This week will be easier than the previous ones. Difficulties will be concentrated on Friday and especially Saturday. There isn't a single Mountain point offered before then.
Rankings after stage 15
General time classification
In top-5, riders just switched 1 place; behind, 3 riders appeared in top-10 thanks to breakaways, as the ones holding those ranks didn't care about protecting them, and Mühlberger crashed.
- Enric Mas 🇪🇸 Movistar
- ⬆ Felix Gall 🇦🇹 Decathlon @ 2′06″
- ⬇ Primoj Roglitch 🇸🇮 Bora @ 2′10″
- ⬆ Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF @ 4′24″
- ⬇ Oscar Onley 🇬🇧 Ineos @ 5′44″
- 🆕 Jakob Omrzel 🇸🇮 Bahrain @ 6′14″
- ⬇ Matias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek @ 6′49″
- 🆕 Cristian Rodriguez 🇪🇸 Astana @ 7′01″
- 🆕 Clément Berthet Bahrain @ 6′14″
- ⬇⬇⬇ Sepp Kuss 🇺🇸 Visma @ 4′09″
Points
Pedersen and Laporte withdrew. Romele and Coquard are trying a bit. The whole peloton is riding for Van Aert, therefore:
- Wout Van Aert 🇧🇪 Visma: 267 pts +143
- Matthew Brennan 🇬🇧 Visma: 159 +92
- Alessandro Romele 🇮🇹 Astana: 153 +94
- ⬆⬆⬆⬆ Bryan Coquard 🇫🇷 Cofidis: 94 +52
- 🆕 Andreas Leknessund 🇳🇴 Uno-X: 79 + 49
- 🆕 Ramses Debruyne 🇧🇪 Alpecin: 78 + 39
- ⬇⬇Ethan Hayter 🇬🇧 Soudal-QS: 77 +20
Mountain
Buitrago is the only one going for it (except the big green thing). Nobody even entered top-5...
- Santiago Buitrago 🇨🇴 Bahrain: 69 pts +40
- ⬆⬆ Wout Van Aert 🇧🇪 Visma: 40 +24
- ⬇ Enric Mas 🇪🇸 Movistar: 24 =
- Andreas Leknessund 🇳🇴 Uno-X: 23 +4
- Lorenzo Fortunato 🇮🇹 Astana: 21 +8
Stages
Stage 16, Tuesday 8
181 km, D+ 1900m
A sprinters stage. A km-0 breakaway of small teams riders will pretend to have a chance during the first hilly part.
Stage 17, Wednesday 9
185 km, D+ 900m
Another sprinters stage. No one should even try anything. Or could those stages be windy?
Stage 18, Thursday 10
32 km, D+ 150m, Time Trial
The only top-10 rider who may be at ease on this hopelessly flat TT is Roglitch. Others will be judged on their ability to limit damage.
Stage 19, Friday 11
210 km, D+ 4000m
This long stage present a set of medium climbs in its middle, followed by a big nothing (40 km of descent and flat), and then a very long final climb.
Stage 20, Saturday 12
187 km, D+ 4800m
For the first time in this Tour (except the Andorran stage in a way, but this one is much longer), there will be a succession of hard climbs, with a final on top that isn't any easier than the 3 previous climbs.
Stage 21, Sunday 13
187 km, D+ 4800m
The Vuelta ends in Granada this year, and after a flat first half, enters a circuit with a single but significant hump rider will have to climb 4 times. A little bit like the Montréal circuit, but flatter between the (harder) climbs. Th finish line is 8 km from the top.
