2021 Vuelta a España Stage 8 Live Coverage
Welcome to our live coverage of Stage 8 of the 2021 Vuelta a España! Our live profile and commentary are below, followed by a preview of the technical aspects of the route.
Course Preview
At 173.7 kilometres, the 8th stage on La Vuelta is mainly payed out on the Costa Cálida or, hot coast -, east of Murcia. The route between Santa Pola and La Manga del Mar Menor is predominantly flat.
The Spanish Grand Tour never before visited Santa Pola, a former fishing village turned beach resort on Spain’s southern Costa Blanca. The riders head south along the Mediterranean coast to move through Torrevieja after 23 kilometres. The turquoise waters of the Mediterranean remain on their left until they reach Cartagena after 94 kilometres.
The inland spin in the last 70 kilometres features a number of small climb, but presumably not enough to thwart a bunch sprint form happening.
It’s been 41 years since La Vuelta last visited La Manga del Mar Menor. In 1980, the town hosted the Big Start and Roberto Visentini won the ITT on the first day of action. In 1977, Freddy Maertens won his second of a total of thirteen stages that year, while he also took the overall. More recently, in 2018, Nacer Bouhanni outsprinted Danny van Poppel and Elia Viviani in nearby San Javier.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Get our full coverage of the Vuelta a España and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
