Race Design Thread

[OlavEH]

Giro d'Italia: Stage 15: Padova - Monte Grappa, 186 km

After two killer stages in Friuli Venezia, the riders will have a well deserved rest day while travelling to Padova where stage 16 starts. From here the riders heads straight north, throuth Castelfranco Veneto and looping around the Grappa massif to Feltre. At this point the riders are almost halfway on the stage, and so far it has been more or less completely flat.

But after leaving Feltre, the difficult part of the stage starts. First by climbing Croce di Aune before descending to Seren di Grappa. Now were at the north side of Monte Grappa, which is to be climbed to times in the last 65 km, first from the north side, then from the south. Grappa is a mountain which is to rarely uses in the Giro. A MTT in 2014 and a downhill finish to Asolo in 2010, but no finish at the top in several decades.

This time they are climb the mountain two times. Like my previous version of the Giro which had a double climb of Etna, this version also features a double climb of the same mountain massif. And few places are more obvious for this purpose than Monte Grappa which has at least half a dozen of possible ascents. The first from Caupo is one the easiest, but with 1400 height meters the riders will definitely feel it in their legs.

The descent to the south side is the "standard route" to Romano d'Ezzelino, before riding through the village of Semonzo where they start the final climb to the stage finish. And it's a tough one! 18 km at 8,5 % gradient. Long sections of 9 and 10 % and only a short section of a about 1 km with some more gentle slopes between km 5 and 4. The last 4 km are again between 8 and 10 %. Perhaps the toughest climb in this Giro. This will surely be a battle between the top GC contedners and a rider in peak form could attack early on the final climb and gain time on his rivals.

Climbs:
99 km: Passo Croce di Aune: 8,9 km, 7,8 %
143 km: Monte Grappa: 22,5 km, 5,6 %
186 km: Monte Grappa: 17,9 km, 8,5 %

Profile:

Map:

 

[OlavEH]

Giro d'Italia: Stage 16: Feltre - Vicenza, 188 km

A typical transfer stage which will probably end in a breakaway win. After scaling Castello Tesino, the riders descend to the Sugana Valley and westwards to Trento. From Trento they turn south and continues to Rovereto where they start the second climb of the stage. Fugazze from the east side is much of a ladder climb and the steepest part is the last third of the climb with longer sections of 7 and 8 %. From the top there is an almost 20 km descent and then 40 km flat to they stage finish in Vicenza. If there is a bigger breakway still on the descent from Fugazze, one could expect frequent attacks in the last 10-20 km towards Vicenza.

Climbs:
26 km: Castelle Tesino, 5,8 km, 7,0 %
126 km: Passo Pian della Fugazze: 23,2 km, 3,8 %

Profile:

Map:

 

[OlavEH]

Giro d'Italia: Stage 17: Verona - Verona, 59 km ITT

The second ITT of the Giro, and it's a long and tough one. Both start and finish in Verona. From the start they head into the hilly terrain north of Verona. The first 15 km are rather easy, but with a false flat leading up to the start of the climb to Fane after 15 km. After descending through Negrar, the route takes an extra loop before heading back to Verona instead of taking the direct route along SS 12, which makes the stage at least 10 kms longer.

The more pure climbers of the GC contenders will perhaps try to gain time in the climb, but there is still 8-9 km downhill and 30 km of flat to the finish in Verona, so there is certainly possible to lose quite some time to the better time trialists.

Climbs:
21 km, Fane: 6,8 km, 6,9 %

Profile:

Map:

 

[OlavEH]

Giro d'Italia: Stage 18, Verona - Trento, 198 km

Three stages left, and two of these are tough mountain stages. The stage starts in Verona and heads in a nortwest direction. The first 50 km are the easy part of the stage, but still has an almost 9 km long climb to Cavalo. After about 50 km, the riders passes through Rivoli Veronese and starts the climb to Monte Baldo which dominates the east side of the Garda Lake. Monte Baldo is a two-step climb with 11 km of climing, a short descent of 2 km before the last 12 km to the top. The toughest part is the last 5 kms of the climb have some really steep sections of 11-12 % climbing.

After the top at 78 km, there is a 10 km descent, followed by a short climb to San Valentino before a longer descent to Mori. From Mori there is about 5 kms of flat before the tough climb to Passo Santa Barbara with an averager gradient of 7 %. The last couple of kms are the toughest with 9 and 11 % slope.

After the descent from Santa Barbara there is a new short flat section before the two last climbs of the day. First San Uldarico, followed almost directly by Monte Bondone. Under the right circumstances, there could be a lot of action on Bondone. The last 5 km of the climb is rather easy with only 1-3 % gradient. That means that the attacks has to come in the first two thirds of the climb which has longer sections of 8 and 9 %. And from the top of Bondone, there is a 20 km tough descent to the stage finish in Trento. There is only 1 km of flat after the descent, which makes it very favorable for the top descenders to attack and gain some time.

