2011 Vuelta a España - Stage 13: Sarria - Ponferrada 158.2 km (2/9)
I know, I know... it's still a bit early, but today's rolling stage will be hardly relevant for the GC. So it's about time to start with what's coming tomorrow.
Following the trend set in recent editions of La Vuelta as well as its Italian sibling race, the weekend that closes the second week of racing comes charged with mountains.
This year we have an unusual stage to start with, as Unipublic has designed a course through broken terrain with a hard climb and a flat finish. The race will go through one of the most isolated regions of Spain in the border between Galicia and León. A mountainous region with small rural communities many of them abandoned 50 years ago and whose population is now about one third of what it was before the exodus began. There were communities in the 1970’s still without electricity or roads, cut off by the winter snows, where people and animals lived together in prehistoric huts, farming with agricultural implements last used in Europe 200 years ago.
Roads were built where formerly there were only trail paths. And they were paved. And connecting the valleys of Galicia and León there was a mountain pass flanked by the highest peaks in the area, Pico Cuiña and Pico Miravalles. But the mountain pass still remained for years unknown to the outside world.
Then, a few cycling fans got to know about this mountain pass in such remote region. They discovered that there were up to four different roads going up to the summit, the steepest of them had only been paved since very recently. They measured distances and elevations and gradients and they found that it ranked among the hardest climbs in Spain. And they spread the word through forums and magazines and prepared a dossier with profiles and pictures for Unipublic. There is an English translation available for download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WHPYJP2S
Finally, the year has come that a bike race will go through its roads, though not without some disappointment among those who asked for it. Unipublic has chosen to use only the second hardest road to the summit, keeping a card in their sleeve for a future visit, or so they say. The summit is 60 kms far from the finish line at Ponferrada (the largest village within 30 kms from the summit has only 3000 inhabitants) There are two smaller climbs in those 60 kms, but that distance seems too much for a long range attack. The stage is rather short, as they go throught he first ramps with only 80 kms in their legs. With all this, it’s hard to think that the survivors will be few and won’t be chased down the road. And this is also the first in a sequence of three mountain stages, the other two finishing on a summit and the last of those being the mighty Angliru.
This is the detailed profile of the climb:
Mind you, the place is really isolated, as there is another mountain that cannot be avoided to get to the start of the climb.
And this is the fast descent:
To put things on a greater perspective, this is the stage profile with weather forecast:
And the course map:
Will any GC contender push the pace trying to make a selection and succeed at it? Will there be alliances among some of them to distance a common rival? Will the weather in the mountains play a role in how the race unfolds? I wish this stage was raced like the stage through Larrau in the 1996 Tour de France. I’m afraid it will be more like Estación de Montaña Manzaneda yesterday. That also includes the crowds at the road sides.
Spanish TV will go live at 15:00 CEST (one hour earlier than usual) to show the climb. Check your local TV broadcaster or your internet feed.
I know, I know... it's still a bit early, but today's rolling stage will be hardly relevant for the GC. So it's about time to start with what's coming tomorrow.
Following the trend set in recent editions of La Vuelta as well as its Italian sibling race, the weekend that closes the second week of racing comes charged with mountains.
This year we have an unusual stage to start with, as Unipublic has designed a course through broken terrain with a hard climb and a flat finish. The race will go through one of the most isolated regions of Spain in the border between Galicia and León. A mountainous region with small rural communities many of them abandoned 50 years ago and whose population is now about one third of what it was before the exodus began. There were communities in the 1970’s still without electricity or roads, cut off by the winter snows, where people and animals lived together in prehistoric huts, farming with agricultural implements last used in Europe 200 years ago.
Roads were built where formerly there were only trail paths. And they were paved. And connecting the valleys of Galicia and León there was a mountain pass flanked by the highest peaks in the area, Pico Cuiña and Pico Miravalles. But the mountain pass still remained for years unknown to the outside world.
Then, a few cycling fans got to know about this mountain pass in such remote region. They discovered that there were up to four different roads going up to the summit, the steepest of them had only been paved since very recently. They measured distances and elevations and gradients and they found that it ranked among the hardest climbs in Spain. And they spread the word through forums and magazines and prepared a dossier with profiles and pictures for Unipublic. There is an English translation available for download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WHPYJP2S
Finally, the year has come that a bike race will go through its roads, though not without some disappointment among those who asked for it. Unipublic has chosen to use only the second hardest road to the summit, keeping a card in their sleeve for a future visit, or so they say. The summit is 60 kms far from the finish line at Ponferrada (the largest village within 30 kms from the summit has only 3000 inhabitants) There are two smaller climbs in those 60 kms, but that distance seems too much for a long range attack. The stage is rather short, as they go throught he first ramps with only 80 kms in their legs. With all this, it’s hard to think that the survivors will be few and won’t be chased down the road. And this is also the first in a sequence of three mountain stages, the other two finishing on a summit and the last of those being the mighty Angliru.
This is the detailed profile of the climb:
Mind you, the place is really isolated, as there is another mountain that cannot be avoided to get to the start of the climb.
And this is the fast descent:
To put things on a greater perspective, this is the stage profile with weather forecast:
And the course map:
Will any GC contender push the pace trying to make a selection and succeed at it? Will there be alliances among some of them to distance a common rival? Will the weather in the mountains play a role in how the race unfolds? I wish this stage was raced like the stage through Larrau in the 1996 Tour de France. I’m afraid it will be more like Estación de Montaña Manzaneda yesterday. That also includes the crowds at the road sides.
Spanish TV will go live at 15:00 CEST (one hour earlier than usual) to show the climb. Check your local TV broadcaster or your internet feed.
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