13. Jito de Escarandi (Asturias)
The silent brother
The Picos de Europa mountain range is well known to the Vuelta, but Unipublic have only scratched the surface of what there is available in this range. Using a few Cantabrian climbs before the long and gradual summit to Fuente Dé in 2012 may have been a big success, and there may have been a few worthy outings for the long and painful
Puerto de San Glorio, which is over 25km long at just under 5%, so not overly complicated but seemingly endless (we will see it in 2014, but unfortunately not in a position to be decisive); but more often than not, the contribution of this attractive mountain range to the Vuelta has been limited to a single climb. Of course, it is a pretty huge contribution, seeing as it is arguably the Vuelta's most storied and iconic ascent, the now legendary
Lagos de Covadonga. This classic climb that has shaped many Vueltas in the preceding decades maxes out at around 15%, and has overall statistics of 14km at around 7%. Parallel to Lagos de Covadonga, similarly starting at the north of the Picos de Europa and similarly running in a southeasterly direction, lies its twin brother, the Jito de Escarandi (Jitu d'Escarandí in Asturianu)... which crests on the border between Asturias and Cantabria and is absolutely in no way a lesser climb than its more famous twin.
There is only one way to climb the Jitu, and that's from Poncebos, a small village in the municipality of Cabrales, famous for its cheese. To ascend from here to the crest of the climb is a difficult
14,5km @ 7,5%. APM consider this to give it comparable stats to
Isola 2000, perhaps because of the near-identical first 7km, but Isola's easing off comes more gradually than with El Jitu, and also Isola doesn't kick back up a second time either. You know another climb that has stats of just over 14km at around 7,5%?
My beloved Fedaia (sorry Jitu, that's given you something impossible to live up to). Fedaia bundles all its most brutal slopes together at the end, however, and its brother Lagos de Covadonga bunches them in the start and middle of the climb, whereas here the toughest parts are split into two distinct sections.
This climb kicks off at full speed, with the first 4 kilometres averaging just under 9% and including some brutal slopes of up to 15% as we head along the Rio Cares and then the Rio Duje. And while it isn't the Serrai di Sottoguda, we do have a
very attractive gorge to head through during these painful slopes, as well as a few
dramatic tunnels before finally emerging to see
Los Picos in all their glory. A strong pace here will burn off a lot of domestiques early on, with a number of ramps up to 14 and 15%. Passing
Tielve, the road starts to level out, gradients reducing for a couple of kilometres (still at 6-7%) before giving riders a surprising treat in the form of a kilometre of false flat before ramping up again. The next 3 kilometres are fairly normal climbing kilometres, on roads in
surprisingly good condition considering they only link a couple of very small mountain villages. Passing Tielve also gives us a wonderful
waterfall, because the Picos de Europa are nothing if not pretty.
With 5km remaining the road splits at a hairpin; we take the full hairpin rather than branching off to the right (that route does not stay paved for long) and continue up to the small town of
Sotres, a picturesque mountainside establishment that is the largest population centre on the route. The first kilometre into Sotres is a vicious ramp twice as steep as its predecessor and getting up as far as 17%, which is steeper than the climb has managed to get to previously, and comes as part of a 500m ramp at a painful 15%; while the period from Tielve to the junction is for consolidation of the race situation developed on the early ramps, here is where the kick for home really begins. The gradient eases a little through Sotres itself, but leaving the town sees the road conditions worsen and the gradients hammer up to the highest that the Jito de Escarandi has to offer - 2km at 10,8%, including a 400m stretch averaging 17% and maxing out at 21%, and another 500m at 15%!
This brutal stretch closes off at the
signal station and widening of the road at the Collado de la Caballar. Of course with the previous 2km being the most brutal of the whole climb, Javier Guillén may prefer to finish the climb here than to continue to the Jitu; if he were to do so, the figures would be
12,9km @ 7,9%. Which, according to ASO's official stats, makes it
the same gradient as Alpe d'Huez, but 900m shorter - though with a much higher maximum slope. Certainly the final 1600m from the Collado to the Jito de Escarandi are a long way from being imposing, but they aren't really a springboard to attack from, so for me it is ideal to go to the summit, as there will be a comparatively easy final 2km for the less featherweight climbers to try to claw back the gaps that those more adept on the really steep stuff can create on the slopes out of Sotres... and then the final 100m sees one final ramp up to 14% in case people are coming to the line together.
Now, Jitu d'Escarandí is a brother to Lagos de Covadonga, and as is well known, there has been much trouble in recent years trying to find sufficiently difficult run-in climbs to beef up the stage; Mirador del Fito, Collado del Moandi and Collada Llomena are perhaps the nearest to giving us genuine lead-in climbs, but they are still far enough from the base of Covadonga to mean that it's a one-climb stage in terms of meaningful racing. And yes, this problem affects Jitu too. Though the road descends, it is a dead end, running to the Cantabrian village of Tresviso but no further. The Alto del Ortigueiro, 3rd category in the 2008 Vuelta, is the nearest, as if we climb the easiest side we can descend to around 5-10km from the base of the final mountain. This could follow
Alto de la Torneria from its hardest side, which would be a perfectly reasonable category 2 climb. It's hard to see much that could top that as a run-in, unfortunately, so this would likely be a one-climb stage.
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