Climbs:
31 km: Cavalo, 8,8 km, 5,5 %
78 km: Monte Baldo: 26,4 km, 5,3 %
93 km: San Valentino: 4,3 km, 6,8 %
126 km: Passo Santa Barbara: 13 km, 7 %
152 km: Passo San Uldarico: 6,8 km, 6,5 %
178 km: Monte Bondone: 18,3 km, 6,1 %

Profile:

Map:

 

[OlavEH]

Giro d'Italia: Stage 19, Trento - Monte Pora, 218 km

Stage 19 and the last chance for the GC contenders, and with 70 km of climbing and almost 5000 height meters this certainly is a queen stage in this Giro. The stage starts in Trento and heads west, climbing Passo Durone. In the next 100 km the riders will have to tackle two more climbs, Carlo di Magno and the frequently used Tonale. Both are tough climbs and

The real action could start with the start of the climb to Passo Vivione after 160 km. From this point there is more or less no flat sections left, and aggressive riders who has to gain a significant amount of time, could lauch a long range attacks at the ascent of Vivione. The first two thirds of the climb is not too difficult, varying between 5 and 8 % gradient. The last part on the other hand is significantly steeper where 5 of the last 7 kms have gradient of more than 9 %.

If one doesn't attack an the ascent of Vivione, there is a new possibility on the descent. The first part of the descent is difficult making it possible for a good descender to attack. From the foot the climb, the riders start directly on the next climb to Presolana. Not too long, but 6 km of 8 % is surely enough to make a difference after over 200 km, of which 60 km were climbing.

The last climb to Monte Pora is similar to Presolana and proably not tough enough by itself if one has to gain much time. The Giro also finished here in 2008, but then there were none climbs before Vivione and the route did a strange loop after Vivione, making it less attractive to attack on this climb. This is not the case on this stage, making long range attacks more possible if the GC is close before this last mountain stage.

Climbs:
40 km: Passo Durone, 10,5 km, 5,9 %
80 km: Passo Carlo di Magno: 13,8 km, 6,3 %
121 km: Passo Tonale: 14,3 km, 6 %
179 km: Passo Vivione: 18,4 km, 7,1 %
206 km: Passo Presolana: 6,1 km, 7,9 %
218 km: Malga Alta Monte Pora: 6,8 km, 6,6 %

Profile:

Map:

 

[OlavEH]

Giro d'Italia: Stage 20, Clusone - Milano: 121 km

A classic last stage, short and flat giving the sprinters a last chance to win a stage after several days in the mountains. The stage starts in Clusone and heads towards Milano through Monza. When in Milano they do a couple of laps in the city before finishing the Giro.

Profile:

Map:

 

[Valv.Piti]

Good Giro, Olav! Enjoyed it.

I dont know if this is the right place to ask, but are there some kind of archives of the Giro and Tour route?

 

[jsem94]

There was one, but the forum changed how post URLs work so now there is no working archive. You feel free to create one, currently no one bothers.w

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Olav's stage 19 is a nice hybrid of some classics while being slightly unexpected as well - already enough classics and icons in the earlier stages, so a final roll of the dice being on some climbs the riders won't know like the back of their hand brings a nice touch of unpredictability.

Stage 4: Águilas - Alhama de Murcía-Sierra de Espuña (EVA13), 163km

GPM:
Alto de El Cantal (cat.3) 3,0km @ 7,5%
Collado Bermejo (cat.1) 20,5km @ 5,1%
Sierra de Espuña (cat.ESP) 25,8km @ 5,5%

After the riders have got settled in to riding on the Spanish mainland with yesterday's easy sprint, it's time for the first mountain stage of the race, as the Vuelta does like to set its stall out early. And here we have our Montevergine-alike climb to separate the contenders from the pretenders; it's not a monstrous stage by any stretch of the imagination but it should suffice to tell us who should be contending for the GC in the race here, as after the hilly Melilla circuit race and a short ITT there's the potential for gaps between contenders anyhow; add a mountaintop finish to the mix and the GC should start to indicate the overall contention list by now. The province of Murcia is quite big on cycling at present (as well it might be, as the home of a number of Spain's best cyclists of recent years, including Alejandro Valverde and Luís León Sánchez); even though its home race has reduced down from a stage race to a one-dayer the Vuelta is a regular visitor. The region typically hosts flat stages, however, often enlivened by the tricky Cresta del Gallo climb outside the provincial capital as per the 2010 and 2015 stages.

We start after a short transfer across from Almería province to Águilas, a city of 35.000 inhabitants on the Costa Cálida. It last appeared in the Vuelta in 2002, as the start town of a sprint stage along the coast to Roquetas del Mar which was won by Mario Cipollini; it did, however, host the start of a 2005 Vuelta a Murcia stage to the Collado Bermejo along the lines of today's stage, where Peio Arreitunandia and Koldo Gil got away on the climb; Gil took the GC and gifted the stage to the Galician-Basque.

