Race Design Thread

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 14: Ourense - Estación de Esquí La Manzaneda, 169km

GPM:
Alto de Vilamirón (cat.2) 7,0km @ 6,3%
Alto de Carballal (cat.2) 7,9km @ 5,1%
Alto do Boi (cat.1) 9,9km @ 5,7%
Puerto de A Moa (cat.1) 8,4km @ 8,3%
Estación de Esquí La Manzaneda (cat.ESP) 25,6km @ 5,7%

We start the penultimate weekend with what could be considered the second toughest stage of the race in my opinion. It's one of those stages where the long mountaintop finish and the rolling run-in to it means it will be a final climb shootout for sure, however, we're making sure that the riders have as much in their legs beforehand as possible so that the final climb can have maximal impact.

With its Roman aqueducts and bridges, Ourense is the largest city of southeast Galicia and is only a short transfer over from Ponteareas for our third stage in Galician territory. This is deeper into the linguistic terrain of the locals; around 1/5 of the population use only Galician, almost as many as use Castellano as their only means of communication, although the remainder use both in varying degrees of code-switching. Of course, the city will play host to the start of the 2016 Vuelta; it is its first appearance on the route since 1995, when it was one of the many cities that hosted a victory for Laurent Jalabert in the first September Vuelta. I also used it in my third Vuelta, when I placed a HTF at the ungodly steep Costiña de Canedo, a true Murito. Today is not about the Muritos, but the Isidro Nozals of this world need to work hard to be allowed to grind their way up the last climb...

We begin with a first 20km of flat terrain as we head along the high-sided banks of the Rio Miño until it joins up with the Rio Sil as seen above. Our first climb is out of the gorges carved by the river, a solid cat.2 ascent to Vilamirón. The descent leads into an early intermediate sprint in Monforte de Lemos before we head into the Sierra del Caurel, where the Macizo Galaico and the Asturian mountains meet, for some serious punishment to be meted out to the legs of the péloton, which should be in small pieces when we re-emerge. The first climb from A Pobra de Brollón to the Alto de Carballal, is scenic but ultimately not especially taxing; it consists of a short punchy climb followed by some false flat that gradually ramps up. Then a twisting descent takes us back down to the river, where se armó un zapatiesto... the two-stepped Alto do Boi happens.

You might think sub-10km at under 6% isn't really cat.1 material, but you would be so wrong. There are quite a few sides to this climb, and one of the routes from Baldomir, where we cross the river, is this tough one with 3km at 11% in the middle... but we've got something worse. Like with the staircase-like Collado de los Frailes via Alhucema, the statistics do not tell you what you should know about this climb. Namely, that it's actually two climbs, and not very nice ones either.

Look at that final section of the climb. It's insane. 3,2km @ 13,5%. That's... seriously unpleasant. The first part of the climb is hard enough - after the first kilometre you have 2km @ 9,5% - a rock solid Murito in its own right - then your flat and descent, before suddenly launching the riders into something that is much like Xorret del Catí, only steeper. In another context, this is like Montée Laurent Jalabert, if it was 30% steeper and slightly longer. Remember that's a legit cat.2 - so with the additional earlier climbing, this is a cat.1.

Yes, this is nasty. Very nasty. But as you can see from close up shots like this, it's perfectly ridable, and could definitely be used in La Vuelta. Here's hoping they discover this area at some point. It's also a very unusual area in that olives are grown here, which is quite unusual for this part of Spain. It's especially doable for the Vuelta because the descent, although longer than the climb (and in terms of average gradient steeper, but let's agree that's misleading after looking at the climb data), is on wide open roads, although with quite a few fast corners which will make descending key. We then arrive in Quiroga for our first second intermediate sprint, which sets us up for our next piece of uphill punishment.

With 4km at 9,5% in the middle the Puerto de A Moa is a difficult climb which is comparable in statistics to the western face of La Cobertoria, which is the side most traditionally used (although the eastern side from Pola de Lena is tougher). Although it is almost a fixture in stages to La Manzaneda to traceurs, the Vuelta did not approach from this side, disappointingly. There are approximately 50km remaining at the summit, with the climb leading to some flat, then a bit of undulating downhill into A Pobra de Trives.

And then... we're ready for our colossal mountaintop finish. The Vuelta has only been to the Estación de Esquí La Manzaneda once, in 2011. It was won from the escape by David Moncoutié, his last career win from a pure victory point of view (of course this was a large part of his triumph in the secondary classification he had made his own, the Vuelta's GPM)... but it also was arguably the stage that settled that Vuelta; although he was wearing the Jersey Rojo, Team Sky elected to make Chris Froome, an unproven commodity in a Grand Tour, make a lot of the pacing in order to assist Bradley Wiggins' GC bid; by the end of the climb the Kenyan-born Briton was spent, and eventually lost 27 seconds to the heads of state group, which numbered 15 (some had been caught from the escape late on, including David Bernabeu who was first of them across the line), which of course proved vital in the end as when Wiggins faltered on the penultimate weekend as Juanjo Cobo attacked, Froome was left with a deficit he couldn't recover despite his best efforts on Peña Cabarga (and as he suddenly discovered an aptitude for intermediate sprints, in those as well).

This was the stage as presented, using the fairly consistent face of the climb ascending through A Pobra de Trives and then taking the western of the two roads connecting the town to the Cabeza de Manzaneda (both join at the Puerto at around 1400m). As you can see from the profile, it's a pure Nozal grinder. Unipublic then elected to revise it to take the eastern road, from Manzaneda, which entailed a little flat and descent linking A Pobra de Trives to Manzaneda. Although the flat section brings the average down, it's a much more inconsistent ascent with the same final few km at 7-8% but also an earlier kilometre at 9,5% and ramps of up to 16%. There is, however, another route from A Pobra de Trives, which is to descend down to the banks of the Rio Bibei, and climb back up to Manzaneda on a narrower and steeper road, which yields this profile, which is the route we are taking to the top.

Is it still a tempo grinder? Quite possibly. I'd like to hope we won't see all the favourites come to the top together like we did in 2011 (Purito attacked for a few seconds admittedly), but we also had a perfect storm of race-killing factors that year; the most active climbers of previous years were either absent (Mosquera, whose success was a significant part of the reason for the climb being introduced) or on horrific form (Purito, Antón, Nibali, Scarponi) that had meant that the GC was being bogarted by either placement riders (Jürgen van den Broeck, Haimar Zubeldia types) or diesel climbers like Wiggins whose form of attacking was out of the Indurain-La Plagne/Ullrich-Arcalis playbook; it had worked very effectively on La Covatilla, but when he wasn't on top form at La Manzaneda there was no plan B option.

One bad stage shouldn't kill the climb off though; it's still a serious challenge. The APM guys' comparisons puts it up favourably against the legendary Col d'Izoard... and that's only to the Puerto - there's another few kilometres of climbing at La Manzaneda afterward! While some climbs like Arcalis have developed a negative aura, I don't think you can say that when a climb has only been used once; also, in my race, we've had a 50km ITT since the last real mountain stage, much like the Sierra de Espuña was about grinding them down, the flyweights of this world are going to have to work hard to drop the diesels in this edition of my Vuelta. After all, I did a couple which were all about mid-length and super-steep climbs, so now it's revenge of the riders biased in the other direction. After all, there were Vueltas fifteen years ago that could be won by Ángel Casero and THE AITORMINATOR©...

And besides, there are multiple sides, and there's a pass a few kilometres from the summit, so Unipublic could always do a double-pass to the MTF in the style of the 2008 La Rabassa stage or my earlier stage to Sierra de Espuña if they think they'd rather beef the stage up with more climbing before the MTF.

*cough*splutter*cough*

Sorry, I just had to stifle an uncontrollable fit of laughter at the thought of Unipublic wanting to add more difficult climbs mid-stage. Where was I? Oh yes, another benefit to having that pass is that, with multiple sides on scenic and wide roads, you could actually create a range of stages using this, even if it's an inconsequential early stage climb with something like Fonte da Cova later on. La Manzaneda does not have to be a bland 5% MTF won by the escape when Bradley Wiggins doesn't want to chase it and Juanjo Cobo is saving his energy. It could be much more if placed in a position to be more decisive, which is what I have tried to do here.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 15: Verín - Mondim de Basto (Alto da Senhora da Graça), 192km

GPM:
Alto de Montenegrelo (cat.3) 7,3km @ 4,0%
Alto de O Barragem do Alvão (cat.1) 10,3km @ 6,5%
Alto Campanhó (cat.1) 13,0km @ 5,5%
Alto da Senhora da Graça (cat.1) 11,9km @ 6,1%

Ah yes... it's a classic, but not a Vuelta classic. Instead once more we're crossing the border and borrowing from A Volta; it seems that the Portuguese interest in cycling is beginning to build up once more as we see the Vuelta a Castilla y León taking trips across the border for the second consecutive year, and Portuguese talents showing in Algarve or outside of their own borders progressively more often (only to be beaten to a pulp by aging Spanish exiles in August of course); the Portuguese have played key roles in the history of the Vuelta, from João Rebelo's fight with Berrendero for the mountains classification in the early days when Franco's Spain's name was mud in much of Europe, through Joaquim Agostinho missing out on victory by a mere handful of seconds in 1974, to the presence of teams like Milaneza in the 90s and early 2000s yet still there's only the one Vuelta that's gone across the border. I know my third Vuelta featured a couple of stages in Portugal including an MTF at the Alto da Torre from Seia, but here we're using the Volta's other icon.

