As sure as the sun rising in the East and night following day, I will go back to the well and make more Vueltas. Even as Spanish cycling discovers more and more of what the country has to offer, it still lags way behind the opportunities the country presents, and I keep finding new and intriguing (for me at least) ideas as well as seeking ways to crowbar in places or ideas that I’ve had for a long time. I don’t set out to keep making more and more Vueltas, but it just kind of happens, things come together and areas long left behind in my ideas need bringing back, or I’m hit by a piece of inspiration and want to build around it, or I’m investigating an area for another race and something that I couldn’t fit into that idea is left over and reused, etc. etc.. I’ve posted 11 Vuelta on this thread (this will be the 12th) plus have had a couple of other either near-completed or partially-completed routes that have then been abandoned, cannibalised or simply are awaiting my finding a way to hang them fully together into a cohesive whole because something is missing from it in my opinion, or there’s a transfer necessity or awkward route pacing that I don’t like and want to improve before I’ll be happy to post.
The self-imposed no-repetitions rule is making things increasingly challenging too, of course. Not for areas like Asturias, País Vasco or Andalucía where I still have myriad options (or there are climbs that I’ve used that have multiple sides allowing me more flexibility for the future), but certainly in the Sistema Central and in Aragón things are getting a little more challenging. But there’s still a lot out there, especially when you consider that, not bound by the realia of actual pro cycling, I can be a bit more experimental. After all, I’ve had an edition with the final five stages in the Canaries, a Grand Départ in Morocco (and one in Melilla), and now it’s time for us to - for the first time since my second Vuelta which was posted a decade ago - investigate the Balearic Islands, as I’m going to start the race in non-contiguous Spain for the first time since that Melilla route.
I’ve also tried to be a bit more brief, because these descriptions had swollen during the pandemic to the point where they were a much heavier undertaking than the design itself and while that was fine during the pandemic era, it’s now an impediment, so although the first couple of stages feature extensive descriptions of that kind, the rest of the race should give you a better idea of what to expect going forward - it’s not brief, but we’re not deep-diving into history and culture of every small town we go into anymore, or delivering eight-paragraph hagiography dedicated to revolutionaries, politicians and local riders, just giving a nod to them.
Stage 1: Ciutadella de Menorca - Santuário de la Virgen del Toro, 152km
GPM:
Alt de Sa Roca (cat.3) 2,1km @ 6,8%
Santuário de la Virgen del Toro (cat.3) 3,1km @ 9,1%
The Vuelta has been less keen than the Tour or the Giro to use overseas starts (having one in Portugal in the 90s before the modern era; since then we have had 2009 in the Netherlands, 2017 in Nîmes, 2022 in the Netherlands again (the Utrecht start had been planned for 2020 and had to be postponed) and then in 2024, when Lisbon again was the host, while 2025 will start in Italy to continue this increasing trend. On two other occasions, however, “overseas” starts have been more literal - being in parts of Spain requiring travel by sea; Tenerife hosted the Gran Partida in 1988, and Palma de Mallorca in 1986. That Gran Partida is the only time Las Canarias have been included in the race at all, but Mallorca has cropped up more regularly, thanks to its well-established role within cycling as a favourite training ground of many pros and also hosting the season-opening Trofeo Mallorca series of one-day races, which have long served as an early February tune-up for riders at all levels after their introduction in 1992. A collection of the great and good of cycling past and present can be found among the winners’ list of the various one-day races, where teams will frequently nominate around 12 riders and then choose their lineup according to parcours, fitness, training aims and indeed injuries on the road. The likes of Erik Zabel, Óscar Freire, Philippe Gilbert, André Greipel, John Degenkolb, Peter van Petegem, Robbie McEwen, Laurent Jalabert, Mario Cipollini, Alejandro Valverde, Paolo Bettini, Fabian Cancellara, Michał Kwiatkowski, Rui Costa and Luís León Sánchez have all won races among these events, but perhaps none were more popular than António Colóm, a local to Bunyola on Mallorca, who won two editions of the Trofeo Sollér and one of the Trofeo Deia before having his career quietly erased for doping offences.
That 1986 Vuelta départ saw a prologue and a road stage both starting and finishing in Palma de Mallorca, with Thierry Marie winning the former and Marc Gomez the latter. 1991 saw the riders return, with them completing stage 6 in Valencia before being shunted onto a ferry to do a road stage around Palma de Mallorca and an ITT in Cala d’Or before returning to the mainland. Jesper Skibby won the road stage and, because it was 1991, eventual GC winner Melcior Mauri won the chrono. 1998 was the last time the race headed over, with the second weekend spent on Mallorca with a road stage which was flat in the first half then bumpy in the second and was won by Fabrizio Guidi, then an ITT won - just like in 1991 - by the eventual GC winner, this time Abraham Olano.
