Stage 17: Vitória-Gasteiz - Peñas de Itxina (Alto de Pagomakurre), 149km
GPM:
Alto de Kanpazar (cat.3) 4,4km @ 5,7%
Alto de Ixua (cat.2) 5,2km @ 7,8%
Monte Oiz (cat.1) 6,4km @ 9,4%
Puerto de Urkiola (cat.1) 5,7km @ 9,2%
Alto de Pagomakurre (cat.1) 9,0km @ 8,2%
Straight off the back of the big, monster time trial we have a short and fast mountain stage which is a real potential banana skin, not least because the climbers should have lost time by the truckload yesterday and so fireworks will be needed. And we're in the terrain which is most troublesome for the power climber - the inconsistent, painful ramps, narrow roads and rainy surfaces of Euskal Herria.
The stage takes in all three provinces of País Vasco. Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa are best known by their Basque names, but the southernmost, inland province is generally speaking the least nationalist and is widely known by its Castilian name, Álava - although the Basque equivalent, Araba, has a similar level of currency. The only stage in Euskadi proper (of course, stages 15 and 16 take place at least partially in lands claimed by Basques, but this is the only one taking place entirely within the boundaries of present day País Vasco), this one is a mixture of classic cycling - and Vuelta - tradition, and innovation, for there is still surprisingly a lot that racing has yet to really discover within this well-trodden land. País Vasco is one of Spanish cycling's main cradles; the Basque-Navarrese amateur scene is arguably the most competitive such scene in the country and has brought countless talents to the top ranks - not just the Basques and Navarrese, who obviously proliferate in the scene, but many riders from further afield have made it to the top via Basque amateur teams, such as Alberto Contador, Joaquím Rodríguez, Xavier Florencio, Samuel Sánchez and Juan José Cobo. Although the Volta a Catalunya is the oldest extant stage race in Spain, several of the oldest Spanish races are Basque, with the GP Excelsior, which became the Vuelta al País Vasco, being first held in 1924 - although of course from the Civil War until the late 60s the race did not run, there were substitute races such as the Circuito del Norte (running from 1939 to 1945, taking place in País Vasco with incursions into Navarra and Cantabria) and the slightly smaller scale GP Ayuntamiento de Bilbao which ran from 1943 as a short stage race around Bizkaia until the late 50s, then after a few years' absence continued as a one-day race in the early 60s. Alongside this, the Bicicleta Eibarresa was set up in 1952, as a stage race companion piece to the much-loved Subida a Arrate one-day race - subsequent mergers and developments made this into the Euskal Bizikleta which of course merged with the Itzulia in recent years. In the one-day sphere, we pay tribute to two of the greatest of the classic Spanish climbing one-dayers, as well. The Bicicleta Eibarresa itself came from the same cloth as the Vuelta itself, since the Eibar-Madrid-Eibar GP de la República was the forerunner to today's Grand Tour.
The stage begins in the capital of País Vasco, Vitória-Gasteiz. Founded as "Nova Victoria" in the 12th Century on the site of an extant Basque walled town Gastehiz, its present names in both Spanish and Basque derive from its name at this time in each language respectively. Annexed to Castile at the end of the century, its location is unusual among the Basque lands in that it sits on a very small hill within a basin, on the northernmost tip of the Meseta, at a higher altitude plateau between the two ranges of the Montes Vascos; the coastal massifs lie to its north, and the inland ranges to the south. This presence as one of the few places where a legitimate flat finish can be held means it is a regular host of the Itzulia, enabling a more varied set of outcomes in the race, but also its position as the capital of País Vasco means that it spent many years - especially of course in the El Correo-El Pueblo Vasco days - as a mainstay of the Vuelta a España when the Basque region provided the race with much of its most traditional terrain. Although its backdrop is less immediately scenic than the other major Basque cities, lacking either the coastal terrain of Bayonne and San Sebastián or the mountainous backdrop of Bilbao and Pamplona, Vitória-Gasteiz nevertheless has an inviting climate and is ranked one of the most livable cities in Spain.