Before that, however, we set off still in Spain, from Verín, a city which sits at the southern foot of the massif on which yesterday's stage finish, La Manzaneda, sits, and which last saw Grand Tour action as the start town of that aforementioned stage won by Moncoutié. It has a long history with the Vuelta, having first been introduced to the race back in 1936, in a difficult stage from Vigo which was won by noted climber Fermín Trueba. The city was also a stage town in 2009 when the GP Rota dos Móveis, a noted Portuguese one-week race of the time, included a couple of Galician stages; Manuel Ortega soloed in just ahead of the group, with (who else?) Cândido Barbosa leading the sprint for 2nd. The following day's stage from Verín back into Portugal was won by everyone's favourite fat bearded 80kg sprinter who climbs like an angel but only in the month of August.

Much like the 2015 Vuelta a Castilla y León stage from Guarda to Fuentes de Oñoro where almost the whole stage was in Portugal before the final kilometre was in Spain, this stage is in Spain to begin with, but everything after km 14 is in Portugal, crossing the border at Feces do Abaixo and heading straight into the centre of Chaves. Chaves-Verín are so local to one another that, with the satellite towns of each spilling towards the respective borders they are classed as a conurbation, and therefore a Eurocity, as a border-crossing area. As a result I'd expect the Eurocity to be a part of their hosting bid, so the old Roman town of Chaves gets an early intermediate sprint.

As anybody who's watch the Volta a Portugal can tell you, while steep gradients to create legit tough mountains may not be as common as elsewhere, there's plenty of up and down, since very little of the northern half of Portugal is genuinely flat, and that's where most of the cycling interest lies. As a result, after a bit of rolling terrain, we have a very long drag of a climb - the full climb is around 25km at 2,5%, but despite an earlier ramping section I've elected only to categorize it from Vila Pouca de Aguiar upwards, hence the cat.3 status. The similarly gradual and multi-stepped descent from this takes us to the city of Vila Real, which is where, many years, the Volta a Portugal truly begins.

That's because this is where the traditional lead-in climb to Senhora da Graça, the difficult climb to O Barragem do Alvão, begins (sample stage design). It's an inconsistent climb, with its steepest kilometre - at around 10% - coming early on. Some of the early parts are on some rather unpleasant cobbles as well, which adds to the difficulty and helps justify the cat.1 status. In 2009 it broke the Volta up completely as the leader - Cândido Barbosa - kept too many domestiques with him to control the riders attacking on the climb, leading to two distinct groups forming, with many pre-race favourites in the second one; Nuno Ribeiro and João Cabreira then attacked from the first and got what eventually became a race-winning advantage, while the likes of Blanco and Bernabeu were forced to chase the rest of the break.

Helpfully, the live coverage of the 2015 Senhora da Graça stage begins right at the base of the Alvão climb, which means if you watch the first half an hour or so of this footage you can see the climb; if you watch the last half an hour or so you can watch the mountaintop finish we have today. At the top of the climb we have a scenic dam which holds an attractive reservoir which is a popular destination for tourists and daytrippers from Vila Real and the surrounding area.

The Volta typically takes the multi-stepped descent direct from Alvão to Mondim de Basto for the final climb, however, we're taking a separate loop which enables us to mimic the 2010 stage which looped around the Alto Campanhó, south of Mondim but west of Vila Real, to add another serious climb. The profile looked like this and the climb effectively consists of 3km @ 7%, then a bit of false flat ramping up to a final 5km at 7% as well. Much like Alvão in 2009, it saw some key moves made in 2010, with a group getting away including Bruno Pires, Rui Sousa and Hernâni Brôco, the latter two hanging on to finish among the best on the day when chased down by the favourites at the end on the final climb, as seen here. There are 40km remaining at the summit, before a fast descent takes us back towards Mondim.

Part of me wanted to add a fairly pointless detour over the river here solely to include an intermediate sprint in Celorico de Basto, but then I thought I'd just mention it anyway and not bother affecting the route. Celorico has some fictional importance as the hometown of João da Ega, the best friend of main protagonist Carlos da Maia and the most compelling character in Os Maias, the masterpiece of José Maria da Eça de Queirós and arguably the greatest ever piece of writing in the Portuguese language (I consider it a toss-up between "Os Maias" and "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas", a spectacularly humorous work by Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis - I'm afraid Os Lusíadas isn't my style). It's one of my favourite books.

Anyway, back to cycling, and here we are in Mondim de Basto, at the foot of the mythical Senhora da Graça. It's a fine moment every August, the peloton arriving in town and the fans lining up on the first ramps of the climb through the town. No matter how weak the field at the Volta, the people of Mondim de Basto line the streets for it - this is the kind of crowd attracted by Rui Sousa and Gustavo César Veloso, so this could get pretty crazy when the superstars of World cycling show up:

But the thing is, to prevent the previous stages being too neutered, it's worth noting that Senhora da Graça, despite its mythical status, is not that hard a climb, and indeed the gaps opened up tend to be a maximum of a minute between the top 10. Therefore riders will need to consider earlier action or borrowing a tactical page from the Volta with those earlier moves in order to maximise the potential of the stage.

As you can see, it's only really the last 8,5km which are at about 7% that are the real challenge; it's therefore comparable to Verbier. And while Contador may have set VAM records on Verbier, the Volta has its own animals setting crazy tempo - that 2015 clip I linked earlier has the Brandão-César group doing about 6,7W/kg while Filipe Cardoso, a punchy sprinter, grits his teeth and hangs on from the early move. Mighty stuff considering it's pushing 40º heat as well. It's an iconic summit, spectacularly scenic, baking hot, and it will just look amazing.

Here it is in 2001, José Luís Rebollo winning from the break. Here is the epic 2009 stage referenced above. And here it is in 2014 with Edgar Pinto continuing LA's tradition of winning on the climb the year after a breakthrough after David Belda hit the wall late on. The climb has at other times been won by the likes of David Arroyo, Sérgio Pardilla and Juan José Cobo. Yes, A Volta is typically won and lost on the Alto da Torre in recent years, but Senhora da Graça typically tells us who will be fighting out the victory. The format has typically been Senhora da Graça on the first Sunday, to set the scene for the race's second week. Here, much as in 2008, I'm flipping it; the climb comes AFTER much of the GC action so the riders can't play safe; and much like in 2008, when gaps were much bigger than usual on the climb as Torre had already opened things up big-time (and Rui Sousa had been given a huge gift of time as well), riders probably can't just make this a sprint up Monte Farinha if they want to make this stage matter at the sharp end. And if they do, history tells us you've got to lead into the last corner.

But mostly, I just want to see if the elites of world cycling can do the climb faster than the August machines.

 

[Cannibal72]

Part of me wanted to add a fairly pointless detour over the river here solely to include an intermediate sprint in Celorico de Basto, but then I thought I'd just mention it anyway and not bother affecting the route. Celorico has some fictional importance as the hometown of João da Ega, the best friend of main protagonist Carlos da Maia and the most compelling character in Os Maias, the masterpiece of José Maria da Eça de Queirós and arguably the greatest ever piece of writing in the Portuguese language (I consider it a toss-up between "Os Maias" and "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas", a spectacularly humorous work by Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis - I'm afraid Os Lusíadas isn't my style). It's one of my favourite books.

Pessoa! PESSOA!

(Although the little Machado I've read is admittedly wonderful, and I am bound by translations.)

 

[BigMac]

Monte Farinha > Everything else.

Great stage. I remember you mentioning João da Ega's hometown and Os Maias in last year's race thread. It was a surprise to read.

