La Vuelta 2019, Stage 7: Onda > Mas de la Costa 30/08/2019 - 183,2 km *Spoilers*

La Vuelta 2019, Stage 7: Onda > Mas de la Costa 30/08/2019 - 183,2 km

F. ESCARTÍN'S COMMENT
The first 80 km hug the coastline passing over flat terrain. The second part heads inland in the province of Castellón with two 2nd category climbs and another two 3rd category mountain passes before the finish at the extremely challenging Mas de la Costa, which will test the overall favourites, who will need to keep an eye on the rivals if they don’t want to lose time.



La Vuelta's 7th stage pretends to be a sprint stage in the first half. Then the route turns inland to tackle four intermediate climbs and an extremely challenging uphill finish. It travels over five mountains from Onda to Mas de la Costa. The distance is 183.2 kilometres and the last climb is a monster with ramps at 21%.



Following a virtually flat section of 80 kilometres the climbs are lined-up in the second half of the race. At kilometre 93.7 the riders crest the Puerto de Marianet (3.7 kilometres at 5.5%)



Then they tackle the Puerto de Eslida (6 kilometres at 4.5%) and Puerto de Alcuda de Veo (4.2 kilometres at 4.4%). This is just warm-up material: 116 kilometres done, almost 70 kilometres remaining.




After 130 kilometres the riders are back where the 7th stage started – in Onda – before continuing on rolling roads to the foot of the Puerto del Salto del Caballo, where the fight for the stage win is expected to ignite. The Salto del Caballo, which is also called Mas del Moro, is an ascent of 10.4 kilometres long, while the average gradient sits at 4.6%. Containing three downhill sections in the second half, the climb also features a number of stretches at 11%.



The riders crest the Salto del Caballo with 22 kilometres left to race. The descent is broken up into two sections by an uphill kick halfway, and eventually the punchers can go all out on the Mas de la Costa. The final climb is a Wall of 4.1 kilometres long with an average gradient of 12.3% and ramps up to 22.5%.





Three years ago, Mathias Frank brought the early break home on this finishing Wall, while the top 4 on GC – Nairo Quintana, Chris Froome, Esteban Chaves, Alberto Contador – just looked at each other.



Let’s hope for a different scenario to unroll this time. The route of this year’s Mas de la Costa stage is much more trying, so we should expect the GC guys to go head-to-head.

Video of 2016 ascent.
https://youtu.be/GObHD49fKj8

Favourites 7th stage 2019 Vuelta a España

The route lends itself for the attackers to open up a substantial gap. If De Gendt is up the road with a few breakaway artists, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that they will tackle the last climbs with a comfortable lead. On the other hand, it isn’t far-fetched either to suppose that a lot of GC riders are eager to put pressure on their rivals with the aim of winning the stage and gaining time bonuses.

*** Primoz Roglic, Alejandro Valverde, Wout Poels
** Miguel Ángel López, Esteban Chaves, Nairo Quintana
* Daniel Felipe Martínez, Fabio Aru, Dylan Teuns, Tadej Pogacar

Onda
Unprecedented departure

24,087 inhabitants
Onda is famous for its Muslim past. The city enjoyed its moment of greatest splendour when this culture prevailed, and the place still preserves a large part of its heritage from those days in its streets and people. Moreover, Onda has its own cycling history, linked to the Cabedo brothers, who were born in this little town in the province of Castellon. The elder brother, Víctor, sadly passed away in 2012 while training, and the younger, Óscar, took part in La Vuelta 18 as part of the Burgos BH team.



Seafood by the port in Peñiscola



Artizan food in Morella (on today's route)





Mas de la Costa
1 stage of La Vuelta have had finale in Mas de la Costa

1,331 inhabitants

Castellón Province

Mas de la Costa is not called this way because it’s near the sea, as it is over 30 kilometers inland, but instead because of its extremely steep slopes. This daunting finale first featured in La Vuelta 16, as one of the highlights of the race’s final week. The winner of the stage that year was Mathias Frank, from Switzerland, who was part of the former IAM Cycling team, recording what was to be the Swiss team’s last victory prior to its disbanding.





Food at the local restaurant Baudilio Asador.