The first port of call in the stage is to cross the Alto de El Cantal, a sinewous road in view of the Mediterranean which has just 3km of categorization-worthy ascent at the end at a consistent 7,5%. It featured in the Almería-Cartagena stage of my last Vuelta in a more pivotal role, here it's just an early ramp, maybe it will help get a decent strength breakaway, I'm not sure. Afterwards, we head inland over some rolling terrain as the riders rumble through the scorched land of the Sierra de las Moreras.

After this we arrive at the city of Totana, which last saw the Vuelta in 2011, in an early hilly stage which was won solo by Movistar's supremely experienced domestique Pablo Lastras; a few days in red was his reward, richly deserved for a team who'd had more bad luck than you can imagine that year, starting with Andrey Amador being mugged and left for dead in a riverbed in January, proceeding through Plaza nearly shearing his leg off in March, Xavier Tondó's death and Juan Mauricio Soler's career-ending injury. The city also featured regularly in the stage-racing version of the Vuelta a Murcia as it sits at the foot of Murcia's greatest mountain pass, the Collado Bermejo. It also features on the route of the current one-day race, just before the great ascent.

However, personally I prefer the eastern face of Bermejo, and so we ride on to Alhama de Murcia before turning inland to take on the climb.

The Collado Bermejo is a soaring, swooping climb with seemingly endless switchbacks on both sides of the summit. APM compare it to Soulor from the Alhama side, although there's more climbing before the flattening out and less after it than in its French counterpart. Its official stats are 20,5km @ 5,1% although this is effectively a bit of false flat followed by 8km @ 6,5%, followed by a couple of flat kilometres, then a further 7km @ 6%. Surprisingly, the climb has only been used once in La Vuelta; this was as the first climb of the day in the 2009 stage to Caravaca de la Cruz which was won from the break by Simon Gerrans; the climb was won by (who else?) David Moncoutié in the midst of his run of four consecutive GPM victories in Spain. The Totana side was used as a sort-of-finish (the stage ended in the middle of that flat section) in the last edition of the Vuelta a Murcia to be a stage race, the two-day 2012 edition, after Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, in the middle of that run of form that made him a British Pecharromán, attacked but was pipped to the top by Nairo Quintana for the Colombian's first European pro win (unless you count the mountains classification in Catalunya the previous year...).

The Collado Bermejo crests with 60km remaining however, so this time around it shouldn't be decisive. We then descend via the more commonly-climbed, two-stepped Totana side - the first 7km of descent are at over 7%, but then it flattens out for a bit before we arrive at Aledo and then head back into Totana. There are two intermediate sprints now, first at Totana itself on our second passage through and then at Alhama de Murcia, again on our second pass through; the city with its iconic castle will be the one that gives its name to the finish although we have plenty of climbing still to do after passing through it.

We're now looping back and heading towards the Collado Bermejo again, although this time we don't continue through when we get there, instead we're continuing up the mountainside. The Vuelta - and Spanish races in general for that matter - is no stranger to this format of stage, where a mountaintop finish is used after an ascent of most of, if not all of, that particular climb. Stages such as the 2008 one to La Rabassa, where they climbed the Coll de La Rabassa, then after the descent climbed it again, continuing on to Naturlandia ski resort, or the use of Navacerrada before Bola del Mundo in 2010 and 2012, showcase that. I used the approach as well in my sixth Vuelta, climbing Cuchu Puercu before descending via Cordal to climb all the way to La Cobertoria. It's also the common queen stage in the Vuelta a Burgos, climbing Lagunas de Neila as far as Pasil de Rozavientos before descending back into Quintanar de la Sierra to finish the job. So this time, our Montevergine di Mercogliano is a long, grinding climb up to the summit of the Sierra de Espuña.

At over 25km long this is a really drawn out struggle of a climb; the final 12km are a legit 1st category in and of themselves, averaging 6,7%. Will much of the racing be done by attrition given it's early in the race? Certainly so. Will many of the key moves only come in the last 5km after the Collado Bermejo? Quite possibly, especially with those 2km at 9% near the top. But a lot of chaff will be shelled here, domestiques burned, and hangers-on expunged. The road here is in perfectly good condition so it shouldn't be a problem. More likely to be a problem is that the summit is a military zone (hence the EVA - Escuadrón Vigilancia Aérea - number), although these have not always had problems with La Vuelta; EVA5, for example, is the designation of the Alto de Aitana, and the Alto de Conjuros pass is EVA9.

And if it is a problem, we finish at Collado Bermejo, much like when the 2006 Giro dropped from Kronplatz to the Passo Furcia. This is intended as the Montevergine-type attrition climb early in the race, so it's not as bad as if we had to drop, say, La Pandera to Puerto Viejo, or Bola del Mundo to Navacerrada late in the race.