 

[Maxiton]

I've always thought this thread is brilliant, and wondered why it wasn't stickied. Now it is. If anyone has an objection, PM me. Otherwise, carry on.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 16: Vila Real - Guarda, 186km

GPM:
Alto da Santa Helena (cat.2) 5,1km @ 7,4%
Alto de Guarda (Cubo)(cat.3) 11,4km @ 4,1%
Alto de Guarda (cat.3) 3,9km @ 5,5%

We sneak a bonus day in Portugal in before the second rest day, a real "how does the péloton feel today?" Vuelta stage since this could be ideal for a breakaway, ideal Worlds preparation, or a potential chance for a GC contender to sneak a few seconds from a tired group after the difficult mountain stages at the weekend.

The city of Vila Real featured on the route of yesterday's stage at the foot of the Alvão climb, so it's not a big transfer and the race caravan doesn't have too much work to do. Despite its excellent location between the Douro and the Alvão mountain range which of course contains Monte Farinha, Vila Real has been off the Volta's route since 2001 and is unknown as a stage town in minor races since as well. However, it is a twin town of Ourense which is hosting a stage start a couple of days earlier, so this pairing is a justification for the stage start of this potentially dangerous hilly stage. The first part of the stage is a descent to the banks of the Douro, the mythical river that feeds the scenic green hillside of the region, dotted with vineyards punctuated by the occasional olive grove.

We cross the river at Peso da Régua, and then have a gradual ascent into Lamego, where José Herrada in his pre-Movistar days won a memorable solo in 2010. I haven't categorized this as the gradient is mainly at 3-4%; it then backs from the town into Tarouca, from which we begin our first ascent of the day, the Alto de Santa Helena. The Capela de Santa Helena da Cruz sits on a mountaintop overlooking the city, and is known to cycling from domestic races, most recently seeing Santi Pérez triumph in the GP Liberty Seguros in 2011. The full climb to the capela is around 8km @ 6,8%, but we're only climbing to the pass, so it's only around 5km but gets the steepest parts of the ascent, before a gradual downhill false flat into Moimenta da Beira. A long rolling phase in the middle of the stage is generally pretty flat but includes a fairly sustained descent from the first intermediate sprint in Trancoso, before a slight - and partially cobbled - uphill ramp up to the second intermediate sprint in Celorico da Beira.

After this, however, the stage starts to get a bit tougher for the tired legs on their seventh consecutive day of competition, as flat terrain is now at a premium. First up is a punchy but uncategorized climb before a steep and tricky descent into Aldeia Viçosa; shortly afterward, with 35km remaining, the grinding begins as we head northward towards Portugal's highest altitude city, Guarda. This entails an arduous drag from Vila Soeiro up through Chaos and Cubo to arrive at the southwestern tip of the city for a GPM (we don't head to the 'other' GPM point this time around, a bit like the strangely spiralling 2011 San Lorenzo de El Escorial stage which had a climb in San Lorenzo under 20km out that didn't touch the finishing climb). It's a power rider's climb, pure dragging, no steep gradients; the steepest kilometre is just 5,8%.

At this point we enter a circuit which I borrowed from the 2009 Volta a Portugal. The official profile rather overstates the difficulty of that final climb, however; the actual summit of the climb is a few hundred metres after the finishing line, and as a result I have elected to categorize the first pass but not the finish, although this is perhaps the most clearly established puncheur finish in the race.

As you can see, the second kilometre averaging around 7% is the key part, but the third kilometre flattens out somewhat - the finishing line is at about 3,3km of that profile, so the final ramp is not included on the ascent to the finishing line. In that 2009 stage you got the crazy chaos that you often get from the uphill-finish-that-isn't-quite-a-puncheur's-spectacle in the Volta; Cândido Barbosa predictably won but he did so by outsprinting Mauro Santambrogio and Héctor Guerra, which tells you this is not your average sprint finish. The fourth member of that initial group was Danail Petrov, then a couple of seconds' gap was opened up before Damiano Cunego led home a parade of GC men and climbers including Bernabéu, Eladio Jiménez, Paolo Tiralongo, Isidro Nozal and Nuno Ribeiro.

Guarda is not an unrealistic host; the city loves cycling. It hosts the Volta a Portugal nearly every year for either a finish or a stage start, and has twice in recent years been the site of the race-defining time trial. It has also played host to an U23 World Cup round, and in the previously-mentioned Portuguese interest and sponsorship with the Vuelta a Castilla y León it has hosted a stage start in the 2015 edition, so they're happy to host Spanish racing too. Plus, because I've taken the finish from an existing race, we have a detailed map of the run-in courtesy of the Volta's organizers. As you can see, the first part - the steep part - has some tight corners, but it opens out as it goes on, which should favour the chase. However, that was on day 2 of a tense Volta, here it's into week 3 of the Vuelta (which now takes its unusual Portuguese rest day - however the Giro and Tour have both had rest days abroad, and the Vuelta of course had one in Andorra la Vella just last year) so it could be a very interesting finish if a breakaway is allowed to go, plus with the range of top quality riders aiming for the Worlds, this may be their last day in the Vuelta so they'll want to test their legs. Time gaps may only be a few seconds at the most (it's not steep enough to be a Murito, but it should put a lot of the best sprinters on the back foot at least with the Sagans, Boasson Hagens etc. of this world being favoured but they'll need to ensure good placing in the group on the steepest part of the climb. It's maybe a bit more Castillo de Burgos - remember Lobato won that a couple of years ago - than 2009 Montjuïc, but teams will have to be on (no pun intended) guard.

 

[Forever The Best]

Senhora da Graça,nice
It was one of my thoughts for La Vuelta if I design a one.

 

[Brullnux]

Tirol Rundfahrt/Giro di Tirolo Stage 2: Kufstein – Innsbruck

One of the easiest stages of the Tour comes just after possibly the hardest Austrian stage. Today, the riders will be much more relaxed, and the GC guys will be looking to stay out of trouble rather than gain time, unless if the Mizunalm yesterday put a dent into their chances and they wish to regain some time here. Not every stage can be a mountainous one; this and another stage on the Italian side are the ones for the stage hunters. I wouldn’t quite say sprinters, because I expect the Igls climb would drop any who have turned up.

The stage starts off in Kufstein, near the German border in the north-most part of Tirol. It is the second largest of the region, after Innsbruck. Despite this accolade, it houses just 19,000 people. It is located about 50k from yesterday’s stage finish, so hopefully the transfer won’t be too hard on the riders. The most notable attraction of Kufstein is probably the fortress, built on a rock that is 90m high. This is to take nothing away from the town, which is very pretty and picturesque.

After, we head over some rolling terrain to a number of small ski-resorts like Soll and near Hopfgarten-Markt. Once again, as will be the theme in all of the race, the scenery is beautiful. We re-cross the Inn river, the same river that was next to yesterday’s stage, and head up towards the Brandenberg circuit, again. I am not a fan of repetition normally, but the way I have planned my race means that it is necessary to go this way again, as my knowledge of passes and climbs in Austria isn’t great to say the least, and Austria do not as often as Italy build mountain passes, especially in the East-Innsbruck area.

After that, we come back down into the valley until the Schlogelsbach climb, which will soften the legs a bit, at 8.6% over 3 and half kilometres. Then we descend into the capital, where the first stage started. Here, the riders will take on a circuit containing the Igls climb and a short sharp kick on the Purnhofweg.

This circuit is here to pay respect to the upcoming Worlds that will be hosted here. IIRC there are rumours of the Igls climb being used, along with a short, sharp kick up. So here I’ve included that exactly.

The Igls climb is pretty hard, averaging over 7% and maxing out at over 12%. It is no joke of a climb. I expect the first moves to win be made here on the last loop. Then comes the second climb up the Purnhofweg, that is consistently 9-10-11% for 1k. The final moves will be made here. It suits a stage hunter like Cummings, for example, very well.

 

[Gigs_98]

Good medium mountain stage, and I would be very happy if this would indeed be the route for the worlds, but as far as I know the climb to Igls will be the other way around, so they will ascend the easier side.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 17: Castelo Branco - Cáceres, 196km

GPM:
Monte do Pardo (cat.3) 4,2km @ 5,2%

After the second rest day, we have a nice stage for the sprinters - the first in a while - as we move back from Portugal into Spain in the third week of La Vuelta.

Much like Guarda, the city of Castelo Branco is a long-time supportive cycling city, and features on the Volta a Portugal route most years. As just about the largest Portuguese city east of the Serra da Estrela it often is included in transitional stages either immediately preceding or succeeding the Alto da Torre, and because the rolling countryside around the city does not allow for many real climbs, and the roads are mostly wide and well-maintained, it typically results in a sprint, as with the 2015 stage which was won by Eduard Prades of the Caja Rural team, ahead of Samuel Caldeira and Davide Viganò. This isn't always the case of course; in 2010 the breakaway was allowed to go by an exhausted péloton, with Joaquín Ortega taking the win for Barbot (only to have it later taken away due to a positive doping test), while in 2012 the city hosted the Volta's opening prologue, won by Reinardt Janse van Rensburg for MTN, and in 2006 the city hosted the closing ITT (I miss those days without the pointless sprint finish) when David Blanco seized the camisola amarela from Carlos Pinho on the final day to take his first Volta win.

