God help me, I just can't stop coming up with Vueltas. There's just so much choice in Spain that isn't being used by Unipublic, or is being used but not very well, and there's a lot of variety in the terrain, climate etc. that means the possibilities are almost limitless (especially if you don't prevent yourself from using the same climbs from the same sides as stage finishes as I've been doing - we will get to the point where new faces of the same climbs come into it, I'm sure, but we're not there yet). And since the last Vuelta was a bit of a 90s-classic type route with Arcalis, Cerler and very little in the northern and northwestern mountains that have been the Vuelta's staples for much of its existence (in the early days of the Vuelta, Cantabria and País Vasco were where the main mountains used in the race would be; although I am once more omitting País Vasco which hasn't been seen since the monster hilly stage in my 5th Vuelta. It will return at some point, though. Classic early Vuelta climbs are the likes of Asón, Urkiola, Pajares, Navacerrada, Braguía). However, I'm doing a few things in this route that are a bit experimental/unusual, whilst still keeping some tradition standing. This will be a good Vuelta for a diesel, I think, plus we will be paying tribute to a few of Spanish cycling's heroes and legends along the way (though obviously as I am not going into País Vasco, no room for Jesús Loroño, Federico Ezquerra, Abraham Olano, Marino Lejarreta, Francisco Gabica et al though I am likely to do something regards those legends of the sport at another time).
We start with a bit of pseudo-innovation though.
Stage 1: Melilla - Melilla, 171km
GPM:
Fuerte del Rostrogordo (cat.3) 1,4km @ 7,0%
Fuerte del Rostrogordo (cat.3) 1,4km @ 7,0%
Fuerte del Rostrogordo (cat.3) 1,4km @ 7,0%
Fuerte del Rostrogordo (cat.3) 1,4km @ 7,0%
For the most part, I like to start my GTs with a prologue or an ITT which is slightly longer than a prologue. TTTs are fairly rare as well. However, occasionally a GT will start with a traditional point-to-point road stage (such as the 2008, 2011 and 2014 Tours de France for example) or a circuit race (such as the 2013 Giro). Personally I hated the 2013 Giro opening stage, especially when compared to the original route, which is more in line with what I had in mind for a circuit race opening stage. I used a circuit race to open my sixth Vuelta, a short stage around Toledo. Here, we reprise that idea.
Melilla is one of two Spanish cities on the continent of Africa; the other of course is Ceuta. For route designers, Ceuta is the more interesting, with the foothills of the Rif mountains providing a wealth of opportunities for an intermediate climbing stage. These two exclaves have been talked about as a possibility for the Vuelta in the past - Javier Guillén raised the possibility
back in 2010 and reiterated his interest in bringing the Vuelta to North Africa
ahead of the 2015 race. While the logistics may not be ideal, the two cities are well-connected to the mainland (their football teams have to travel via mainland Spain to face one another) and the Vuelta has of course visited parts of non-contiguous Spain before - the start in the Canary Islands and multiple boat trips back and forth from Valencia or Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca for Balearic stages, for example - and especially with the Arctic Tour of Norway pioneering the approach of using cruise ships to assist with logistics, this is easily possible.
In my fictitious world where my Vueltas exist, of course, we've already had a stage in Melilla, although that was in my 2nd Vuelta and was a pure flat stage, a short circuit race because there were two boat journeys in as many days and the city was simply included because Ceúta was (Guillén points out it would be difficult to include Ceúta and not include Melilla). Guillén also pointed out that if you do use the North African exclaves, it would then be impossible to ride in Morocco, as they dispute the status of the two cities. Therefore I have utilized the Moroccan depart of my fourth Vuelta (which began in Casablanca) to mollify the Moroccan concerns about the Spanish race taking place in the cities.
Strangely, having promoted Ceúta as, for traceurs at least, the more interesting Spanish African exclave - and also the more accessible, being close to the Strait of Gibraltar and readily accessible from Algeciras - I have elected to place the race start in Melilla, a city with a population of around 80.000 split between ethnic Spaniards and Berbers from the Rif mountains. Its name is derived from a Berber word meaning "white", and it is an unusual city in a few respects; it is an autonomous community of its own, having been split from Málaga province in 1995, it celebrates Eid al-Adha as an official public holiday, and since the one in Santander was removed in 2008, Melilla has
the only remaining statue of Franco in Spain, as the notorious fascist used the city as one of his staging grounds for nationalist rebellion.