 

[Forever The Best]

That stage 19 is awesome OlavEH

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 5: Murcia - Albacete, 173km

GPM:
Alto de Liétor (cat.3) 4,4km @ 4,4%

After yesterday turned the GC around with the first mountaintop finish of the Vuelta, we have a transitional stage as we start to move northward, out of the Murcia region and into Castilla-La Mancha. This is a stage which is predominantly to be classified as flat; there's only one categorized climb and it's pretty benign, no serious gradients to break up the rhythm, however this isn't quite the standard Grand Tour flat stage, as we begin close to sea level and gradually ascend to around the 1000m mark before dropping back down to finish at around 700m; that central plateau that much of Castile is set on comes into full effect, and therefore while there is nothing that will favour real climbers here, there is the possibility of attrition slightly greater than usual in such flat stages.

As previously mentioned, Murcia is currently rather in vogue with the Vuelta and so the city (and region) will likely be happy to provide a host once more. I have used the city relatively frequently in my designs owing to its current love of the sport and convenient location for transitional stages. Here, however, rather than heading along the coast and into Comunidad Valenciana or back into Andalucía as per several of my other routes, we are going inland, so the slow grind uphill begins almost immediately. Early on we pass through the city of Cieza; this city of around 40.000 inhabitants has quite notable cycling history, having produced several professionals. The first professional cyclist from the Murcia region, Ángel Guardiola, was from the town; other notables include 1993 national champion Ignacio García, former Olympian Miguel Fernández Fernández, former Kelme domestique and Vuelta stage winner José Cayetano Juliá, and perhaps most notably the Rojas family, with the elder brother the late Mariano Rojas, one of Spanish cycling's greatest hopes of the 90s, killed in a car crash shortly after his 22nd birthday in 1996, and the younger being Movistar's José Joaquín Rojas, a durable sprinter of some renown (and, owing to some unsavoury political views, some notoriety as well). Therefore it seems only right to put an early intermediate sprint in Cieza so that Rojas' hometown fans and family can see him come 4th.

After Cieza, we pass into Castilla-La Mancha with our first port of call being the Pitón Volcánico de Cancarix before entering the city of Hellín for supplies. There's then a long period through the relatively isolated Sierra de Albacete, with very little in the way of towns and cities, and the spectre of "those" Vuelta stages will surely loom as here the unfortunate breakaways will start to be reeled in as the constant slow uphill starts to take its toll, along with the only actual categorized climb of the day, out of the small town of Liétor.

The sprinters' teams will be wary of catching the break too soon, however, as more than 60km remain. The uphill does continue, at less sustained gradient, until the second intermediate sprint in Alcadozo with around 45km remaining, but shortly afterwards, we leave the Sierra and enter some very exposed, wide open plains land where the riders will be greeted with the exposure to extremely hot and unpleasant wind. The last 25km will be either a jostling sprinters' teams' battle or potential echelon hell for the flyweight climbers Spain has traditionally produced, as we race into a city steeped in Vuelta history; it was introduced to the race all the way back in 1942 when Julián Berrendero won a long and difficult stage into the city en route to holding the leader's jersey start to finish, and has served as a regular stop-off for transitional stages between the north and south ever since. A flat stage was seen in 2014 (won by Nacer Bouhanni) and I have used it on a couple of occasions in my Vueltas; it's one of the few cities in the vicinity large enough to host the race and is quite convenient for a transitional stage; it also hosted the 2010 national championships, a tough rouleur's race which was won by José Iván Gutiérrez. Here I anticipate a sprint, but with the attritional uphill it may not be for the likes of Kittel. However unless the wind blows, it will surely be a day for a sprinter as the GC men recoup their strength after yesterday.

 

[jsem94]

Road World Championships: Båstad

Båstad is one of those smaller towns on the west cost in Sweden. It's situated right close to the infamous ridge Hallandsås, so it's full of Ardennes-like small climbs. I made a stage here for a stage race before, but thought it's nicely suited for a great WC route. Most famous for its harbor and the Sweden Open ATP tournament, it will become famous for creating a sick WC.

Båstad in the summertime:

Men's Time Trial: 48.7km

537 metres of climbing in it though, but most of them are on patches of slight up and down on straight roads. There are two climbs really and they are:
Tarravägen 1910m @ 7.9%(first 800m @ 12.7%)
Tvehögavägen 2400m @ 6.7%

I wanted to make the route so that it would be fairly tough yet not so winding that people will opt to not use TT bikes. There are enough straight roads for any TT specialist to be able to dominate this.


Men's Road Race: 261.6km

Over 3300m of elevation gain. 8 laps around the Båstad course, as well as two climbs prior to entering the course, this will mean a total of 18 nasty ass climbs. We start first in the university town of Lund though, right next to the Lund Cathederal.