Here, the city may be the stage start, but the tradition of sprints is unlikely to be broken, as this is the flattest stage since, well, quite a long time ago, with only the one cat.3 climb on the menu. The early part of the stage actually heads westward before we turn to the south to enable us to cross the Tagus at Vila Velha de Rodão, crossing the river at a particularly scenic point which will make for excellent footage.

This takes us across from Beira into Alentejo, where searing heat and scorched earth used to be the norm when the Volta covered the whole country more comprehensively than it does now; 40º heat is not unrealistic to expect here although we are, luckily for the riders, about a month removed from when the Volta takes these roads on in the height of August. Here we have our only categorized climb of the day, a mostly unconcerning short cat.3 ascent, before starting the slow upward drag via Nisa towards Castelo de Vide, as we spend around 25km rumbling up and down the uncategorized undulating ascents of the Serra de São Mamede before crossing the border from Portugal into Spain once and for all.

Once in Spain, however, things settle down somewhat, ascent-wise, and once we're past Valencia de Alcántara the stage is very much a flat one, heading into the territory of "those" Vuelta stages; indeed it's an effective rest day, except a rest day where you have to ride nearly 200km in 30º+ heat. There's not a great deal to say about most of the last 100km, since it's through fairly benign Extremaduran countryside; mostly flat to rolling, with searing heat, it's going to be one of "those" Vuelta stages; since I've been away from those for quite some time (the last being stage 5) and the riders are needing a transition stage between sets of GC racing, it's high time the sprinters had something to play for. Given that the GC guns probably don't want to waste more energy than they have to, however, the sprinters' teams will probably not have it all their own way; knowing the GC guys want to take the day off, riders refreshed after the rest day will want to get into the break, while the sprinters' teams will probably have to do all the work to chase themselves, without the Jersey rojo team giving them too much assistance; in addition to this, as many sprinters will have gone home by this point, the number of teams banking on the sprint may be fewer on the way to Cáceres.

This oft-overlooked part of Spain, likely due to low population density and not a great history of cycling - only features periodically in the Vuelta - only three times in the last 20 years in fact, with José Cayetano Juliá winning from the break in 2004, and Erik Zabel winning a sprint in 2006, before a long lay-off before the city returned for an expected sprint in 2013. This, however, turned into one of the tensest finishes since Anthony Roux held off the bunch in Talavera de la Reina in 2009, mainly because Tony Martin is a beast, and Fabian Cancellara can be bitter and petty. I'd like to congratulate Mørkøv for his stage win, but really I just resent Cancellara that day because Martin was awesome. The city has hosted cycling since, however, with the national championships of 2015 taking place on a mostly flat-to-rolling circuit around the north of the city. To match this I have looped around to the north of the city but nothing like as far out as was reached on that circuit. High heat, attrition and a rather patchy field helped make it simultaneously the most and least predictable Spanish national championships in years; going to a sprint from a trio with Carlos Barbero of Caja Rural present meant Valverde couldn't play the gifting game like he had with Jesús Herrada and Ion Izagirre previously, but also the relatively flat circuit and the paucity of top level sprinters in Spanish cycling meant that fourth and fifth went to Carlos Antón Jiménez and Cesc Zurita, both amateur at the time, in a surprise result. The city has a beautiful UNESCO-inscribed walled interior, like many historic Spanish cities, although this one is particularly well-preserved.

Once the riders are in the city itself, the actual run-up to the line is slightly uphill, but this is not a puncheur's finish by any stretch of the imagination - not even to the extent of the Soria stage in my last Vuelta - this is pure drag terrain - around 3-4% in the last kilometre - so unless the wind blows hard across the plateau, the sprinters should have this one all their own way, for once.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 18: Coria - Sierra de Béjar-Estación de Esquí La Covatilla, 205km

GPM:
Puerto del Piornal (cat.1) 14,2km @ 4,9%
Puerto de Honduras (cat.1) 16,9km @ 5,2%
Puerto de La Garganta (cat.1) 10,9km @ 5,5%
Estación de Esquí La Covatilla (cat.ESP) 17,2km @ 6,0%

As we move back from Extremadura into the more typical Vuelta climes of Castilla y León, we have a difficult climbing day which is the probable queen stage of this edition, with the last mountaintop finish of the race at the end of four tough mountain passes.

With its Roman city walls, its historic gothic cathedral and Renaissance bridge, the centre of Coria - a city which actually predates the Romans - has an intriguing cultural mixture of eras. It also has very little in the way of cycling history, never having hosted the Vuelta (in the parallel universe of these races, it was introduced to the Vuelta to start a flat stage a couple of years ago of course, but in the real world it's never seen the national Tour), but is quite conveniently located for us today as we take a snaking route east across the foothills of the Sistema Central, before crossing back from east to west once we enter the mountain range, crossing from the Sierra de Gredos to the Sierra de Béjar, before heading north towards our finish.

The first part of the stage is the easy part, mostly flat as we head toward Plasencia, which last featured on the Vuelta route as a stage start in stages that, like today, finished at La Covatilla. In fact, in those days they had quite strong stages similar to mine to arrive at the climb, although I have a tougher penultimate climb that crests closer to the finish (more on those later). The city hosts an early intermediate sprint in front of its scenic aqueduct, in fact, before we have a tricky but uncategorized climb.

Another 30km or so of flat along the base of the mountains takes us into terrain used in my fifth Vuelta, but rather than use the Alto del Barrado, we're going to keep our powder dry today until passing Jaraíz de la Vera, after which it's time to take on the lengthy but comparatively gradual Puerto del Piornal. As you can see, its length is its main difficulty, as this is a pure tempo grinder's climb - although the max gradient, quite late on, is 14%, the steepest kilometre is still under 6%. We're still in Isidro Nozal territory here. The road is fairly narrow and the issue here will be heat once more, with sun-scorched roads exposed to the midday sun with little shelter. A long descent takes us into the scenic Valle del Jerte; a second option to toughen up the stage with a less well-trodden path would be to continue all the way up to Tornavacas then go via Tremedal, but this would be slightly easier overall plus shorten the final climb. Instead, we get to enjoy the scenic valley for a short while before turning left and taking on a much more serious climbing proposition.

The second climb of the day, the Puerto de Honduras, is one of those classic Spanish climbs whose stats don't really tell the full story. 16,9km @ 5,2% suggests a tempo grinder's climb, but more realistically this is about 12km at a shade under 7% followed by some up-and-down false flat for five kilometres; no it isn't Angliru, but it's also potentially underestimated; this should help us reduce the bunch down on these slopes, especially as it's still pretty exposed here, so with the sun beating down from the south and no protection for the riders, those who aren't strong in the heat could suffer like animals today.

The descent into Hervas is where we now change our plans compared to those earlier La Covatilla stages, which took on the shorter and less tricky climbs to the east of the Puerto de Béjar; we instead turn right in Baños de Montemayor and climb the Puerto de La Garganta, another grinder's climb which has its steepest kilometres around 7%, and crests at just under 30km from the line. From here, the climb is much more lopsided than the previous climbs on the day, as we take a shallow and short descent into the town of Béjar, from which we begin our final climb of the day.

The city of Béjar has hosted the Vuelta a few times over the years, but it has come more to prominence since the 90s, and that's to do with two famous riders from town. I mentioned the first a couple of times in my last Vuelta because I was going for quite a late 80s-early 90s vibe with that route - it is the underrated pure climber Laudelino "Lale" Cubino González. Professional from the mid 80s to the mid 90s, Lale is one of the few non-sprinters of the comparatively modern epoch to have won stages of all Grand Tours, with his inevitable speciality being mountaintop finishes. Sites of his victories include Cerler-Ampriu, where he was the first rider to win, Luz Ardiden (in both the Tour AND the Vuelta), Monte Naranco and Monte Sirino. He is also one of the comparatively small number of Europeans to have taken multiple stages of the Vuelta a Colombia, winning a stage in 1991 and another five years later. However, like so many featherweight Spanish climbers over the years, Cubino was fragile and prone to losing unnecessary time at unexpected places and crashing out of major races; he only managed to podium one Grand Tour, that being the 1993 Vuelta, but he managed two more top 10s, as well as a strong performance in the World Championships in Agrigento in 1994 and a national championship win. He also won countless stages of short Spanish stage races, and a few stages of mountainous races elsewhere, most notably the Dauphiné.