One thing that is clear, however, is that cycling in the Balearic Islands to all intents and purposes means cycling in Mallorca. Pretty much every cyclist from the islands to reach any level of prominence has come from the largest of the islands. There is, however, but one exception: veteran endurance track specialist turned road rouleur [img=[URL]https://men.gsstatic.es/sfAttachPlugin/getCachedContent/id/2423103/width/425/height/284/crop/1]Albert[/URL] Torres[/img], who hails from Menorca. After a successful junior career largely on the boards and in time trials, he won a world title in the Madison alongside neighbouring Mallorcan David Muntaner, before establishing in 2015 the partnership that has largely carried Spanish track cycling for the last decade, with Sebastián Mora, a pairing that has carried them to three European championships. Alone, he has also added two European titles in the omnium, and two silver medals in the Worlds, one in the scratch and one in the points race. His road career has largely been secondary as a result; after going pro with Team Ecuador, one of those odd overseas-registered but Spanish-based teams that include some development riders from the registration state padded out by ex-amateurs from Spain, he followed his running buddy to Team Raleigh-GAC in 2016, before a stint with Inteja in the Dominican Republic. Movistar signed him in 2020, however, having priced themselves out of most of their existing domestique corps in their determination to sign Mikel Landa, and already having Mora on the books made him an easy target. However, while Mora has since moved on, Torres has carved out a new niche on the road with Movistar, doing four Giri and a Tour for the outfit, who he rides for to this day. He will therefore be the only rider who can potentially have a homecoming at our first stage, since I’m breaking with tradition and opening the race in Menorca.
Founded by the Carthaginians in the 4th Century and the birthplace of the aforementioned Albert Torres, Ciutadella de Menorca is where we depart from on our first stage and home of the Gran Salida. With a population of only around 30.000 it is about the smallest such host in the history of the race, but given the race tends to kick off in August this would be the height of the holiday season and, as you will all no doubt be aware, the Spanish islands tend to swell significantly in population during the summer months as holidaymakers in search of sun, especially from the UK and Germany, tend to flock en masse to these locations which have become massive tourist hubs. Ciutadella is marginally bigger than the other major city on the island, Mahón (or Maó in the native dialect) and so gets the nod as the starting point.
The Balearic Islands were settled early, as there are many stone megaliths and structures predating the Punic Wars to be seen in Menorca, but after the Roman conquest of Spain it became a haven for pirates who would attack vessels trading between the then-provinces of Italia and Hispania, now the peninsulas that we know as Italy and Iberia respectively, and a refuge for persecuted Jews. The Romans took over the islands as a result, and the former Carthaginian cities became populated by their people. While they lost it briefly to the Vandals, they retook it as a Byzantine possession until the Umayyad Caliphate conquered Iberia, at which point the island became part of the new Caliphate of Córdoba, under the name Manurqa (منورقة). Madînat al-Jazira, or the great city, became the name of Ciutadella during this era, but it was “liberated” during the Reconquista on January 17th, 1287, which is commemorated as the de facto national day of the island as a result. It was a possession of the Kingdom of Mallorca, before being incorporated into Aragón and then eventually Spain - though its strategic location for Mediterranean trade still made it attractive to outsiders and it was repeatedly ransacked or besieged, including by Ottoman Turks in the 16th Century who sold the entire population of the city into slavery, and more enduringly in the 18th Century by Great Britain, who seized it in 1708, formally acquired it in 1713, and then ruled it - save for a seven year window from 1756 to 1763 where the French captured the island - until 1782, when France and Spain took advantage of Britain being otherwise indisposed fighting the US War of Independence to unite their forces and restore the island to the Spanish crown. The Brits briefly retook the island at the end of the century once their business in North America was over, but in 1802 the Spaniards laid the final rest to the British claims. In fact, the British even helped conduct a peaceful transfer of power on the island during the Guerra Civíl, as Menorca had remained staunchly Republican in opposition to the other Balearic islands, and had become a place of refuge for fleeing anti-Franco figures, many of whom were evacuated by the Britons as a result. The other remaining vestige of British rule is that the capital of the island was relocated to Mahón during British control, although the religious seat remains in Ciutadella as do many historical civic institutions.
Menorca from above
This is neither a long nor a complex stage, and the first part of it is just a 45km or so traversing of the island, linking the island’s two major cities, Ciutadella and Mahón via the central municipality of Alaior. Once we arrive in Mahón, we have a 35km or so loop around to the south, close to the island’s only commercial airport, and down towards the coastal jewel of
Binibeca Vell, which looks like a pristine, fairytale, bridal-white perfectly-preserved Mediterranean coastal village of the traditional style, but is instead a facsimile thereof, a 1960s planned town constructed to imitate this style and controversial with many for its inauthenticity and transparent tourist cash grab, lending it a similar reputation to the Vittoriano in Rome or the Skopje 2000 project. We then loop back towards the east and then northwards to return to Mahón via coastal towns like Son Ganxo and Es Castell, which come to life with tourists at neighbouring resorts like Punta Prima. This takes us on the eastern extremity of the island past
Castell Sant Felip, iconic of the British time in command of the island, and then along the estuary back to Mahón for our first intermediate sprint.
