Vuelta a España - Stage 19

Sprinters will revel at flattest stage of the whole three-week tour

The 2023 Vuelta a España promises a great battle for the red jersey

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Updated: August 21, 2023

Many riders in the peloton will breathe a sigh of relief seeing the profile for stage 19 of the Vuelta a España. After back-to-back days of climbing on stages 17 and 18, stage 19 is completely flat, without even a singular categorised climb in sight. The stage takes place entirely in Castilla y León, following flat and almost totally straight roads from La Bañeza to Íscar, essentially going due southwest across the countryside.

This 177km route is the definition of a transition stage, designed to move the race from one point to another, and as such isn’t likely to be the most exciting of days. The weaker climbers on Spanish teams will see this as a final chance to get into a TV-friendly breakaway, but the sprinters’ teams will be focused on bringing everything back for the finish. That said, the latter ‘sprint’ stages of the Tour de France have shown us that closing the gap for a sprint is not always as easy as it seems, particularly when the peloton is tired and squads depleted, so don’t write this off as a nailed-on predictable sprint stage just yet. If the right combination of riders gets up the road, it may be difficult to bring them back if the peloton makes any missteps in terms of work or timing.

Some of the route is quite exposed, and though this isn’t the windiest region of Spain, if the wind speed does start to pick up this could also be an added difficulty during the stage.

Heading towards the finish, there’s very little to contend with in the way of obstacles as the route follows one main road towards Íscar. With 2.5km to go, there’s one sharp turn to contend with, but from there, it’s a 2,400m long, dead-straight finishing stretch. The road is nice and wide, so this should be a straightforward finish for the sprinters, where it all comes down to speed, lead-out and positioning.

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all 21 stages of this year’s Vuelta a España from Saturday, August 26 to Sunday, September 17, plus daily expert analysis on The Breakaway. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.