Although most of his career had been with BH and Amaya Seguros, in Lale's final year as a pro he was riding for the Kelme team, and when he retired at the end of 1996, one of the young riders the team brought through as a replacement in 1997 was a fresh-faced young rider from the same hometown as Cubino and who regarded the escalador as an idol, only this kid was set to completely eclipse Lale's performances. His name was Roberto Heras, and Kelme very quickly realised they had something special with him. Taking him to the Vuelta in his neo-pro year, he repaid them with a victory on the Alto del Morredero (no mean feat) and finished 5th in the final overall classification. A year later he repeated the feat, winning a stage (to Segovia this time) and finishing 5th, although he was over five minutes closer to Olano than he had been to Zülle the previous year. In 1999, he managed his first GT podium, taking 3rd place although he failed to win a stage this time; he made up for it by taking out the victory in the Aprica stage of the Giro, and in 2000 he finally stepped onto the top step of the podium in Madrid, taking two stages en route. Roberto took the leader's jersey from Ángel Casero on Lagos de Covadonga when the latter lost time, and then won the Alto de Abantos MTF in the leader's jersey to underscore his triumph.

Heras' successes led to him becoming perhaps the most famous of those riders that Johan Bruyneel brought in to ride as lieutenants for Lance Armstrong, building the US Postal super-team that took the template built for Miguel Indurain by Banesto, and turned it into a fine-tuned race-strangling machine; Heras was on several occasions the second strongest rider on any given day in the mountains, but turning himself over for Armstrong meant that his Tour de France GC results never reflected his talent - indeed his best Tour GC performance was 5th place, which he scored while still at Kelme. However, Bruyneel did repay him with full support in his Vuelta tilts; however he was unable at first to repay them with the same success Paolo Savoldelli was managing in the Giro; in 2001 he was 4th (since promoted to the podium by the erasure of Levi Leipheimer), and the following year we had what seemed like it would surely be his most memorable ever ride, triumphing atop the monstrous Alto de l'Angliru in hideous weather conditions to take the lead of the race; however we were in prime turbo diesel era, and the Vuelta route was also very turbo diesel friendly at that point, and Heras' dreams were dashed on the final day by THE AITORMINATOR©. The following year, despite an even more diesel-tastic route, Heras was keen not to repeat his mistake. Instead he chipped away repeatedly at the lead that had been built up by Isidro Nozal before annihilating the shock leader in the penultimate day's MTT to the Alto de Abantos. The following year, having moved to Liberty Seguros and freed himself from Lance (plus taken on Nozal as a domestique to create a formidable squad) he tried to repeat the 2002 tactic, taking the jersey on a mighty mountaintop in the middle of week 2 (this time Cálar Alto), but despite an absurd late race transformation that led to a top-20 pick in the Fantasy Doping Draft, Santiago Pérez didn't have the same calibre as THE AITORMINATOR© in the final chrono and was unable to overhaul Heras' lead.

And then 2005 happened. We all know the basics of the story; Roberto won the Vuelta thanks to the single greatest stage in the Vuelta's modern history, almost killing himself descending La Colladiella, leaving domestiques standing by the side of the road to wait for him to arrive, and proving himself unbeatable in the most awful of weather to hit the Vuelta since that Angliru win in 2002 - the only problem with that win was he did it in the ugly-as-all-hell "fish jersey", the blue points jersey with yellow fish designs that the Vuelta used at the time. Well, that and he cheated to do it, which led to the epic move being rendered moot, the Vuelta being taken away and given to Denis Menchov, only to then be given back in the courts in 2011; to this day it is unclear who won the 2005 Vuelta.

What we do know, however, is that Roberto Heras never rode a top level bike race again. It's pretty widely accepted that Heras is one of the most blacklisted of the blacklisted, a true persona non grata at top level road cycling. He has kept himself busy in XCO MTB and in Gran Fondos, but while many of the blacklisted riders found themselves bumped down a couple of levels and re-emerged with Rock Racing, Miche or the Portuguese teams, or have had to fund their own projects or find their own sponsors, like Michael Rasmussen, Heras has been gone, full stop, for over a decade now. However, the fact remains that he's either the equal most successful Vuelta rider of all time (alongside Tony Rominger and Alberto Contador), or the single most successful Vuelta rider of all time, and that deserves some recognition.

Perhaps it was because of escaladores such as Heras and Cubino that La Covatilla was introduced to the Vuelta in 2002, the debut climb for the big monolith of a climb just south of Béjar. In 2002 and 2004 it served a similar function to that we're seeing here - a final mountain stage before the run-in to Madrid. 2002's stage from Salamanca descended from the high plateau before climbing Honduras from the opposite side to me, then doing Tornavacas and Tremedal before the mountaintop finish; Santiago Blanco won from the break, while hometown hero Heras, in the leader's jersey, put time into all the other main contenders (although Beloki was close at hand). In 2004 the climb returned and once more Heras was wearing the leader's jersey, the stage being won by GPM winner Félix Cardeñas; Santi fought valiantly to take time back but Heras could defend his lead ably. That stage used a similar profile to mine, but with the easier El Cerro instead of La Garganta, and also that meant an extra 20k or so of flat betwen the penultimate climb and Béjar. 2006 saw an almost identical profile, but the steeper Lagunilla was preferred to El Cerro, and also the stage was in the middle of week 1, which led to smaller time gaps, with Danilo di Luca taking the victory.

After five years, the climb returned once more as a week 1 MTF in 2011, although in a disappointingly-designed one-climb stage. Here, the Sky template got to really show itself, as then-unheralded domestique Chris Froome put in an unexpectedly strong turn on the front for his leader, then Bradley Wiggins tried to mimic Indurain on La Plagne, and put out-of-form riders out the back, surprisingly including Vincenzo Nibali and race leader Joaquím Rodríguez, before Dan Martin, Bauke Mollema, and unexpectedly - but in the end crucially - Juan José Cobo attacked late on to nick the bonus seconds. Since then, however, it's gone unused (although the neighbouring Plataforma del Candelário was used recently in the Vuelta a Castilla y León).

We join the climb at the town so the first 2km there is irrelevant, but otherwise that's what we're looking at; like with the likes of La Pandera, the important part is the final 8km. However, this includes some serious gradients as you can see, with multiple kilometres averaging 9, 10% or more. And it's also worth bearing two other factors in mind - this is both the highest altitude the riders will climb to in the Vuelta (so it's the Cima Alberto Fernández) and the final chance the climbers have to make a difference in the race, so they need to go all-in here. This particular Vuelta route has been a bit old-fashioned in that the Vuelta has seldom designed the "you must go 60km from the line" stages, and has had a tendency to go with the MTFs to create the gaps; this is the likely queen stage, but still the final climb is likely to be decisive. However, La Covatilla is a sensible choice simply as it's, Bola del Mundo aside (maybe one day I'll get round to using that one...), the toughest Spanish climb that's realistically MTF-capable in the Sistema Central (the Portuguese side includes the Alto da Torre of course), and as we're approaching Madrid from the west it's a logical route back toward the finish. Don't worry, future Vueltas won't be as MTF-centric as this one has been, however as those MTFs have been more about the grinding and mid-gradient climbs, they need to be longer and more sustained to create the gaps.

 

[May0maniac]

I've designed my own version of the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, it will be an U23 race like Valle d'Aosta and consist of 4 stages, an ITT, a hilly/medium moutain stage, a stage for the breakaway or the sprinters who can climb and a hard stage in the high mountains.
I've designed a TdF route (and a 3rd Giro ) but right now I don't have enough time to write good, long stage previews for all those stages, maybe I'll start posting my TdF once the Giro starts (Yes, I usually try to finish important papers before the start of the Giro so that I have enough time to watch the important stages ).

 

[Tonton]

@ Mayomaniac - looking forward to it .

@ Brullnux - super design. I love your stages.

@ LS - as always, the standard we all strive for...

 

[Brullnux]

Sorry for the delay.

Tirol Rundfahrt/Giro del Tirolo Stage 3: Zirl-Kuhtai 161km

Welcome to Stage 3 of 8 in the Tour, and the last one solely in Austria. After two stages in the east of Tirol, we finally get to move to the west, away from the Innsbruck area and into the mountainous area around Kuhtai and nearer to Germany and Voralberg.

I have realised I have no time for a long write up, so I'll have to be short.

Well the stage starts in Zirl before heading up a really difficult climb early on that like so many others flattens at the top so it is hard for people to tell how hard it is from the average. We near the Zugspitze and Ammergauer Alpen before heading back round to Starzach and the Hentennjoch. It's a climb split into two. Difficult start at over 11% before slowly shallowing until it is completely flat. Then the last 5k are at 10%. I don't expect any moves as the Silzer Sattel is to come, but I expect it to hurt. The descent is steep and technical, a good descender in the break could get a great lead here if the peloton are nervy.