Officially the capital of the island, Mahón is the birthplace of the founder of toxicology as a forensic science, Mathieu Orfila, and the prolific writer of Catalan-language texts Juan Ramis, whose works were largely composed during the British occupation. Named for the Carthaginian military figure Mago Barca, a brother to Hannibal, who legend suggested fled here during the Punic Wars, it has a similar history to its rival on the west coast, but is better known for its port. Again, the Ottomans sacked it taking inhabitants back as slaves in the 16th Century, and the British captured the island by taking it, using its port as a pretext to move the capital eastward - after all, the Britons ruled most of their colonies via the seas in those days - and remnants of British-era fortifications and amenities can be seen not just in the surrounding area but on nearby islands as well - much of its historic centre was, however, bombed by Franco’s nationalist forces during the Civil War, with support from the Italians, especially after the other Balearic Islands became nationalist strongholds and Menorca remained the last Republican holdout.
After this we head for the north of the island before entering a circuit of just over 20 kilometres which is around the town of Es Mercadal and Monte Toro, the highest point on the island, around which the business end of today’s stage will centre. We take a little under three laps of the circuit (as we enter it at the base of the climb on the circuit, and leave it close to El Mercadal), and on the second lap we give out some points to both of the minor classifications, as we categorise the Alt de Sa Roca climb on the second pass - around 37km from the line - as well as holding our second intermediate sprint in Es Mercadal - around 25km from home. The Alt de Sa Roca is
a fairly simple puncheur ascent of just over 2km at just under 7%, and a max gradient of 16%, so a reasonable challenge for a first climb of the race, with 400m averaging 12% in the middle of it and another ramp of 200m at 13% near the summit. It is, however, not that long and although it’s not a super wide road, it’s not super challenging either, so given the long-standing tradition of weird mountain categorisation and the legend of the “Spanish flat” in the sport, I thought I’d only categorise one ascent given that the race tends to keep the categorised climbing early on in the race fairly minimal. This climb is crested at 58km, 37km (with points) and 16km from the line so there are chances to attack it, but realistically given the finish it’s not likely the decisive move is made here unless there is a miscalculation behind.
Es Mercadal, with Monte Toro overlooking it
Derived from the Latin
mercatum, Es Mercadal was derived from, as you might expect, a marketplace, and as a central Menorcan, inland town of some repute and with a position equidistant from Ciutadella and Mahón it maintains this role for many of the island’s central communities to this day. The route from Sa Roca to Es Mercadal is essentially a sauntering downhill that consists of a couple of uphill false flats broken up with short downhills mostly on two-way country roads. Es Mercadal itself lies at the base of the last of these, so I have moved the intermediate sprint some way through the town to try to make this a bit safer, although thankfully it’s not a stage ending sprint so the pace shouldn’t be so wild. On the third time through the town, however, we hang a right on to the Me-13 and climb up to the Cim del Toro, the summit of Monte Toro, so that we will finish the stage at the ceiling of the island. And that entails a climb which is also a cat.3 ascent, but is somewhat tougher than Sa Roca.
Monte Toro from altimetrias.net
Yes, Grand Tours that
begin with an uphill finish are pretty few in number. But we have had a few, and given the nature of a) the Vuelta and b) the geography of the Balearics, I think that this is not an unreasonable idea, as the small size of the island means it’s hardly forcing the spectators up to some highly obscure, out-of-the-way location, and besides the main road through the island will be clear once the riders have completed the first 40km or so, and the rest of the route will be clear more or less until they’ve completed the first 80km or so, and anywhere on the circuit
bar the climb will see the riders three times, anywhere on the climb will give a view down to the countryside that should enable fans to get the gist of what’s going on beneath them too. Uphill finishes have been used to commence the 2008 Tour de France (on the Côte de Cadoudal in Plumelec), the 2011 Tour de France (on Mont des Alouettes in the Vendée), the 2021 Tour de France (in Landerneau in Brétagne) and the 2022 Giro d’Italia (in Viségrad, Hungary) while the stage, despite its uphill finish that should generate time gaps, is considerably easier than the Bilbao start in the 2023 Tour, the Torino start in the 2024 Giro, or the Rimini finish to stage 1 in the 2024 Tour. The 2020 Vuelta is a bit of an anomaly with stage 1 finishing on Arrate, but that was meant to be stage 4 in the original plans. This finish is perhaps most akin in terms of characteristics as a climb, to the 2019 Giro’s first stage finish, the San Luca climb in Bologna, however that was as part of an ITT. The first kilometre is at a fairly manageable 6,5% kind of level before it ramps up to Mur de Huy style, with 2km at over 10% to finish, which should give us a puncheur type - potentially a GC type, Primož Roglič style - in the first red jersey of the race. It’s a well paved, comfortably passable road with a sizeable car park at the summit, owing to the mountain’s status as the highest point on the island, giving a beautiful scenic view down to the rest of the island and across the sea to Mallorca and the Spanish mainland. This should be an explosive start to the race.
Final climb, the scope of the task slowly coming into view
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