Vuelta 2020 Favourites stage 8: Mountain goats on irregular finish climb

The course is not very remarkable in the first 100 kilometres. Although being far from flat, the riders don’t face any serious uphill tests until the Puerto de la Rasa appears with 60 kilometres remaining. The 9.8 kilometres climb goes up at 5.3%. Still, not very remarkable, to be frank.

The finish climb is something else entirely. The Alto de Moncalvillo is 8.3 kilometres long and the average gradient sits at 9.2%, while the section in the middle rises in irregular but steep intervals, peaking out at 15% for almost 1 kilometre. It levels out a bit without dropping below 7% until the last 2 kilometres. Another kick up at 12% leads onto the final kilometre, which starts at 8% before continuing at 5% on the run-in to the line.

Favourites 8th stage 2020 Vuelta a España

*** Primoz Roglic, Wout Poels, Esteban Chaves
** Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Aleksandr Vlasov
* Gorka Izagirre, Marc Soler, Sepp Kuss, David Gaudu

Another interesting read: route 8th stage of the 2020 Vuelta.