However, away from unsavoury political history, this stage will be far more interesting than the previous route I designed in the city - however I must be clear right now: I didn't design this course, I borrowed it. Because unlike Ceúta, Melilla has in fact hosted top level cycling before; in 1997 the Spanish national championships took place in the city, on a difficult 14,25km course which I have appropriated for stage 1 of the Vuelta. After all: the Vuelta takes place in late August/early September and is therefore used by many riders as a preparation race for the World Championships, and what better way in a year where there is a hilly World Championships than by taking on a difficult hilly circuit?
The Circuito de Melilla isn't hilly in the way that, say, Firenze is; the main climb of the circuit is only 1400m long and its steep section less than half that. However, this is North Africa in August - we can readily expect temperatures at over 30º and this should in and of itself mean that attrition can play a role in the race's story. Obviously one-day races are very different from stages of stage races, and obviously the national championships péloton is of a much more varied level than 200 WT-level riders that you would see on stage 1 of a GT, but only 28 riders managed to finish those brutal national championships in 1997, regarded as some of the best that the country has ever seen, with some extremely aggressive racing in the final laps, most notably from Ángel Casero, Alberto Leanizburrutia, David Etxebarría, Mikel Zarrabeitia, César Solaun and eventual winner, José María Jiménez. The fact that the great mythical climber was the one to win the race tells you all you need to know - much like the Moscow 1980 Olympics road race on the Krylatskoye Ring being won by Sukhoruchenkov, the distance of the climbs may have been short but the cumulative effect of them over several laps tilted the balance in favour of the escaladores.
You can watch 80 minutes of race coverage here.
Those nationals were 203km in distance, consisting of a short parade loop around the shoreline before 14 laps of the circuit; I have trimmed this down to 12 as the riders have many more days of tough racing ahead of them (and also because they travel the wrong way down a one-way street on the home straight and I got bored of manual routing).
The start/finish is on the Paseo Maritimo shown above, with the final corner around 600m from the line, so if there is a sprint (which should be reduced if so) there is a safe run-in to it as the last few kilometres are on some wide roads which, though they have some corners, are open enough that they should only cause trouble if riders take undue risks. They turn inland to Calle La Legión and begin a slow uphill drag at around 3% that takes us up and around the city's small airport. We are very close to the Moroccan border here; you can see it in the race video but since then the fences have been reinforced, heightened and a third fence closer to the road built in a response to the 2005 problems; the two Spanish African exclaves have long been seen as a gateway to Europe for migrants, particularly from sub-Saharan and western Africa, and after a series of incidents with people climbing the fences, using home-made steps to elevate themselves over them and so forth, the borders at Melilla were tightened.
Following a descent of sorts, the riders take on the main obstacle of the day, the climb to the Fuerte del Rostrogordo, a fort atop the main hill of the exclave overlooking the Alboran Sea. This climb is around 1400m long, but the most important part is classified by altimetrias.com as being 600m long averaging 14% (max 16%). The road is also
wide open and exposed to the baking heat, so 12 times up this will not be fun at all. Mountains points will only be paid on the 3rd, 6th, 9th and final time up the climb, however, so there should hopefully be some competition from the break for these points, as a couple of days collecting jerseys could be in store if they stay away several laps.
The cresting of the climb comes with just over 6km to the line, then it's a very fast descent before a couple of sharp corners at Plaza San Juan Bautista leads us onto Avenida Juan Carlos I, the wide open boulevard of the city's inland parts.
This will take us to the gargantuan Plaza de España rotonda, from which we head onto the seafront for the finale.
This could be a solo, it could be a small group or duo like it was in 1997, it could be a reduced bunch if the racing is fairly conservative (which on the first day of a three week GT is not that unlikely). It should be great Worlds preparation, however, and a more than apt way to kick off a Grand Tour.
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