Perhaps that's why so many people in the history of cycling have called the city their home, with several riders of prominence having come from the city. The most decorated, most likely, is Francisco Galdós, a great Grand Tour rider of the 70s who managed to obtain no fewer than eleven top 10s in the three biggest stage races, four at the Giro, four at the Tour and three at the Vuelta. This included two Giro podiums and one at the Vuelta, however he unfortunately never managed to overcome that final hurdle and climb up onto the top step. In all of his Grand Tour success, in fact, he only managed the one stage win, however it was a big one - duelling tooth and nail with the maglia rosa, Fausto Bertoglio,
on the Passo dello Stelvio on the final day with the result hanging in the balance, the Vitoriano pulled the whole way up the climb but no matter what he did, he couldn't shake the Italian and overcome the 41" deficit between them. It did pull him level with Andrés Oliva for the king of the mountains prize, which was shared (had this happened now, Galdós would have won outright as he took the Cima Coppi), but still a GT eluded him. However, he had taken his first international stage race shortly before, with the biggest GC victory of his career, the 1975 Tour de Romandie.
More recently, the city has been home to the González de Galdeano brothers, Igor and Álvaro. Igor is the more successful of the two, having managed to finish 2nd in the Vuelta in 1999, along with two 5th placed finishes in the Tour de France, and was part of that generation of post-Indurain tempo-based climbers with strong TT prowess at odds with the typical Basque escalador (exemplified in his heyday by Joseba Beloki, Roberto Laiseka and later on Iban Mayo), although in fairness he was a more rounded rider than Aitor González despite the latter winning a GT, which González de Galdeano never managed. Igor came incredibly close to winning after his retirement, however, after becoming the manager of the Euskaltel team - managing to obtain 2nd place in 2009 with Samuel Sánchez and looking like romping to victory in 2010 with Igor Antón before the notoriously inconsistent and flaky grimpeur crashed out in spectacular fashion. Álvaro, the elder of the two, was less successful but nevertheless had a pretty useful palmarès of his own, peaking in 2000 when he won the national championships in a sprint in Murcia, along with stages of both the Giro and Vuelta. After retiring he became a DS for Orbea, Euskaltel's feeder, before joining his brother at the WT managerial level in 2010.
Other riders to make their home in the city include track sprinter Tania Calvo and ill-fated prospect Arkaitz Durán. It also is the home of the radical rock group Hertzainak, whose ballad
Aitormena is one of the most enduring Basque-language songs.
The part of the stage in Álava is comparatively short, descending through Leintz-Gatzaga into Gipuzkoa, where we arrive at Arrasate, known in Castilian as Mondragón, home to the eponymous worker collective which has grown into the largest such organization in the world. This signals the introduction of our first climb of the day, the cat.3 Alto de Kanpazar. It's not hard, in fact
surprisingly consistent for a Basque climb, but its location as a nice warmup climb in this area means it's very popular with real-life race designers (although like most traceurs I would ordinarily prefer to use Asentzio or Karabieta in this role). It was introduced to the Vuelta in 1957, when Raphaël Geminiani was the first to the summit, and since the return of País Vasco to the Vuelta it has been seen both in the
2011 Vitória-Gasteiz stage and the
following year's Arrate stage. The opposite side of the climb was also used for a mountain time trial in the 2011 Emakumeen Bira won by (who else?) Emma Pooley. In fact, my stage bears quite a resemblance for this first half to the second half of the 2012 stage - including the loop back towards Eibar via the uncategorized Alto de Areitio.
