A quick look at the route of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana learns that the battle for overall glory will not start as as ealy as stage 2, although that leg takes in quite some vertical metres. Yet, this race ends ends with 30 kilometres on the flat so there will be hardly any opportunity to put time into your opponents.
Stage 3 is the team time trial to Calpe, while stage 4 brings the Queen Stage. The TTT should be a chance for Team Sky (Poels, Kwiatkowski, Moscon, De la Cruz) and Movistar (Valverde, Amador) to do business. The following day runs over six intermediate climbs to conclude with a 5 kilometres drag up El Alto de las Canteras. Chances are the last kilometre will be descisive for the overall as this goes up up at a whopping 12.3%. Winner at the top, winner of the overall?
Favourites 2018 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
*** Alejandro Valverde, Wout Poels
** Michal Kwiatkowski, Adam Yates, Andrey Amador, David de la Cruz, Primoz Roglic
* Simon Yates, Gianni Moscon, Jakob Fuglsang, Alexis Vuillermoz, Rafael Valls
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2018: Route maps, height profiles, and more
Click on the images to zoom.
Route and profile 1st stage
Route and profile 2nd stage
Route and profile 3rd stage
Route and profile 4th stage 
Route and profile 5th stage
Stage 4 details final climb details
Oropesa del Mar and Valencia at Google maps
Instagram #volta…
Volta a Valencia Tweets
Videos Volta a Valencia