La Vuelta Ciclista a España

A city inextricably linked to cycling – as evidenced by its presence on the route of the first edition of Spanish Grand Tours, as well as the more than two decades spent as the start of the Clasica Sabiñanigo – Zaragoza returned at the Vuelta for the first time since 2008. Just like then, the sprinters were in the spotlight, despite the many roundabouts and tricky corners that spiced things up in the closing kilometers.

Remco Evenepoel, who stayed tucked in the peloton the entire day together with his Soudal Quick-Step teammates around him, came home with the bunch and retained his third place on the general classification ahead of the tough stage to Tourmalet, the mythical climb coming after a stage featuring also Col d’Aubisque.

“Friday we’ll have a very hard stage on the menu. No flat, only up and down the entire time, and some hard stages; it’s one of the most demanding stages of this race and many things can happen. We’ll see how it goes, but one thing is certain: we’ll try to do our best”, said the white jersey wearer, who after the stage got to show off his football skills in the presence of Real Zaragoza’s Victor Mollejo and Lluis Lopez.

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images