The sprint had to take place in Eibar, because of its historic position in the sport's development. As the hometown of not one but two prominent bicycle manufacturers (Orbea and BH), the city played a formative role in the creation of the Vuelta via the 1935 GP de la República, as well as these companies helping to sponsor the riders in the early editions. Its prominence therefore is far in excess of what you might expect from the average city of 25-30.000 inhabitants. The Club Ciclista Eibarrés is responsible for the organization of many events, and was the principle mover behind the creation of the Bicicleta Eibarresa, which became the Euskal Bizikleta, in the 1950s. The club still organizes the Memorial Valenciaga, a famous amateur race with a prestigious winners' list including Jokin Mujika, Óscar Freire, Joaquím Rodríguez, Chechu Rubiera, Mikel Nieve and Unai Osa, and is the main reason behind the annual MTF at the Santuário de Arrate in the Vuelta al País Vasco.
The climb to the Santuário de Arrate is legendary in its own right, of course; the Subida a Arrate was introduced all the way back in 1941 as a mountainous one-day race finishing on the climb up to the famous summit with its brief descent to the line, and ran all the way to 1987 when it was merged into the Euskal Bizikleta to serve as its final stage. While early editions were quite provincial, including four wins for Martín Mancisidor, who outside of one Vuelta GPM never achieved outside of the Basque Country, its prestige rapidly increased, and it has been won by several major names in Spanish cycling history, from Jesús Loroño, Manolo (Castilianized to Manuel) Rodríguez Barros, Julio Jiménez, Gonzalo Aja, Francisco Galdós and Ángel Arroyo to Alberto Fernández - whilst the list of foreign winners is small but impressive - Raymond Poulidor (twice), Johan de Muynck and Stephen Roche are the only extranjeros to triumph here. The most decorated rider at the Subida a Arrate is Federico Bahamontes, who won five consecutive editions from 1958 to 1962. The climb hosted the second MTF in the Vuelta's history, just one day after the Formigal raid previously mentioned. Crashing badly on the way into the Montes Vascos, the Basque fans who had been aggrieved at local favourites Perurena and Lasa being shunted down the GC thanks to Fuente's raid instead gave Tarangu a hero's welcome when he emerged in Eibar bleeding profusely from the head, but refusing to concede time as he tore through the field in pursuit of the leaders on the climb. It was also brought back in 1974, and once again Fuente was defending the race lead and once again Agustín Tamames won the stage - it was not until 2012 that the race went back, so it retained that legend, much like when Gilberto Simoni won the first two climbs of the Zoncolan, except a much less dramatic climb and a record held for much longer. Since the summit became an annual event in the Vuelta al País Vasco, it has developed another level of mythos. The fastest ever ascent of the climb came in 2011, when a small group were unable to break one another; the first over the summit and therefore official record holder is Xavi Tondó. This held even after the 2012 Vuelta when, in better weather than we're used to at the Itzulia, and in a much easier stage overall than we're used to in the Itzulia, we saw
Purito, Valverde, Contador and Froome doing battle.
Of course, here, we're not climbing Arrate in full, only to Ixua, which we always see in the Vuelta al País Vasco before a circuit including San Miguel brings us back to Eibar. However, this is a legit cat.2 climb, including
all of the steepest parts of the climb, just losing the false flat and descent.
The descent here takes us into the village of Etxebarría, which gave us cult hero and breakaway king Amets Txurruka, and then onward into Markina-Xemein, famous as the birthplace of zesta punta, also known as jai alai, the most internationally-renowned (and insane) variety of
pelota vasca. We then start to innovate a bit, at least after one more well-known ascent, this being the climb of
Gontzegaraigane. Having been used in the 2014 and 2015 Vueltas al País Vasco (in the time trial of the former too) it's a well known ascent and probably worthy of categorization ordinarily, but here I've elected to go the "no puntable" route. It was also the site of the very dramatic battle on the final day of the 2015 Emakumeen Bira, with the isolated Niewiadoma trying to defend a GC lead of one second against Emma Johansson and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, knowing they would beat her in a sprint and deciding attack was the best form of defence.
