In the eighth stage the Vuelta heads towards the coast again. The stage finishes in Murcia after 182.5 kilometres, of which the first part is mainly downhill. In the finale the peloton has to cover two local laps the Alto de la Cresta del Gallo (4.2 km and 7.5% average). An opportunity for a group of strong escapees or will it be a sprint of a reduced peloton?

Lotto Soudal Sports director MARIO AERTS gives his opinion:

“The first big summit finish of yesterday was already important for GC. Maxime Monfort has decided to not longer try to stay with the climbers each day but to take his chance in certain stages and help Bart De Clercq when he can.

"Today the victory won’t go to a climber. It could be that a pretty large group gets away which battles for the stage win, or the teams of Sagan and Valverde will keep control and it will be a sprint with about forty riders. The double climb in the last 50 kilometres will be too hard for the pure sprinters.”