to be at the front for any sort of selection that may form.<\/p>\n
What can we expect Tuesday?<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar starts the day in red and looks perfectly suited to the terrain. The Slovenian has already won in Andorra, taking his first Grand Tour stage at the 2019 Vuelta in Els Cortals d\u2019Encamp. If UAE turns up the pressure early, Poga\u010dar could try to make a decisive move on Beixalis rather than wait for La Comella. Usually, the leader of the race may consider loaning his overall position to another rider, and letting other teams control. But from chatter in the peloton\u2013and the overall dominance of the world champion this season, it\u2019s probable Pogi may try and keep his maillot roja all the way to Madrid.
Still guys Felix Gall, Richard Carapaz, Mattias Skjelmose will try and mix it up. Heck, maybe even Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d will give it a go.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the forecast looks decent. No rain in sight and warm temps mean the stage should go smoothly.<\/p>\n
You can tune into the stage on FloBikes.com<\/a>, beginning at 8:30 a.m. EDT. As always, check back on Canadian Cycling Magazine for a report. You can also check out the Tour de l\u2019Avenir on Flo\u2013there\u2019s a full team of Canadians, plus Canadian\/U.S. dual citizen Ashlin Barry<\/a> who\u2019s there with the Visma devo squad. Coverage for Avenir begins at 8:00 a.m. So much bikin\u2019!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OK, La the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, let\u2019s try that again. After Monday\u2019s shortened\u2026well, cancelled stage, there\u2019s no rest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[301410,49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-870814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-vuelta-a-espana","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}