The Vuelta a España`s first trio of key mountain stages kick off with Wednesday`s lengthy incursion inland from the coast to a tougher-than-usual first-week summit finish at Javalambre. Situated deep in the sierras of the remote region of Teruel, the 11-kilometre Alto de Javalambre has several 16-per cent `ramps`, making it a fearsome challenge. Stage 6 on Thursday will be through relentlessly rolling mountain terrain, finishing with the lengthy third category grind to Ares del Maestrat. Then Friday`s stage culminates with the brutally steep Mas de la Costa ascent.ADVERTISEMENT That`s nearly 10,000 metres of vertical climbing and three summit finishes in three days of the first week of a Grand Tour, representing a major challenge. EF Education First manager Juanma Garate tells Cyclingnews that rather than focusing on a single day, the trio of tough stages should be taken as a whole. `The three days form a very hard block of climbing for the first week of a Grand Tour,` Garate said. `OK - we saw them going for it quite a bit on stage 2, but Javalambre is going to be the first big occasion to see all the GC favourites in action. `Then, on the second day, normally there should be a break after the favourites have opened up some big gaps on the GC on Javalambre, because even if it`s a good stage for the overall riders, they`ll be aware that they`ve got a lot of challenges coming up afterwards. So they may ease back.` Urán well positioned in third overall Going for time bonuses Race leader Roche`s predictions
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