General News Thread

[Berniece]

Profiles for Catalunya have been released. It's going to be a proper hard race. First 3 days start off alright, but stage 4-6 can be brutal for some.

 

[Pozzovivo]

Given Vingegaard's withdrawal from UAE Tour, I think Remco should pull out of Catalunya so that the fans will not have any duel to look forward to this year before the TDF.

Let's just hope that something prevents Remco and Pogacar from battling in LBL.

 

[Cycling111]

According to this Portuguese journalist, Figuiera Classic will be probably cancelled this year.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019447859242803355

View: https://x.com/EchelonsHub/status/2019447859242803355

Vuelta Andalucia could be suspended for the same reason.

 

[Samamba]

Can someone explain the Ruta del Sol parcours? What is this abomination?

Stage profile Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2026

Overview of the stage profiles per stage, showing the number of climbs, intermediate sprints, vertical meters and KOM sprints.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Can someone explain the Ruta del Sol parcours? What is this abomination?

Stage profile Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2026

Overview of the stage profiles per stage, showing the number of climbs, intermediate sprints, vertical meters and KOM sprints.

www.procyclingstats.com

If the race actually gets cancelled because of recent weather, then it would quite frankly be a case of bad karma. You could pick 800 kilometres of Andalusian roads at random and probably wind up with a better route than this.

 

[Red Rick]

Not a single location near a decent climb wanted to put up money to host race?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Not a single location near a decent climb wanted to put up money to host race?

Otura is not that far from Monachil and Torrox is close enough that you could have kept the stage start there, followed the actual route up the big climb, gone directly towards Otura rather than detouring like they are in the actual stage, climbed Monachil, descended the main road, climbed Hazallanas and then descended Monachil without making the stage too long. You would have had 15k of valley at the end but even then that would have been a pretty good stage.

Pizarra has a 950 metre at 11.5% murito right on the edge of town which could easily have been used in the final 5k. And the final stage could also have been a lot harder had they bothered to use any of the better climbs a little further south and east of Lucera before Primera Cruz.

Sure, the stage hosts are not the easiest to work with, but even taking that into account this is a woeful effort.

 

[Red Rick]

Otura is not that far from Monachil and Torrox is close enough that you could have kept the stage start there, climbed Monachil, descended the main road, climbed Hazallanas and then descended Monachil without making the stage too long. You would have had 15k of valley at the end but even then that would have been a pretty good stage.

Pizarra has a 950 metre at 11.5% murito right on the edge of town which could easily have been used in the final 5k. And the final stage could also have been a lot harder had they bothered to use any of the better climbs a little further south and east of Lucera before Primera Cruz.

Sure, the stage hosts are not the easiest to work with, but even taking that into account this is a woeful effort.

Ah okay.

I was just in complete disbelief at whatever the *** my eyes witnessed.