Before entering the course itself the riders tackle these two climbs:
Hasslövsbacken 1860m @ 8.7%
Tvehögavägen 2400m @ 6.7%

The course itself looks a bit like this:

The climbs being:
Lyavägen 1800m @ 6.9% (13.4km to go)
Karstopvägen 2420m @ 5.9% (first 1.4km @ 7.7%) (4.2km to go)

This course has a total of 338m elevation gain in 16.91km. For sake of comparison, the Firenze course of 2013 won by Rui Costa had 324m of elevation gain in 16.75km. Very similar numbers, and depending on weather this course can be brutal with lots of rain and wind in the autumn. It will be a race of attrition as much as anything, and no more than 20 riders will probably be in contention in the final lap.

 

[Netserk]

May I ask why you decided to do the circuit clock-wise? It seems to me the two hills are of about equal difficulty that way, whereas if done in reverse, the first climb of the circuit would be the steepest and hardest and the second one far shallower. That said, I still very much like it, though I have never been much of a fan of the Aussie invention of a flat(ish) run-in to the circuit.

 

[jsem94]

I was contemplating both, but the climbs are shorter and steeper doing it clockwise. Doing it counter-clockwise would make the second climb more of a long drag and therefore not as decisive. Maybe it means that people would wait until the final climb to make their move instead of the penultimate is what you fear? I don't know.

Could do it the other way too, both routes are brutal.

 

[bp92]

I've forgotten about this thread for a while. Too busy to post anything.
I've got a bit more time, so I'll start posting the second of my one-week Spain races: the Vuelta a Castilla-La Mancha.

There's no actual one-week stage race in Castilla-La Mancha as far as I know; Castilla-La Mancha is the least densely-populated autonomous community of Spain, and hasn't been very interested in cycling overall. Most races would be heavy on flat sprint stages, too, due to the mostly flat terrain that dominates the region.
However, there's potential to do an entertaining race here. This race in particular has five stages, going across all five of Castilla-La Mancha's provinces, and with a different profile to every single one of them.

Vuelta a Castilla-La Mancha Stage 1: Tomelloso - Tomelloso, 8km (ITT)

We start (again) with a 8km time trial in the city of Tomelloso, in the heart of the La Mancha region, known for being the region where Don Quijote de la Mancha took place. A head start for the TT specialists and not much else as far as the race's concerned, though.

 

[bp92]

Vuelta a Castilla-La Mancha Stage 2: Alcázar de San Juan - Albacete, 194km

Stage 2 is the typical Vuelta stage in southern Castilla-La Mancha: a flat run-in from the south, finishing with a bunch sprint in Albacete. The stage starts from Alcázar de San Juan, one of several places hypothesized to be the "lugar de la Mancha de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme" (place in La Mancha whose name I don't want to recall) described as Don Quijote's hometown. The stage then heads briefly north, passing through El Toboso (hometown of another important character in the story, Dulcinea) before heading south towards Tomelloso and then east until the finish line in Albacete.
The stage takes place along the desertic part of Castilla-La Mancha, mostly through long straight exposed roads, meaning crosswinds are likely. The last 40kms are identical to the typical run-in to Albacete used most recently in the 2015 Vuelta a España. If there's crosswinds in this stage, we may see some contenders drop off the pace here.

 

[bp92]

Vuelta a Castilla-La Mancha Stage 3: Albacete - Cerro San Cristóbal (Cuenca), 172km

Climbs: Olmeda del Rey (2,2km 6,3%), Cerro San Cristóbal (3,7km @ 6,8%)

Next we have the only summit finish stage of the race. Starting from Albacete, the riders head north through mostly flat terrain, with only one cat.3 climb before reaching the city of Cuenca, where the final climb to San Cristóbal begins.

The final climb's hardest km comes at the beginning, as the climb gradually eases up before steepening up for about 300m over 10% near the end. Not too difficult, but enough for the more explosive climbers to gain some seconds on their opponents if their attacks are strong enough.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 6: Utiel - Teruel, 177km

GPM:
Alto de Aras de los Olmos (cat.3) 4,8km @ 5,0%
Collado Calderón (cat.2) 7,0km @ 5,9%
Alto del Barrio de las Minas (cat.3) 4,5km @ 4,5%
Collado de la Matanza (cat.2) 11,9km @ 4,3%

While bp92 sets off on a trip around Castilla-La Mancha (that this is their only MTF suggests no Alto Rey or Monte Ardal, although I await the Puerto del Piélago keenly) I am leaving the region, with a potential banana skin of an intermediate stage which takes in some parts of Castilla-La Mancha, Comunidad Valenciana (only briefly, and our only trip to the region in this edition of the Vuelta) and Aragón.

