Date: Thursday 22 August, 2024
Distance: 185.5km
Start location: Jerez de la Frontera
Finish location: Yunquera
Start time: 12:40 CET
Finish time (approx): 17:17 CET
Road racing has always had close ties to advertisement. With so much funding dependent on sponsorship, the participating riders are essentially mobile billboards, sporting the various logos of whichever commercial company has paid for the naming rights of their team. The races themselves can often feel like tourist commercials, with localities paying top dollar for the honour of hosting stages and showcasing what their location has to offer on a world stage. But stage six of this year’s Vuelta a España finds a new way to advertise, by starting literally in a supermarket. The Carrefour retail chain has been sponsoring the Vuelta for twelve years, and as a reward, the riders will set out from its store on the southern outskirts of Jerez de la Frontera.
While Carrefour stores can be found all across Spain, what distinguishes Jerez de la Frontera is its wine industry — specifically, sherry. The word ‘sherry’ is an anglicisation of ‘Jerez’ and is made predominantly from the Palomino grape in the local vineyards. As one of Spain’s oldest winemaking regions to have been designated legal exclusivity, any sherry you’ve enjoyed will have originated within this small ‘sherry triangle’ between Jerez de la Frontera and nearby Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María.
The riders will have earned themselves a glass over dinner, having come through this tricky stage. The climbing starts a third of the way into it with Puerto del Boyer, a category one effort which, after a light start, averages a testing 6.8% for the remaining 9km to the summit. None of the remaining three climbs are as hard, all rated only category three, but there isn’t much respite between them all, and the stage will finish atop the last of them, the 9km, 4% Alto de las Abejas.
Whoever wins the stage will be a capable, punchy climber and will likely do so from the day’s break. Given the lack of a standout climb in the finale, picking the right moment to make an attack from the break will be essential; waiting until the final climb may be too late, so one of the earlier climbs – or perhaps even the fast descent of the penultimate one, Puerto Martínez – might prove to be the optimal moment. As for the GC, the final climb doesn’t look likely to draw them into a fight, but they will have to be attentive to each other during a final 3km stretch to the finish that averages 5%.
Stage profile sourced via Vuelta website
Contenders
With it looking like an opportunity for the breakaway to go clear, we expect many stage-hunting teams to want to be in that group with one of their strongest climbers. Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) will be a strong contender for this stage. He's a solid climber on hilly terrain and in the mountains, so a stage with category one and three ascents will suit him. The team also have Victor Lafay and Riley Sheehan, both of whom are strong on this type of terrain.
Filippo Zana (Jayco-Alula) has made it clear that he is in this Vuelta for a stage win, and this could be a prime opportunity for him to do just that. Jayco-Alula has a few options they can play, however, with Eddie Dunbar (3:34 down on the GC), Alessandro De Marchi, and Mauro Schmid on the team's roster.
Lotto Dstny will want to be in the break and may choose to send Andreas Kron up the road on the hunt for a stage victory or Thomas De Gendt, who wants to take one last victory in his final Grand Tour race. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) may also look to be in the breakaway. While we haven't seen much of him so far, he placed third on a stage in the Giro earlier this year from a successful breakaway with Julian Alaphilippe and Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers). The Ineos rider is another one to watch for this stage, suiting this gruelling parcours.
Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal–Quick-Step) and Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) will also be vying for a stage victory, too, if they can get into the break that makes it to the line.
Stage six winners prediction
We are backing Thomas De Gendt for the stage win.