Then comes the big one, Silzer Sattel. MAssive climb. 9k at 10%, massve grinder. I have put it here as it is so hard that it guarantees action (even not as the MTF) because tomorrow's stage is harder and is better for long range attacks. After the climb comes a shiort descent and the failry hard rise to the lien at Kuhtai. I epect gaps here to pretty damn big, if done well. Tomorrow will put them off massive ambushes and attacks, but hopefully that won't matter for action.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 19: Béjar - Ávila, 219km

GPM:
Puerto de Chía (cat.2) 11,8km @ 5,0%
Alto de Las Erillas (cat.2) 6,1km @ 6,3%
Puerto de los Agüilones (cat.3) 4,4km @ 7,5%
Alto San Juan de la Nava (cat.3) 8,0km @ 4,3%
Collado Mediano (cat.2) 4,0km @ 9,2%

When I said that the La Covatilla stage was the last chance for the climbers it wasn't quite true, but even so, I don't anticipate them daring too much in this one - there is definitely plenty of potential for an ambush on this stage and it may be difficult to control if the riders are hyper-aggressive, but in all honesty I think this will be one where a big break gets away and dukes out the stage win.

No real transfer for the riders today, which they will probably appreciate; just riding back down to the town of Béjar at the base of the La Covatilla climb. I've already gone through Béjar's cycling heritage as the hometown of Cubino and Heras, so no need to repeat myself (I do that enough in other threads).

The stage actually starts with a cunningly un-categorized climb to La Hoya; the riders will be familiar with it since they did it yesterday; it's the part of the La Covatilla profile as far as the junction for El Barco de Ávila, where the serious gradients begin, so we're sparing the riders that. We have a period of flat as we transition the Sistema Central on our right hand sides from the Sierra de Béjar to the Sierra de Gredos, where we'll be spending much of the afternoon's racing. The first categorized climb is the two-part Puerto de Chía, with a ramp followed by some false flat before a bit more sustained climbing in the second half. It's not a serious threat, but it's also a very lopsided climb with no subsequent descent to speak of to allow weaker climbers to get back on. Another short stretch of flat followed by a short descent takes us to the Alto de Las Erillas, a short but highly erratic climb that gets up to 18% at times; it is a favourite of the PRC guys owing to the ease with which it can be backed into a finish at the Parador de Gredos.

We are avoiding this finish however and going for a Vuelta classic, so there's plenty of racing to come. We do a little loop almost to the base of Las Erillas again, but this time we turn right to descend part of the nearby climb confusingly named La Erilla (!). However, we again turn right off of this route to take a couple of uncategorized digs into Navarrevisca that allows us to take a different, more tricky descent that leads to the Puerto de los Agüilones (or more accurately, the cruce about a kilometre down from it actually) - about the first 4,5km of this profile. Those of you who've been in this thread for years will remember this to have been a key climb in my Memorial José María Jiménez-Trofeo El Chava race - at least in part as it is the main climb of the everyman sportif in memory of the great climber. Here, however, it's nearly 80km from the line so is unlikely to see serious action. It does lead into the first intermediate sprint in Burgohondo though, in case the points jersey contenders get into the break since the GC contenders likely won't be interested in the bonus seconds here. We then have a short ride through a scenic valley to send us to the next climb.

The climb to San Juan de la Nava is fairly gradual, although 5km at just under 6% in the middle says it's not a total walk in the park. However it's the easiest climb of the day (or rather the easiest categorized climb of the day) and just serves to add some attrition. It is followed rapidly by the second intermediate sprint in the small town of El Barraco.

I have talked before about the mighty cycling town of El Barraco, or the Spanish answer to Palù di Giovo. This town's population is only around 2.000, however its legacy in cycling is great. It is the base of the Fundación Provincial Deportiva Victor Sastre, a major development club for cycling (the name should be familiar to all of you of course) and home to an interconnected group of great climbers in the history of the sport. In fact, on Spanish wikipedia, in the "Personajes Ilustres" section, there are four people, all connected to ciclismo - Victor and three of the town's legendary riders.

The first of the Hijos de El Barraco to make it as a pro was the great 80s climber Ángel Arroyo, who turned pro in 1979 and rode his whole career in Spain, either with Zor or Reynolds (the forerunners of today's Movistar of course). Winning the Vuelta a los Valles Mineros in his first season, he was taken to the Vuelta in 1980 where he excelled himself as a domestique for race winner Faustino Rúperez, as well as winning the Vuelta a Castilla y León and the Clásica los Puertos. Racing the Vuelta for his own goals in 1981, he took the stage to Los Ángeles de San Rafaél on a punchy climb after the legendary Puerto del León, and finished 6th overall. 1982 is probably what Ángel is best known for, however, after he jumped ship to the young Reynolds team. Escaping with a handful of other major contenders on the Puerto del Escudo early in the Vuelta, he was able to use these gains to manoeuvre himself into the lead in the Pyrenees, before backing up his lead with a victory in the time trial at the start of week 3. After the final mountain stage to Navacerrada, where Arroyo successfully defended his GC lead, however, Ángel was one of four riders - along with Alberto Fernández, Vicente Belda and Pedro Muñoz - who were tested after the race and tested positive for Methylphenidate (more commonly known by its trade name Ritalin). The fifth finisher was Marino Lejarreta, who was not tested as testers only took in the first four; so a few weeks after Arroyo paraded around Madrid in the leader's jersey to celebrate his greatest victory, he became the subject of the Vuelta's biggest scandal; he was assessed a time penalty (it was pretty early in the days of working out how to punish doping!) and the Vuelta fell from his hands and into those of Lejarreta. Depending on your stance on Heras' 2005 reinstatement, Ángel Arroyo may still be the only man to lose the Vuelta in this fashion; Marino Lejarreta never even wore the leader's jersey until taking the lead of the race the following year, unparalleled until Scarponi wore the maglia rosa to the 2012 prologue.

Arroyo's career wasn't derailed by the scandal, however, and the following year he achieved his best (acknowledged) result in a GT when he was 2nd in the 1983 Tour de France, taking his biggest career win when he was fastest in the Puy-de-Dôme MTT and took the first Spanish stage win in the Tour for five years; he took another Tour stage the following year, to Morzine, but could only finish 6th overall, some 15 minutes further behind Fignon than he had been in the previous race. Increasingly usurped at Reynolds by Pedro Delgado, both riders moved on for 1985, with Arroyo returning to Zor, although after a season hampered by physical problems he found himself returning to the fold at Abarcá the following season. However, he never scaled the same heights again, and retired quietly in 1989 after eleven seasons as a pro.

A couple of years after Ángel Arroyo rode off into the sunset, of course, the next man in line to capture the nation's imagination from El Barraco appeared on the scene - the great mythical climber José María Jiménez. I have had plenty to say about Chava over the years at these boards, plenty of contributing to the mythmaking around the glorious escalador that he was as well. There's little need to elaborate on his story at this point, after all I already eulogised him with his own memorial race in this thread and having included a great many sites from Chava's greatest triumphs in my Vuelta routes - Cerler, Arcalis, Cruz de la Demanda, Lagunas de Neila, Xorret del Catí, Angliru, and of course the short punchy ramp into Los Ángeles de San Rafaél where in 1997, just like his hometown colleague Arroyo sixteen years earlier, he took his first Vuelta stage; my fandom for Jiménez was already long established by the time I took him with pick 31 in the Fantasy Doping Draft. He was a man of his time in many ways, but amid the legend-making around Pantani and to a lesser extent Vandenbroucke, he sometimes gets lost in the shuffle a little. After all, the Giro seems to have an almost annual moment of Pantani veneration. Since (I'm still frustrated I couldn't figure out a way to get Priego into the route to honour Ocaña) this route has paid tribute to many past Spanish cycling heroes - Tarzán Sáez, Alberto Fernández, Óscar Freire, the Trueba brothers, the Rodríguez Barros family, Álvaro Pino, José Manuel Fuente, Óscar Pereiro, Lale Cubino and Roberto Heras - I couldn't not include Chava, now, could I?

Also, although born in Liéganes in the Comunidad de Madrid, given the prominence of the family due to the Fundación Victor Sastre, and his closeness to Chava (he was his brother in law), the town also celebrates 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre as one of their own, another great climber and the poster-boy for "riding your own tempo," every bit the smart and sensible racer that was the perfect counterpart to Chava's heart-over-head style.