The stage town, Utiel, is close to Requena where I had an ITT a couple of Vueltas ago, and lies in the westernmost part of Comunidad Valenciana, one of few Valencian municipalities to the west of the Sistema Ibérico. From a cycling perspective its only recent contribution was as the start of a 2003 stage to Cuenca, but it has a famous cycling son in Ramón Sáez, a fearsome sprinter and rouleur in the late 60s who won seven stages of the Vuelta and wore its leader's jersey for a few days along with an impressive 3rd in the World Championships in 1967 and an unexpected victory on a hilly national championships circuit in Ampuero in 1969. Nicknamed "Tarzán", Sáez was in part a victim but in part a benefactor of the Vuelta's habit at the time of trying to coax international stars to compete by serving up routes to suit them; this meant that there were often perhaps more opportunities for the sprinters than there would be in a typical route (and certainly more than in modern times) but he would often be duelling against some top level competitors who nevertheless didn't intend to make it to the end of the race. Tarzán himself reached the end of his race in 2013, suffering from heart problems and passing away at the age of 73.

Today's stage would probably not be one for Tarzán, although he was in the truest tradition of Spanish sprinters not a total mug in terms of getting over obstacles. However, after an active start to the race this could well be a stage for the breakaway, with a significant amount of climbing even though much of it is at fairly benign gradients. It's also a stage through relatively sparsely populated areas, with Utiel having 12.000 inhabitants and Teruel, the finishing town, being the smallest provincial capital in Spain.

The stage should, however, be scenic. One of the first towns we pass through is Talayuelas, famous for the nearby canyon with its dramatic formations.

We then start the climbing, with a fairly short and benign cat.3 climb then leading into the cat.2 Collado Calderón, a fairly consistent climb at around 6km with a couple of easier ramps. This takes us into the scenic Parque Natural de Puebla de San Miguel, with its scorched backdrop and clumps of verdant hillside. It's a beautiful backdrop for a bike race.

The multi-stepped descent includes some steep ramps and a few technical corners but shouldn't cause too much trouble. After this a short period of flat leads onto the more serious climbing in the contending for the stage win; there's no flat after the cat.3 climb to Barrio de las Minas, and then starts a rather hidden climb of the Sierra de Javalambre (itself a fairly undiscovered area for the Vuelta, although in general climbs are very gradual and wouldn't be especially selective), the cat.2 Collado de la Matanza.

The climb - which functions as a more difficult route to get to Camarena de la Sierra, on the way to Javalambre ski resort - crests with 32km to the line, although that means the real body of the climbing ends with 36km to go. As you can see from the profile, it's an inconsistent ascent, with 3km at around 5,5 or 6%, then 3 steeper kilometres (two of which are around 8% with a shallower one in the middle), then 2km at about 4%, a couple of kilometres of slightly downhill undulating terrain, then a quick ramp up to 10% before a final 2km at about 3,5%. If this is about the breakaway, they may splinter here as the stronger climbers wish to thin the group out, allowing more opportunities to get away in the final 30km run-in, and if it's about the bunch, then this should see those hoping for a late opportunity to get away and those teams whose sprinters are more durable working to reduce the number in the group so as to maximise their chance of profiting at the end.

After the descent there is a small "bonus bump" as Magnus Backstedt likes to call those uncategorized short sharp rises you often find in Spanish stage races, between Valacloche and Cubla, of around 2km at just over 6%. This crests with about 18km to go, so could provide a good platform to attack from although until the last kilometres this is then very straight and fast so getting out of sight could be difficult. The finish in Teruel will be quite scenic, before the riders can take a rest for the evening. We are emerging from the top of the below photo, and that straight on the left hand side is the finish, just before the viaduct.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Libertine, where are your Murritos? Its not a proper Vuelta without at least 5.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Libertine, where are your Murritos? Its not a proper Vuelta without at least 5.

I'm trying to mix it up with some old school Vuelta behaviour. Besides, although it wasn't a HTF, you don't think a 1,4km climb with 600m @ 14% in the middle counts as a Murito? The riders have to do that 12 times in stage 1 and there's a 25km MTF on stage 4, which is Guillén terrain.

There aren't really any super-steep Murito finishes in the whole race in this edition actually, though there are a number of uphill finishes ranging from long and drawn out to short and punchy. However there's more of them than you might get from a real Vuelta that have come out of the Isidro Nozal school of grinding climbing, to make the super-lightweights work a bit harder to isolate them.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Libertine, where are your Murritos? Its not a proper Vuelta without at least 5.

You mix the person making the Vuelta parcours with the person who should be making the Vuelta parcours

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Libertine, where are your Murritos? Its not a proper Vuelta without at least 5.

I'm trying to mix it up with some old school Vuelta behaviour. Besides, although it wasn't a HTF, you don't think a 1,4km climb with 600m @ 14% in the middle counts as a Murito? The riders have to do that 12 times in stage 1 and there's a 25km MTF on stage 4, which is Guillén terrain.

There aren't really any super-steep Murito finishes in the whole race in this edition actually, though there are a number of uphill finishes ranging from long and drawn out to short and punchy. However there's more of them than you might get from a real Vuelta that have come out of the Isidro Nozal school of grinding climbing, to make the super-lightweights work a bit harder to isolate them.

