The 63rd and final Grand Tour day of racing this year – the Vuelta a Espana Stage 21, takes place on Sunday with a procession event in Madrid.
The main classifications are basically decided, although there could be a swing in the sprint jersey classification if Alejandro Valverde can score a handful of points more than Fabio Felline.
Vuelta a Espana Stage 21 – The Profile
Stage 21 is a little over 104kms. The days racing starts in Las Rozas and ends in the capital Madrid. Like the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia the first half of the stage will be a procession. The classification winners will pose with their team-mates and individually for the worlds media.
The stage will only start proper as the riders approach the Intermediate Sprint. Movistar might be motivated to try to get Alejandro Valverde in position to win the sprint. This will close the gap in the sprint category.
For once there won’t be a break! There will be attacks once the riders get into Madrid but in most years the sprint teams control the tempo and the stage ends with a bunch sprint.
Vuelta a Espana Stage 21 – Sprinters
This has been an ugly race in terms of the sprint finishes. Early on Gianni Meersman was dominant with two wins in the opening five stages. Since then he has faltered and a number of riders have come through for stage wins. To compound the situation the riders are now exhausted following a really tough 3,000+kms of racing. This, like much of the 2016 race is really tough to predict.
Riders to consider include the aforementioned Meersman, Felline and Valverde. You must also add Jean-Pierre Drucker, Jonas van Genechten, Jens Keukeliere, Kristian Sbaragli, Magnus Cort Neilsen and Nikias Arndt.
I have no idea who will be strongest come the finish. None of these riders featured on Saturday except for Felline who was magnificent with a 3rd place finish on stage 20. It will come down to which rider has the most energy on Sunday. Having a strong team will help.
Vuelta a Espana Stage 21 – Tips
My feelings are similar to the Giro d’Italia final stage. I just don’t know who is going to win. There are possibly 15 contenders for the victory and I don’t have enough confidence in any of them to bet.
NO BET
