The Vuelta is going to stay in the South of Spain for a while. Today, the riders have to cover 158.4 kilometres from Mijas to Málaga. The winner of this stage will not be a climber, but most likely a strong rider with fast legs. At the modpoint, 16 kilometres need to be climbed and in the finale there’s also a small hill on the course. Will the real sprinters survive? Tosh Van der Sande gives a little preview.

“I think that the strong sprinters can survive," he said. "Our main strategy is to go for Kris Boeckmans today and I think that he can handle this stage, certainly with his condition. There will not be a great split on the first category climb, I think that the little hill at 10 kilometres from the finish will cause more problems. In my opinion Degenkolb, Sagan, Ewan and Bouhanni will be the most important opponents.

"We want to go for the stage win and we don’t want to make mistakes in the preparation. Only if Kris doesn’t survive, Jasper De Buyst and myself will have our own chance.”