Tim Wellens won his second stage of the race with yet another successful breakaway. The day began with incredible speed with even some riders from the Top10 infiltrating a large group, but with everyone caught a different, smaller break went away with great quality and fought themselves for the win, a group of 6 got to the base of the climb with Wellens putting himself in front and rounding the technical uphill finish, holding off Michael Woods and Zdenek Stybar. In the peloton all the GC riders came home safely.
Positive: Wellens taking another big win, this one out of studying the finish, it's great to see him capitalize on his talent.
Negative: Nothing to note.
The Route
Stage 16 is a brutal classic Spanish stage. Brutal but... no real space to make an attack regarding the GC riders, but a day of survival in general for everyone as they look to make it through to the next stages.
Except for those that are looking for an elusive stage win, possibly KOM jersey, there's over 4400 meters of climbing but no actual mountain it's just a constant roller coaster. The climbs are constant, the final sequence of them come with the Alto de Fumaces summitting with 78.5Km to go, and then there are several little climbs with an intermediate sprint in the middle aswell and the final summit comes with Alto de Padornelo which finishes with 18.5Km to the finish and is 6.8Km long at an average of 3.8%.
From there on it's mostly descending into the finish, if there's a solo rider the win will surely come from him, if there's a small group it could come down to a sprint.
The Weather
Some rain overnight on the region may make the roads wet and slippery, not good news as there are plenty of little descents throughout the day and the wind will remain quite strong but tomorrow not favourable, being quite strong and coming from the northeast, should be a headwind for most of this long day.
The Favourites
Tomorrow will be more of a day towards those that can climb, however the puncheurs and rouleurs will also be in big contention as there is no serious climb to dispatch riders throughout the day, just a lot of spots where at any time the difference can be made. Now this leads to a very open day, like today there should be no doubt over wether a breakaway will succeed, it will, and like today there will also be a lot of riders interested in making it to the front, although perhaps the GC riders will be more hidden as the climbing starts later into the day.
So the list will include naturally tons of riders, so best we rank them by specialization, in what is another big breakaway roulette!
Climbers:
Michael Storer & Mark Donovan & Robert Power
Ion Izagirre & Gorka Izagirre
Michael Woods
Clement Champoussin
Guillaume Martin & José Herrada
Gino Mader
Marc Soler & Carlos Verona
Puncheurs:
Jonas Vingegaard
Andrea Bagioli & Mattia Cattaneo & Zdenek Stybar
Rui Costa & Davide Formolo & Sergio Henao
Omar Fraile
Robert Stannard
Anthony Roux
Santiago Buitrago
Jonathan Hivert
Gonzalo Serrano
Rouleurs:
Remi Cavagna & Jannik Steimle
Ivo Oliveira
Jasha Suttelin
Luis Leon Sanchez
Dylan van Baarle
Bruno Armirail
Nans Peters & Dorian Godon
Will Barta
Nelson Oliveira
Willie Smit
Faster men:
Alexandr Riabushenko
Alex Aranburu
Dion Smith
Magnus Cort Nielsen
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
Julien Simon
This... Yes this is quite massive, however when I say each and every one of these riders have the quality and the form to win I mean it. The stage is very long, with a lot of climbing, but no particular climb can dictate differences nor are they suited for the climbers, but they may like the full-on hard day. However the fast men that should be in there have to be dispatched before the flat finish, and as for me I reckon those who can power on the flat quite well should have better conditions to win tomorrow in normal conditions, however with the wind mostly affecting the riders it may be substantially harder to create differences and keep them, so a group finish is quite likely.
Prediction Time
⭐ Fraile, I.Izagirre, Vingegaard, Formolo, Riabushenko, Stannard, Serrano, Simon, I.Oliveira, Armirail, Cort Nielsen, Rensburg
For a long time I've been imagining him to take a win, he's got flying form, can climb very well although being a heavyweight, he's perfect for tomorrow. I don't think he packs the sprint but he is a perfect rouleur for an elusive win, Bruno Armirail!
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