Wait a second, I thought it would have to end on the climb to call it a Murito? It probably hasn't, I have just got so accustomed not to see any hard climbs before the last climb! Makes sense. I also didnt realise that it was that hard, I just looked at the average gradient and thought to myself if Guillén ever saw your stage he woulda popped a wine from Burgos, grabbed a steak and laughed all the way to August. I mean, 7%?

Jokes aside, I for one actually like the spectacle of Murito finishes, it was especially glorious in 2012. Maybe a few too many. Some would argue. Even I would. Anyways, always following your work, keep it up (not that I have to tell you that, you are doing just fine by yourself).

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Libertine, where are your Murritos? Its not a proper Vuelta without at least 5.

You mix the person making the Vuelta parcours with the person who should be making the Vuelta parcours

I think we all are astonished to see the work of Liberty Seguros. Same goes for many others on this forum. Thats why you guys needs to apply for those god damn jobs!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If the ascent is proper Purito-steep, he doesn't need the Murito to be a HTF, it just helps. Think of Orio 2010 or Oñati 2012. And Rostrogordo is effectively a little ramp up from the river, a bit of false flat, then a 600m hell-slope. It sure made a difference in that national championships!

Stage 7: Teruel - Calatayud, 184km

GPM:
Puerto de Codos (cat.3) 12,2km @ 3,8%

What fresh hell is this, you may ask? Libertine, that's not like you - three stages for sprinters in the first week? That's almost normal GT-parcours level (well, maybe not for a Vuelta but you know what I mean)! Even if "hills - ITT - flat - HC MTF - flat - intermediate - flat" is not a conventional week one approach... yes, this is true, but the weekend has some serious stages, so stage 7 here is likely to be soft-pedalled if I make things extremely tough, and we're still transitioning our way north after the start being in Africa. So I've been extra-specially nice to the péloton and given them zero transfer, so we start from Teruel again, a city which has not seen the Vuelta a España in the real world since 2005 when it served as the start of a sprint stage to Vinarós won by Max van Heeswijk. Its last time as a stage finish was in 1999 when the terror of the race, Frank Vandenbroucke, took the stage from the escape. This will, however, be more like 2005 than 1999, a flat stage as we move northwards through the flat land of western Aragón towards the end of the week.

Much of the first half of the stage is close to the Jiloca river, a key tributary of the Ebro, through towns like the above. It should keep things scenic, though we mostly stay on the flat plains land that lies between the hilly ridges in the vicinity. Unlike the two previous flat stages, there's no relentless uphill slow ascent here, instead if anything after the first few kilometres it's going to be fast slight downhill as we descend from the high plateau.

After 100km, it starts to get a bit bumpier. Still nothing too spectacular, but by the time we reach the legendary wine-producing town (which gives its name to a Denominación de Origen AND its own grape type) of Cariñena, it's clear we're back in the Sistema Ibérico (although clearly compared to the southeastern part of the range with Mont Carò etc. and the northwestern tip with the Riojan mountains and those at the east of Burgos, these are some pretty low mountains), so it's not going to go all the pure sprinters' way.

Immediately out of Cariñena, we double back on ourselves and take on the somewhat benign but not to be underestimated Puerto de Codos (also sometimes called the Puerto de Aguarón, but the former is preferred). The average gradient is under 4%, although much is just false flat; the final 5km are at just under 6% so it's not a complete guarantee that the sprinters can make it to the end here, and especially if the heat is blazing it may be a thankless task for some rouleur domestiques to pull their man back to the front, although they have 40km in which to do so. The village of Codos, at the base of the descent, is a highly scenic one, but leads us to some uphill false flat to make that chase a bit harder; after that, however, it's a fairly straightforward trip to the fast men's finish in Calatayud, a city which has recently re-entered the Vuelta's conscience after hosting the start of an intermediate stage to Tarazona in the 2015 race which was won from the break by Nelson Oliveira. The surrounding area - especially around Tarazona - has become quite popular with Unipublic as Aragón is clearly interested in the sport at present, with Formigal doing a mountaintop finish in 2013 and this year, and Valdelinares in 2014.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 8: Soria - Ezcaray-Alto Cruz de la Demanda, 198km

GPM:
Lagunas de Neila-Pasil de Rozavientos (cat.1) 13,0km @ 4,9%
Puerto del Manquillo (cat.3) 4,6km @ 5,4%
Puerto de Pradilla (cat.3) 5,2km @ 5,1%
Cruz de la Demanda (cat.1) 15,6km @ 5,7%

As we enter the second weekend of the race, it's time for our second mountaintop finish, and this one is shorter but a much steeper affair than the Sierra de Espuña as well as being a sop to Vuelta history.

Obviously I included Soria late on in the last route, as the stage finish of stage 18 and subsequently the start of stage 19 as we headed through similar terrain late in the race, so its recent Vuelta history - the carved up sprint won by Valverde etc. - is known. This is a key mountain stage within the Sistema Ibérico (a relative rarity in recent years) so naturally we're headed northwest from the city in towards Burgos province and also La Rioja, where we will be finishing today.

