63a Vuelta a Colombia 2013 - Sun, June 9 to Sun, 23 (landmark)

[Lupetto]

Good news.

Anything on the course? They should announce it as late as possible, so that no foreign team will be afraid of Alto de Letras.

Of course no Letras for Sevilla.

1 Quito-Ibarra 132 kms
2 Ibarra-Ipiales 135 kms
3 Ipiales-Pasto 92 kms
4 Pasto-El Bordo 164 kms
5 Popayán-Cali 132 kms
6 Buga-Manizales 198 kms
7 Manizales-Ibagué 183 kms
8 Ibagué-Bogotá 213 kms

Restday

9 Sopó-Santa Rosa de Viterbo 172 kms
10 Nobsa-Ubaté 190 kms
11 Cota-Dorada 184 kms
12 Doradál-Medellín 173 kms
13 Medellín-Marinilla-Rionegro-La Ceja-Medellín-Alto de Santa Helena 133 kms
14 CRI Medellín 32 kms

http://www.ciclismodecolombia.com/2013/04/definido-el-recorrido-de-la-vuelta.html#more

 

[brilleaben]

Daotec <'3

 

[venivicivoila]

Of course no Letras for Sevilla.

http://www.ciclismodecolombia.com/2013/04/definido-el-recorrido-de-la-vuelta.html#more

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

the letras hasn't bene in since 2007. uci doesn't want it

 

[TANK91]

Duarte came 12th last year lol I dint no that, how bad as he been now since moving to Coldeportes such a bad carear move it seems.

 

[TANK91]

What is the main stages then? any profile's of climbs.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Duarte came 12th last year lol I dint no that, how bad as he been now since moving to Coldeportes such a bad carear move it seems.

coldeportes are horrible. they were humiliated during last years vuelta, also atapuma. all of them

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This is the consequence of no DAOTEC, but our good friends Gustavo Duncán and Asier Bilbao, who run the altimetriascolombia.blogspot.com site, have carefully put together the route of the Vuelta on tracks4bikers and added some comments, which you can read here. Gustavo has posted a handful of times here, in the unknown climbs thread if I remember correctly, and a couple of other times on Colombian cycling. I find myself in general agreement with them - while it is good that the Vuelta is back to two weeks, it's also a real shame to see a continuation of the recent ploy to keep everything close until the end... which is of course achieved by providing a route that is designed to not open up gaps until very late on in the race, thus neutering much of the difficult terrain that we will see until the very end. Their apocalyptic opinion is that the race will come down to the last two days - the MTF at the Alto de Santa Elena and the 32km ITT on the final day - which is amazingly the only contra-relógio in the whole race (!!!), and they fear that strong teams will control this and make it a real yawnfest, which I truly hope is not to be the case.

There are some really difficult climbs in the race, don't worry - but most of them have been tragically 'Prudhommed'.

The race starts with this intermediate stage in Ecuador with the final climb 40km from the line:

The second stage, entering Colombia, follows the same format - very short stage with 1x cat.2 and 1x cat.3 climb, only this time it's 25km from the last climb to the line:

Stage 3 is super-short (under 100km) but is the first one where the GC riders will come out to play. It would be possible to finish direct from the descent, although the climb is very long it is not super steep, however at altitude and with the less controlled nature of South American racing hopefully this will be a really good stage:

Stage 4 could also see some gaps opened up, with what appears to be a bit more than a puncheur finish but not as much as a mountaintop finish - around 6km in length, it appears:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 5 is short, and flat:

Stage 6 has the potential to shake things up with the summit of the final climb only a kilometre from the line. Can't see that Gustavo and Asier have a profile for that final climb but a rough estimate appears to be around 15km at around or just over 5%.

Stage 7 starts with them descending the final climb from yesterday and doing a couple of climbs before tackling the beast that is La Linea, probably the second most famous pass in Colombia after Letras. It's a really tough beast, but coming 58km from the line the chance for things to come back together is increased. Most of the rest of the route is descent, however, and there is the small matter of the Alto del Boquerón de Ibagué less than 10km from the line, so this could be an interesting one.

La Linea from Calarcá:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 8 is another tough mountain stage, this time with the main climb being the more gradual Alto de Mondoñedo, although in reality this is three climbs in one (with the Alto de la Mesa first), all back to back making for around 45km of ascent with only a small descent in the middle. This is 45km from the end, however, so it's a long flat drag to the finish for the featherweight climber to try to survive. This is also the longest stage and the last one before the rest day, so hopefully some risks can and will be taken.

Alto de la Mesa:

Puerto del Mondoñedo:

After a rest day in Bogotá, the riders get to start week 2 with a flat stage at 2500m altitude.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 10 has a couple of climbs, but a pancake-flat final 70km means that this isn't going to be likely to provide a major GC shake-up.

Stage 11 repeats the formula, only with tougher climbs and a transition from high plateau (2500m above sea level) to lowlands (under 200m above sea level). The final climb again summits 70km from the end.

Stage 12 is intermediate, but once more the tough climbing ends with over 60km still remaining.

Stage 13 is the big mountaintop finish of the race, with the summit of the Alto de Santa Elena. Much of the stage is flat after the initial ascents, then the last 40km of the stage consist of descent followed by the 16 or so kilometres of summit finish, at a little over 6% by very rough estimate.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Gustavo and Asier seemed pretty annoyed by the routing of this stage, and given their suggestions for an improved stage I certainly don't blame them:

Finally, the race finishes with a flat and fast 32km CRI:

 

[Dazed and Confused]

a flat stage at 2500m.
Mind-boggling.

 

[The Hitch]

Stage 5 is short, and flat:

Stage 6 has the potential to shake things up with the summit of the final climb only a kilometre from the line. Can't see that Gustavo and Asier have a profile for that final climb but a rough estimate appears to be around 15km at around or just over 5%.

Stage 7 starts with them descending the final climb from yesterday and doing a couple of climbs before tackling the beast that is La Linea, probably the second most famous pass in Colombia after Letras. It's a really tough beast, but coming 58km from the line the chance for things to come back together is increased. Most of the rest of the route is descent, however, and there is the small matter of the Alto del Boquerón de Ibagué less than 10km from the line, so this could be an interesting one.

La Linea from Calarcá:

What a **** preview. How am i suppose to visualize these climbs if you're not telling me how much they resemble Alpe d huez.

 

[Lupetto]

It starts today.

 

[Michele]

We're ready!

 

[profff]

please, let ryo back in action

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

please, let ryo back in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgxEJOi6GtA

Please, ban him forever.

 

[Wallenquist]

Stiver Ortiz won 1st stage after breakway. Peleton came 5:34 behind.

 

[Michele]

EPM rulez!

 

[Michele]

 

[jens_attacks]

We're ready!

better than italy, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EPM starts with a bang. i really think this will be finally sevilla's vuelta.vamos!!!!!!!!

but a vuelta a colombia without ryo and DAO it's not the same...

 

[manafana]

what mad race is this basically a grand tour for south americans?>

 

[trevim]

Cardenas is still riding. This one never gets old

 

[burning]

Cardenas is still riding. This one never gets old

He's the number 1