La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2023 – Stage 7

After a hectic day, the red jersey has a new owner. Tomorrow should be calmer, as it looks like a sprint.

Route

The riders move south along the coast.

Finale

A bit of a tricky one. Roundabout with 5000 m and 3000 m left. With 1750m left, you’d want to be near the front. The road gets a bit more narrow and we have some high pace bends. The turn with 1100 m left is sharper than it looks. Then, the left turn with 350m out is where you must be in the first six positions. There is another roundabout with 200m left which is not on the roadbook. It is about positioning tomorrow as much as speed.

Here you have the roundabout. I’m not really sure what to take away from it. Hopefully they moved it, I guess some people know how to fix that.

Weather

A lovely headwind with high wind speeds in the last 75 km. As of now, it looks like SE, meaning a cross headwind. If that turns slightly, we could see carnage. The thing is here in Spain, compared to France, there is a lot of vegetation. However, the last 33 km looks difficult with 30-35 km/h / 8-9 m/s as the landscape opens up more. It looks more like a headwind than a crosswind as of now.

Contenders

Groves – he starts as the favorite. So far, his team has dominated when it has come down to getting in a good position. I don’t see that changing at all.

M. van den Berg – he can not be satisfied with his best result being 9th. EF should stop trying to use too many riders putting him into a position, use Bissegger and J. van den Berg. Most of the finale is in a headwind, stay at the front and dive for the corner 300m out.

Molano – sprained wrist and sprinting? He crashed the other day. I think it will be hard for Molano to contest for the win, despite his fantastic ability to be well positioned. Oliviera did a masterclass of a leadout the other day.

Dainese – he is the fastest here with Groves but he is no good at surfing wheels. It will require a bit of luck for him to be perfectly positioned in the last corner.

Theuns – very good at surfing wheels, hopefully people are playing fair tomorrow. He can podium in this field.

Ganna – I do not see why not. G and Arensman are both doing poorly in the GC.

Stars

⭐⭐⭐ Groves
⭐⭐ Dainese, M. van den Berg,
⭐ Ganna, Molano, Dainese

Who will win?

A third for Groves.