But here, it's just an inconsequential set-up before the brutal, monstrous, nasty ascent of the Alto de San Kristobál, on the shoulder of the mythical Monte Oiz.
What we're climbing is that, until the 2km to go marker. The max is 23%, there's 500m averaging 17%, it's all brutality. And what's worse? The last 3km of the climb are on
hormigón, so there's nowhere to hide - this is a mini-Bola del Mundo.
Never before ascended in cycling competition, Monte Oiz is a dramatic mountain overlooking the city of Durango and known as the "Mirador de Vizcaya". It is a legendary place in the traditional myths and legends of the Basque people, and with a distinctive signal antenna and parque eólico at its summit, is easily recognizable among the other mountains in the vicinity. It's nicely accessible from Durango (itself on the autovía and the Euskotren, the region's narrow-gauge railway, so there's no excuse for fans not to line the roads, as if the Basques wouldn't go to line the roads for a major bike race anyway), although this northern face with its monstrous hell-slopes is a bit tougher to get to. The climb crests just inside 60km from home, because this is a short stage - but if the gaps created by yesterday's time trial are sizable enough, it's worth testing out the opponents' legs here - certainly 3km at 12% on hormigón should be enough to make a lot of domestiques' legs pop, making for an interesting time in the rest of the stage.
The descent is
much more manageable than the climb (remember, we're not including the 2km from the Ermita de San Kristobal to the summit) and after the first couple of kilometres we're back on tarmac to make it a bit more reasonable for the riders to take on. Nevertheless, it's a very twisty and technical descent, so getting back on could become a challenge. At the bottom of the descent lies Durango, a prominent city with a proud history.
Durango's cycling history in recent times is primarily concerned with women's cycling; having subsumed the small town of Iurreta within its borders, it is the hometown of both the Emakumeen Bira stage race and its preceding one-day race, the Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, which uses many of the same climbs as the Klasika Primavera Amorebieta. It is also the hometown of the splendidly-named
Eneritz Iturriagaetxebarria, who like Francisco Gabica often abbreviated her surname to just Iturriaga, part of a prominent cycling family in the area - in fact their bike shop, Ciclos Iturriaga, also sponsors an amateur team in the area, with some distinctively-coloured hot pink jerseys.
'twas not ever thus, however. In 1975, a short stage from Durango to Bilbao was won by the Australian Don Allan (who also was the first Australian to win a stage at the Peace Race), and two years later another stage left the town, to Miranda de Ebro, becoming the record-breaking 13th stage win for Freddy Maertens that year. Although the town only hosted the race on these two occasions, however, it was passed through almost annually as a tradition, because it sits at the foot of the most mythical of all Basque climbs, the holy Urkiola.
The Urkiola natural park is renowned for some of the best scenery in the whole Basque region, which as many of you know means it's up against some serious competition. This mythical set of mountains, led by the mighty
Anboto (here seen overlooking the legendary sanctuary), is the bridge from the mountainous lowlands to the plateau, and the home of the goddess Mari, controller of the weather and one of the principle figures in pre-Christian Basque mythology. It is a mythical and legendary place in all walks of Basque cultural life, and cycling is unsurprisingly no different, what with an incredible, sinuous road draped over the craggy mountainside that leads us from Durango to the summit.
At 5,7km averaging over 9%, this is a typical Basque climb in so many ways, and in others it is truly the greatest of Basque climbs. The point marked Txakurzulo on the profile there is one of the most evocative in cycling, the riders emerging from a sheltered, forested area around a right hand sharp bend when the trees move away and behind the riders, glorious vistas emerge, but before them
a nasty straight ramping up to 14% emerges, and this is where the fans always line the road most fervently.