The first part of the stage is that kind of Castilian exposed high plateau racing you will be familiar with from the Vuelta a Burgos, the Vuelta's main warmup race. That race often includes puncheur's finishes or puncheur climbs close to the finish of otherwise baking hot flat stages. Our first major port of call is Quintanar de la Sierra, which tells you that, naturally, we're headed towards Lagunas de Neila.

The road up to view these scenic glacial lakes has become a classic thanks to its position as the annual summit battle in the Vuelta a Burgos, where riders surviving on Tour form do war against those building up their Vuelta form, and generally, the results are great. In 2006 you had Juan Mauricio Soler's breakthrough triumph, in 2009 you had a five way battle between Soler, Mosquera, Valverde, Tondó and Danielson, 2011 saw an impressive surprise win for Mikel Landa, and so on and so on. Lagunas de Neila pretty much always delivers. However, in the Vuelta a Burgos they typically climb the road that links Neila to Huerta de Arriba after descending from the Puerto del Collado; this is the option I took when including the climb in my second Vuelta route. The one time the climb has actually been included in the Vuelta was in the midst of the mighty Banesto fratricidal rivalry between Abraham Olano and José María Jiménez - and after a short but difficult stage they climbed directly to the summit from El Collado, following this profile. The video is here which means once more it's time to watch Chava being Chava - for this was one of the four mountaintops he took out in that race. The final 2km or so are a dead end, however, so we can only climb as far as the Pasil de Rozavientos, meaning a last 3km of climbing at over 10%, before descending the side of the climb usually ascended in the Vuelta a Burgos and turning left to leave the mountains and head for Huerta de Arriba.

For much of the rest of the stage, the climbing is fairly manageable. Gradients aren't super tough and the terrain is mainly rolling. Pradilla is hardly the Zoncolan, and serves as the final lead in before the second intermediate sprint, 25km out, in the ski town of Ezcaray, in the extreme east of La Rioja; a Riojan town with a Basque name, it is also home to the pelota-playing Merino family as perhaps its most prominent recent claim to fame. Ezcaray also pays good money to host the Vuelta a España; it administers both the Valdezcaray ski station but also the Cruz de la Demanda within the municipality; this has led to a Vuelta history of some repute.

The ascent to Valdezcaray was introduced to the Vuelta in 1988. Its very moderate slopes - with the last few kilometres being just false flat - were ideal for that year's winner, Sean Kelly, to win back any time lost early on the climb, and the legendary Irishman took the stage win and clawed some time back on then-leader Lale Cubino. The climb returned in 1989, but perhaps in recognition of its unsuitability as a difference-making climb in a road stage, it was instead organized as a 24km mountain time trial, won by eventual Vuelta winner Pedro Delgado. It returned in the same form in 1990 (won by Jef Bernard) and 1991 (won by Fabio Parra), but then was dormant until it was resurrected for a road stage in 2012.

The main reason Valdezcaray fell from favour was because the people of Ezcaray expressed an interest in a finish at Cruz de la Demanda, on the opposite side of the valley. This climb was much more conducive to creating gaps, with its final 8km at almost 9% and its dramatic, sweeping hairpins draped across the Sierra de la Demanda.

Cruz de la Demanda was introduced to the Vuelta in 1993, although it was a total one-climb stage. The stage was won by Tony Rominger, the reigning champion pulling out a 40" gap on a trio of race leader Alex Zülle, Oliverio Rincón and Laudelino Cubino, which enabled the late-blooming Swiss to take the race lead from his compatriot for good. While in '93 Tony won every jersey, in '94 he elected to Bugno the leader's jersey, so when he repeated his heroics on Cruz de la Demanda - his fifth of six stage wins in the race - this time he had the maillot oro for good measure. It was won in the leader's jersey once more in 1996, this time by Alex Zülle (this was the period of Swiss domination in the Vuelta of course) and the climb's reputation was made; it was a stage for the big guns, each time it had been included it had been won by the eventual race winner.

After a five year lay-off the climb returned in 2001 and the spell was broken; the winner of the climb didn't win the GC. They did step onto the podium in Madrid though, for it was the first of three stages won by José María Jiménez, who took the GPM as a result. The climb has, however, gone unused by the Vuelta in fifteen years since then. Although it was used by the Vuelta a La Rioja twice since (in 2003, won by Félix Cardeñas, and in 2006, won by Ricardo Serrano), it's been unused entirely for a decade, so is ripe for rediscovery.

With the first kilometres of that steep final section being at 10% this should be a tricky one to keep together on the final climb; yes, it will be a one-climb race, but organizing a rhythm on this climb should be difficult. This is a one-climb shoot-out, but despite the number of mountains and MTFs, I'm not going nuts with the steepness this time so the climbers and flyweights will have to make use of these rhythm-breaker climbs to take fullest advantage.