Vuelta Stage 5: Enough Already

Stage 5: Priego de Córdoba -- Ronda, 180km

The Skinny: I'm going to keep this short. See what you can glean from this:

Look, I'm just as sick of writing about whether or not something will be a sprint stage or a reduced sprint stage as you are of reading about it. So yeah, this will either be a sprint or a reduced sprint.

And actually, after today and considering Thursday's stage -- a nasty Giro-style MTF-lite at the end of an otherwise lovely stroll -- I would expect the GC teams to reach a new level of passivity. As far as making a more precise prediction, I guess I'd say that the usual suspects will be out of contention for the stage, and a group of stage-hunting hopefuls from the "nobody's bothering to chase me" file will take center stage.

My Pick to Win: Luis Leon Sanchez. Yes, I have completely given up. See you tomorrow for a much more exciting preview.