After El Barraco, in this stage, however, there still remains 50km of racing. There's a gradual descent before an uncategorized - but noticeable - ascent into San Bartolomé de Pinares. The real challenge, however, will come on the cat.2 Collado Mediano, which crests 28km from home - this will be likely where the break implodes given a difficult 4km at over 9% including some ramps of 16%+, before giving a rolling final 25km where the riders will hopefully be strung out in small groups to tactically battle the run-in, or someone will chance their arm of taking it home from the slopes of El Mediano, before we get to the sole part of the stage the GC guns will definitely be able to dispute, the legendary Murallas de Ávila. There's plenty of opportunity for the big guns to attack on Mediano, I just don't expect they will off the back of the etapa reina and with the race to come, so it will be the break here.

Obviously the city of Ávila has many years' great Vuelta history, with the most recent being this stage in 2015 which, like my stage (although mine is much harder), came late on in week 3 and was taken by the break - Alexis Gougeard won solo after the breaking up of a 24-man group, while the main contenders fought out a few seconds' gap behind. The most famous, also, of course, is 1999, with the legendary Frank Vandenbroucke assault, perhaps his most famous triumph. But this time, I picked Ávila for the route because of another legendary climber from the history books, three-time Tour de France king of the mountains winner and three-time Vuelta king of the mountains winner Julio Jiménez. Known as "the clockmaker", the first super-escalador named Jiménez was a great figure of Spanish cycling in the 1960s, having the misfortune to come up against the time when the Vuelta was deliberately making itself fairly easy to attract foreign names to race and to show off the rapidly developed highway infrastructure, thus bypassing many of the great roads of the country that Jiménez needed to do his thing, since he was, as so many great Spaniards have been over the years, a relatively delicate pure climber. In fact, because of the lack of mountaintop finishes in those days, he would often see racing on for a stage win as a waste of energy after picking up GPM points in less brutal stages, owing to the unlikelihood of being able to hold on to his advantages (after his retirement, he voiced great admiration for the climbers that followed him in the 70s, Ocaña and Fuente, but also bewailed that he never got the chance to race on the kind of routes of the era, which would no doubt have greatly improved his palmarès!).

Jiménez started cycling comparatively late, only racing pro races in Spain from the age of 25 onwards and not racing abroad until nearly 30 years of age. Signing for Faema in 1962, he followed in the footsteps of Bahamontes in going to race abroad, relatively rare for Spanish riders in those days. He took his first Vuelta GPM in 1963 but in a flattish route with two lengthy time trials (a sop to Jacques Anquetil, the overseas star of the year in the race) he was unable to impact the overall classification in any meaningful way. However the following year, riding for KAS, he repeated his classification victory, but won two stages, to Puigcerdà over the Alt de La Molina, and to León from Áviles after escaping over the legendary Puerto de Pajáres, one of the Vuelta's first mythical summits. This led to a selection for the Tour, where he rode alongside the aging Bahamontes and took two great mountain stage wins, first to Andorra and then at the summit finish on the Puy de Dôme.

Like many of the Spanish riders of his era - and especially like many of the pure climbers of his era - El Relojero concentrated mainly on the Grand Tours, continuing his Vuelta-Tour calendar in 1965 where he took the GPM prize at both, although with relatively mediocre overall positions thanks to unfavourable parcours. Nevertheless he still won stages of both - a Montjuïc Park semitappe in the Vuelta and mountain stages to Bagnères-de-Bigorre and Aix-les-Bains in the Tour - but his lowly 23rd place finish in the Tour while winning the polka dots led to a proposal to only give mountains points to those in the top 15 of the GC, a move which Jiménez was dead against, although he nevertheless worked to make himself more of an all-rounder. To this end, in 1966 he adjusted his calendar and rode the Giro instead of the Vuelta, wearing the maglia rosa for the first week after winning a short mountainous stage 2 to Monesi di Triora, and then taking another stage later in the race to take 4th overall. The change of focus worked; he only took the one Tour stage, to Briançon, but he finished in the top 15 to make his winning the KOM less questioned. 1967 was his best GT performance, however, when he finished 2nd in the Tour, just 4 minutes back from Roger Pingeon. The downside was that he was too threatening to allow any time gaps to, so he couldn't add to his tally of stage wins, however he was able to take his third consecutive mountains jersey. He took two stages of the Giro in 1968, but by this point the 34-year-old Jiménez was running out of steam at the same time the Merckx Express was leaving the station, and he retired during the 1969 season as the changing of the guard in Spanish cycling came, transitioning to the international successes of the early 70s. As a result, trapped between that initial breakthrough era with Loroño and Bahamontes and the legendary Fuente/Ocaña days in Spanish cycling lore, El Relojero is sometimes not given the credit he deserves as one of the great escaladores the country has produced.

 

[fauniera]

I have redesigned the final week of my Giro, as i was unhappy with certain aspects of it. Sorry for that. Please ignore the stages 16, 17 and 18, which i have posted before.

Giro d'Italia

week one
(Mon) rest day
week two until friday
(Sat) stage 13: Valdobbiadene - Monte Grappa
(Sun) stage 14: Bassano del Grappa - Völs am Schlern
(Mon) rest day
(Tue) stage 15: Bozen - Villanders

(Wed) stage 16: Trento - Cremona, 173 km

After the mountains comes this flat stage, the last chance for the sprinters. Also the last boring stage, i promise.

Trento

Cremona

 

[Netserk]

Please don't change stage 18 then, I really really liked it as it was

 

[fauniera]

Threw that one out of the window, sorry. You might like the new stage 17, though. Which i might present tomorrow, if i find the time.

 

[Netserk]

I hope it'll be as good then

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 20: Santo Domingo-Caudilla - Toledo, 34,6km (CRI)

The main reason I suggested that the GC guns wouldn't be called into action on Collado Mediano yesterday was because of this, the following stage and the last time trial of the race. After the 13km in Melilla on the hilly circuit, and the 50km of struggle in Cantabria with a few up-and-down ramps and repechos but no sustained climbs, this is the nearest thing to a proper chance for the power time triallists to make up some time, because the only gradient of anything more than false flat is in the final kilometre; and that's on cobbles so won't benefit the featherweight grimpeurs either.

The small town (if it can even be considered that) of Val de Santo Domingo is one of the smallest places that would ever have hosted a GT - its population is barely 1000; Jausiers is just about the smallest place to host the Tour at just under twice that, and that has the benefit of being a mountain town, which Val de Santo Domingo does not. What the town does have is that the municipality (which consists of two settlements that back onto each other, Caudilla being the other) is the host of one of the most legendary of all Spanish riders, the great Eagle of Toledo, Federico Bahamontes.

It would seem strange for a tribute to the legendary Águila to be a flat contrarreloj, but unfortunately unless we do some kind of Puerto del Piélago loop, a genuine climber's stage around here will be difficult to create (note to self: create some kind of Puerto del Piélago loop-based Bahamontes race), and so what we are doing here is setting the riders off on a 35km time trial riding from Federico's birthplace to his hometown, almost as the Eagle flies.

Although obviously great climbers had preceded him - Trueba of course being one of the greatest in terms of pure featherweight climbers, as prior to his era most of the greatest climbers were also the greatest all-rounders - Bahamontes is often the earliest rider recalled in the pantheon of the pure climbers - you know the sorts. Bahamontes, Gaul, van Impe, Fuente, Herrera, Pantani types; the riders whose climbing skills were so special that they were able to triumph at the top level even in the days when the biggest stage races weren't as heavily biased in favour of the grimpeur as they often are today. Federico turned pro fairly late, at the age of 25, and was taken to the Tour de France by request of Spanish cycling great Julián Berrendero, at the time in charge of selection. He swiftly drew a reputation for himself as a great climber, taking the king of the mountains classification, but without threatening the GC owing to his lopsided skillset. It took a couple of years for him to find his feet as a pro, but 1956 saw him head into uncharted territory as a GC candidate. He was 4th in both the Vuelta and the Tour, and though he abandoned the Giro at the halfway stage he won the mountains prize for the Apennines (the GPM was split into three that year). This year also saw the start of his career-long rivalry with the great Basque rider Jesús Loroño - the two highly volatile and emotional competitors' quarreling from within the Spanish teams regularly resulted in them marking one another out of the Vuelta, and at times led to fights in hotels and even on the road. It was for this reason that Bahamontes never won the Vuelta; indeed the best he ever managed was the 2nd place - behind Loroño - he got in 1957, along with his first GT stage win in Mieres del Camino after a difficult (for the time) Asturian stage. In 1958 he returned to his KOM-winning ways at the Tour as well as taking two stages - to Luchon and Briançon - to show that he was so good a climber at his best that sometimes the time he lost due to his appalling descending - the ice cream story is perhaps what he is best known for, being referenced to this day, for example by Emma Pooley ahead of the Giro Donne stage including the Mortirolo a few years ago - wasn't enough for others to catch him.

