Vuelta 2023 Favourites stage 16: Punchers party

image: Cor VosIf not for the last 5 kilometres, the route of stage 16 would have been a perfect match for the sprinters. Two steep walls with a flat interlude mark the finale. (Slideshow route/profile)

It’s a short stage with an explosive finale. After 115.3 kilometres on gently rolling roads the last 4.8 kilometres are something else entirely. The road goes up at 8.8% on average. The first kilometre kicks in hard at 10.8% before it levels off slightly to 7.7%. Then it’s time for a breather with an intermediate kilometre at 3.8%. The fourth kilometre is excruciating again (11.5%) and the final 800 metres trise at 9.4% to the line.

On paper, it’s a perfect finale for Roglic. But Jumbo-Visma is unlikely to control the race. After all, why would they?

Favourites 16th stage 2023 Vuelta a España

*** Remco Evenepoel, Romain Bardet, Wout Poels, Santiago Buitrago
** Lennard Kämna, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Romain Grégoire, Andreas Kron
* Primoz Roglic, Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, Aleksandr Vlasov, Juan Ayuso

Another interesting read: route 16th stage 2023 Vuelta.