After starting in Oviedo, the home city of 2008 Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez and Spanish climbing legend José Manuel Fuente, the course bumps along the rugged and beautiful Asturian coast before turning south towards one of the most famous climbs in Spanish cycling. First tackled in 1983, Covadonga last featured in 2012 when Caja Rural's Antonio Piedra completely justified his small team's wild card invite by winning the stage. None of this edition's star names has ever won there, so it will be interesting to see how they tackle it bearing in mind a much tougher mountain stage lies just ahead.
The gaps between the big guns weren't very significant back in 2012. We'd expect that to be the case again today.
More previews
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As it happened: yellow jersey changes hands on final day of the Volta ao Algarve
The final and fifth stage of the Volta ao Algarve is a time trial that finishes atop Alto do Malhão -
Volta ao Algarve: Jonas Vingegaard stages time trial comeback to win overall title
Dane dominates final stage TT to leapfrog Almeida and claim Volta victory in Malhão
