Its descent is reasonably technical: Aranburu made the winning move here, while Fraile held off Pogačar for second in the sprint of the elites behind. This time, the finish isn’t uphill, although there is a little kicker at 2 kilometres to go, from where it’s a false flat downhill all the way to the line. The finish is pretty much as close to the final corner as physically possible.
[/SPOILER]
Both the stage 1 and 2 finishes were odd. There wasn't really a "setup" for the final push to the line...and it didn't seem the riders were fully aware of where they needed to be to move up. I know stage design can seem like a simple matter of "find some mountains/cobblestones/muritos" etc. but there's clearly an art to it...
I hope they were working for Fraile because thinking Martinez could win after a full gas 5 km descent seems beyond stupid to me.
Well the route was announced months ago. I'm not even a pro, but I've known the stage profile for weeks because I have this weird obsession with watching cycling.
Yeah, the more typical finish would have been at the parking lot with 400 m to go.
From my OP, profiles of all four climbs:
From here, they repeat a bit of route in the opposite direction, descending the side of Altzo climbed earlier and back through the valley and onto Goiballara, almost as steep from this side but not as narrow.
Here, a different the same road is used for the descent. The next two hills are the final ones except for those to the finish, they formed the finale in the 2021 edition of Aiztondo Klasikoa, a Spanish national race. Both Zizurkil Gaina and Aduna are a bit easier than their predecessor but still steep, this is a lovely sequence. There is an intermediate sprint atop the latter of the two hills.
The finishing town, Villabona, is a stone’s throw away from here, and is the next port of call. This would have been a brilliant finale, but the finish is a kilometre further, at the Hika winery. It is located atop a hill, and the road here becomes leg-breaking in the final 200 metres as it reaches 26%. I’m really not sure if it ruins or improves the stage, but even if the former, there will be gaps.
They were posted on one of the 1st pages of thread (maybe by Mayomaniac?). All four are roughly .8-1.0 Km at 9-10 %. Serious stuff!
Cheers! Somehow missed the spoilers, my bad! Glad I tuned in, this is way better than what I expected after briefly glancing at the profile yesterday.
over the past couple of years, it got the impression that he tends to get worse the longer and harder a race gets. He has one or two good days in the beginning, but then often struggles to keep up
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram