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.
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Talented Belgian wants to rip up his contract, but team confirms talks for potential departure are 'ongoing' -
TotalEnergies manager insists promotion to the WorldTour 'absolutely not' a team goal
Jean-René Bernadeau says Anthony Turgis' victory in the Tour de France 'worth all the UCI points you could wish for' -
The new Mondraker Arid Carbon is the brand's first non e-gravel bike
Dropped seatstays, 50mm tyre clearance and in-frame storage for the Spanish brand’s first gravel bike -
Tadej Pogačar preparing to start 'serious training' after winning fifth top Slovenian cyclist trophy
Worlds will be 'the most difficult race to defend', Pogačar says, ahead of December training camp