The Urkiola has as long a history with cycling as any climb in Spain. The Subida a Urkiola, one of the greatest climber's classics ever devised, was first run in 1931 (won by Ricardo Montero), and although it faced periods of inactivity, it continued all the way until 2009 when it was won for the final time by Igor Antón. It has a prestigious list of victors, from Karmany and Julio Jiménez back in the 60s through to its resurrection in the 80s, where we saw the likes of
Lejarreta,
Hampsten, Delgado,
Chiapucci, Rominger, José María Jiménez, Piepoli, Frigo, Rodríguez and Mayo triumph on the hallowed summit. It served as one half of a weekend's Basque action alongside the Clásica San Sebastián, but the implementation of the ProTour harmed the race significantly with it not attracting the same attention as Donostia as a result. Nevertheless, there's still a lot of prestige attached to the climb, not least as it was the hardest climb of the very first Vuelta (the summit being won by the Italian, Luigi Barral), and became an almost everpresent climb in the early days of the race all the way until the Basque Country was taken off the agenda. The summit has been taken by many great climbers, including Karmany, Julio Jiménez, Vicente López Carril and Luís Ocaña, before being introduced as a mountaintop finish in 1975; Agustín Tamames won on the climb on that day en route to overall victory, with José Nazabal cresting the summit first in 1977, although Maertens lead was more than safe enough by that point. As such it was an obvious pick for a return in 2011, although it was the final climb in the relatively tame 20th stage with its long flat run-in to Vitória-Gasteiz, with Carlos Barredo's escape on the climb being pulled back letting Daniele Bennati take the stage.
Here, however, the flat is much shorter, with Urkiola being just over 30km from the line, and with a shorter stage and few opportunities to make time up after this and domestiques having been dumped out the back on Monte Oiz, hopefully we should see more action. The plateau is only long enough to take us to Otxandio, the hometown of 1946 Vuelta winner Dalmacio Langarica, the first Basque Vuelta winner. He won eight Vuelta stages (five of which were the year that he won) and six stages of the Volta a Portugal, but struggled mightily when racing outside of Iberia, for this was during the height of comparative isolation and for the Spanish riders chances to race against the elite competitors from France, Italy or the Benelux countries were quite rare. He later became a team manager, most prominently at Ferrys, the early days of KAS, and with the national team, and died in 1985 at the age of 65.
An uncategorized climb takes us into Areatza, whereupon we take on the final mountaintop finish of the Vuelta, an unheralded and little-known climb called the Alto de Pagomakurre, which sits in the Peñas de Itxina, in the shadow of Monte Gorbea. Again - while much of the Basque country is well-known terrain to cycling, it still has the occasional surprise in store. And a 9km climb at 8% with ramps of 14% and two whole kilometres at 11,4% in the middle being unknown, with Javier Guillén's current activity, is in and of itself surprising. Especially when it's totally ridable and has
an actual car park at the summit. This isn't any cramping-the-race-into-a-clearing technique like we did at the Santuário de Muskilda, oh no. There's
ample space at Pagomakurre for plenty of parking, as it is a popular stop-off point for hiking trails en route to Monte Gorbea and the other nearby Basque mountains.
So, this climb isn't really long enough to leave everything to it, but if you go all out earlier you might pay here - but then it's a short stage so what do you have to lose? Riders will have to wrestle with their instincts also, as the climb's hardest terrain is in the middle. And they probably won't have many helpers since you would hope they had been burned away by the previous two climbs, and if that doesn't do it, the 11km sections will get rid of any of them left. The climbers have got to make today count, and I've given them, with Oiz inside 60km to go and Urkiola at 30, options to go from afar if they dare. Hopefully some secondary contenders or strong contenders whose GC position is more disappointing than they'd hope will be persuaded to redeem themselves like Andy Schleck in 2011... and the Parque Biotopo de Itxina, which gives its name to the stage in the same way as Sotres = Jito d'Escarandí, Lagos de Somiedo = La Farrapona, Finhaut-Emosson = Col de la Gueulaz and so on, gives us a pretty glorious backdrop too.
. I give you that Perigueux-Bergerac wasn't bad either. But Luxembourg...that was something else. 
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram