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Fantasy Cycling Vuelta Stage 8 Preview

Geraint Thomas says it's a day for the mountain goats and the GC riders...

This stage sees four categorised climbs, and in theory the toughest of those is the day's only Category 1 climb, the Puerto de Mijares. In reality, it's the final climb, the Category 3 Alto de San Lorenzo de El Escorial that will provide the fireworks, with ramps of up to 28 per cent. Today is the first time a Vuelta stage has finished in this Madrid suburb, although it has often passed through, and among those on home roads today is Geox-TMC's former Tour de France champion, Carlos Sastre.

GT's tips

"It's definitely a GC day, for sure. There will probably be an early break, and Nibali (bear in mind Nibali bruised his hip in yesterday's crash - ed)or one of the others might send one of his guys up the road so they are there for him on that final climb, which will suit a pure climber – Igor Anton, Scarponi or even someone like Dan Martin if he's kept himself out of the wind and is targeting today. But definitely a pure mountain goat."

To find out more about what Geraint Thomas is up to visit his website www.geraintthomas.com

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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