Vuelta 2019 Favourites stage 5: Mountain goat on steep last climb

The route of the 5th stage on La Vuelta is not exceptionally hard. Yet, the finishing climb is. The road to the Javalambre Observatorio is 11.1 kilometres long and the last 5 kilometres are extremely tough. Double digit material. (Slideshow route/profile)

Probably, the GC riders are going to take it easy for most of the day and won’t bother about the breakaway. But does the race leader share this opinion? The man in red is the only one who possibly could bother about keeping the attackers within range. That is, if he is willing to fight to keep the red jersey in the short run. On the other hand, if he is a genuine GC contender who aims to win La Vuelta, he and his team could let the jersey ride away from them on the fifth day of action to save stress and energy in the days to come.

Whatever the case, the finishing climb will be a battle ground. Undoubtedly, the GC riders are going to test each other, regardless of the breakaway’s lead. The last 5 kilometres of the 11 kilometres climb virtually all go uphill at more than 10%.

The route itself is rather straightforward. The first 32 kilometres climb to the top of the Puerto de Alcublas. Odds are that the break takes shape on these slopes before the rest of the day travels on rolling roads to the foot of the final climb, Pico del Buitre. Or, as the organisation decided to name the climb, Alto de Javalambre, because of the eponymous Observatory at the top.

Favourites 5th stage 2019 Vuelta a España

*** Pierre Latour, Jesús Herrada, Dylan Teuns
** Daniel Felipe Martínez, Tadej Pogacar, Óscar Rodríguez
* Primoz Roglic, Miguel Ángel López, Nairo Quintana, Rafal Majka

Take a look at the route of the 5th stage of La Vuelta.