On September 6th, Stage 19 of the Vuelta a España started as scheduled.
The riders would travel from Logroño to the finish at Moncalvillo Heights.
This stage was 164.8 km long, with a total elevation gain of just 2,601 meters.
From the total elevation gain, it was clear this was just a hilly stage. The overall difficulty of finishing it certainly wouldn't be too high.
And this was indeed the case. The entire route featured only two categorized climbs.
One was a Third Category Climb, the PuertodePradilla Climb, with its summit at the 94.5 km mark.
It was 5.3 km long, with an average gradient of 5% and a maximum gradient of 5.9%.
Although the riders were fatigued at this point in the race, a climb of this difficulty would still pose no challenge.
However, the summit finish on Moncalvillo Heights was a high-mountain climb, the kind that only the general classification contenders could be the first to conquer.