Illnesses, injuries and fights stalled his next attacks on the Vuelta, but his greatest triumph was of course the maillot jaune at the 1959 Tour de France, winning the Puy-de-Dôme CRI and taking the lead of the race in the Alps along with his third mountains classification. He abandoned the race during his defence and it would be 1962 before he returned, but in that great predictable era of the early 60s, Bahamontes winning the mountains classification was almost as certain as Anquetil winning the overall; the aging Eagle was still able to finish on the podium in 1963 and 1964 but his powers were starting to wane; he made a one-off return to the Vuelta after several years away in 1965, but no longer commanded the same awe and reverence from the domestic péloton and was only able to finish 10th.

Nevertheless, his legacy is hardly diminished; in the more mountainous Tour (the Vuelta was less suited to the likes of Federico in his time, as his successor as internationally successful Spanish escalador of choice Julio Jiménez bewailed in the 70s) he was still capable of riding up to the podium well into his mid 30s. For over 30 years he was the only man to have ever won the mountains classification of all 3 Grand Tours; Lucho Herrera became the only man to join him when he took the 1989 Giro GPM. He also holds - joint with the great Gino Bartali - the record for most KOM classifications won, with 9 - six at the Tour, two at the Vuelta and one at the Giro. His record at the Tour stood for 19 years, before being matched by another great grimpeur known for their mountains classifications success more than their solitary Tour win - Lucien van Impe - and was only broken 40 years down the road by Richard Virenque, pioneering the oft-criticized accumulation approach that has led to a decrease in the value of the GPM (not helped by routes more favourable to the climber meaning they seldom target it until their GC hopes have been dashed).

As one of the few true Spanish greats of the older eras still with us, it would be nice to see El Águila at the stage, even if it would not have been to his liking, being an almost entirely flat chrono. Yes, 35km is fairly short, but because the mountaintops of this edition of the Vuelta have not been as much in the way of guaranteed timegaps (the likes of Sierra de Espuña and La Manzaneda are comparatively tempo-grinding gradual climbs, so it isn't like the edition I did full of late climbs like Monteabril, Cruz de Cespedosa and A Barranca where timegaps will be created by the Muritos) so we don't want to turn this into a negative spectacle where the climbers don't feel like they CAN open up gaps, or the Anquetils of this world are given enough of a lead that they don't need to feel threatened, much like the 2012 Tour, or just need to follow wheels until taking over in the final time trial (although this is what happened to some extent with Casero in 2001 and the AITORMINATOR© in 2002 so does have previous in the Vuelta). Hence only a mid-length chrono here, the big chrono was the earlier one, which had the undulating terrain.

The only challenge in this time trial, which is mostly ramrod straight, other than the heat (it's very exposed so actually I guess wind could play a role, like the 2010 Tour TT), will be the final kilometre as we head into the UNESCO-inscribed centre of the great cultural city of Toledo - much more intimate to the city than the usual Vuelta finishes on the edge of town like the 2009 TT won by David Millar. In my sixth Vuelta I started the race with a circuit race in Toledo (much like the Melilla circuit in this edition in fact) but climbed a different side to the same finish line.

We enter the old city through its fortress walls (the road on the left above) and the final kilometre is uphill at around 6% on Calle Real del Arrabal, which will leave us with a spectacularly scenic finish as seen here.

This leads us to the finish line on the Plaza Zocodover, another of the city's iconic landmarks. This will tell us who will be the final GC winner in Libertine Vuelta #8.

 

[rghysens]

It's been a while since I posted the first stages of my second Tour de France without Alps and Pyrenees, mainly because I had to sort out the stages of the second week (and a lack of time). So first a reminder of how it looks like:

prologue
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
stage 4
stage 5
stage 6
stage 7
stage 8

The second monday of the race sees a restday and a short transfer to Cahors, nested in a U-shaped bend of the river Lot.

The next stage will also start from this city and will be a touristic tour of the département du Lot, whose capital is Cahors.

Tour de France sans Alpes et Pyrenées n°2, stage 9: Cahors - Figeac: 198km, hilly
The first half of the stage will venture almost entirely on the scenic rolling roads of the regional nature park of the Causses du Quercy, passing picturesque villages like Rocamadour and Saint-Cère and geological features like the Gouffre de Padirac.
After Saint-Cère the course climbs out of the valley on equally scenic roads and remains on a plateau for about 30km, only to slowly descend back to the valley of the Célé after 150km. The finish line is only 8km further on the road, if one would follow the course of the river, but the course of the stage is more sinuous, with four more climbs on the banks of the river before the final descent in to Figeac.

Map & Profile:

Climbs:
Côte de Moncayroux: km 111.5; 6.2km @ 5.1%; 3rd cat
Côte de Belbès: km 153; 1.6km @ 9.6%; 3rd cat
Côte de Cirganiol: km165.5; 2.2km @ 6.5%; 3rd cat
Côte de la Caze: km176; 1.4km @ 9.9%; 3rd cat
Côte de la Dausse: km192.5; 3.4km @ 5.2%; 3rd

 

[rghysens]

Tour de France sans Alpes et Pyrenées n°2, stage 10: Figeac - Albi: 183.5km, flat

We're halfway this Tour and it's only the third really flat stage. This stage starts where the pevious stage finished and that means the peloton has to start with a climb out of the Célé valley. Almost immediately there's a descent to the valley of the Lot and a second climb. The first 75km or so are almost a straight journey south, to the village of Cordes-sur-Ciel, considered to be one of the most picturesque villages of France. Originally it was named just Cordes, but in 1993 -sur-ciel (which means on the sky) was added, to reflect that it often towers above the clouds on the surrounding plains.

After Cordes, the stage goes north again, to the Aveyron river and follows its course for about 45km. The the race heads south again, through Gaillac and finishing in Albi.

Map & Profile

Climbs:
Côte de Figeac: km2.5; 2.5km @ 5.5%; 4th cat
Côte de Loupic: km10.5; 2.4km @ 6%; 4th cat
Côte de Puech du Bourguet: km39.5; 2.8km @ 4.8%; 4th cat
Côte de la Lande: km 68; 1.8km @ 7.4%; 3rd cat

 

[rghysens]

Tour de France sans Alpes et Pyrenées n°2, stage 11: Gaillac - Cap Découverte: 47km, ITT

Ok, I was in a lazy mood and just copied the stage design of the famous ITT in the 2003 Tour where Ullrich beat Armstrong by 1'36". One of the more entertaining itt's I watched in the TdF.

Map & Profile:

 

[fauniera]

Giro d'Italia

week one
(Mon) rest day
week two until friday
(Sat) stage 13: Valdobbiadene - Monte Grappa
(Sun) stage 14: Bassano del Grappa - Völs am Schlern
(Mon) rest day
(Tue) stage 15: Bozen - Villanders
(Wed) stage 16: Trento - Cremona

(Thu) stage 17: Voghera - Santo Stefano d'Aveto, 242 km

The big Apennine stage. With over 6.400 meters of climbing this is obviously a major day for gc, but also for the mountain classification. Four regions will be visited today: Lombardia (start), Piemonte, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria (finish). (I like this version a bit more than the first one, as the finale is harder and it will be followed by a relatively easy stage, whereas in the original design the stage was followed by two more gc days, thereby likely limiting the action.)

Voghera

The first serious climb is Pian dell'Arma at km 74 (close to Passo del Giovà), 15 km at 5,8%.

Next is Capanne di Carrega (13 km at 6%).

The third categorized climb of the day is Passo del Fregarolo (11 km at 5,5%).

After a long descent the riders will tackle the hard and scenic Passo del Ghiffi (km 177). The final 5 km are 9,8% steep.

The Giro has history here. In 1994 Berzin won a mountain time trial ahead of Indurain and Pantani (video) on Passo del Ghiffi, finishing on Passo del Bocco.

Final 46 km:

Things should get serious with Passo del Chiodo (km 210). It's not a very scenic climb, as it mostly stays in the woods, but it is quite hard at the bottom. The first 7,7 km have an average gradient of 8,3%, the final 6 km are much easier.

The descent is very technical, but the road is in good condition and quite wide. Still, good descenders can try something here. The penultimate climb (at km 230) is Passo Romezzano (7 km at 8%).

The final 2 km of Passo Romezzano are 10,8% steep, this will be carnage. After the GPM the road continues for a couple of kilometers on a ridge (which is the border between Liguria and Emilia-Romagna) until it reaches Passo del Tomarlo with 10 km to go. The descent is uncomplicated and leads to Santo Stefano d'Aveto.

But we aren't done yet. The final 2 km are uphill at 9,8% and lead to Rocca d'Aveto, a small ski station.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

fauniera is the illegitimate son of Angelo Zomegnan.