Rate the 2013 Vuelta route

[Descender]

http://www.lavuelta.com/13/en/recorrido/vuelta.html?e=1

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showpost.php?p=1109053&postcount=374

and following.

 

[Ferminal]

6... with a 50km flat ITT it'd be a 7 and a couple small changes could push it up to 8.

 

[Descender]

Ah ****, I couldn't figure out how to personalise the poll...

Anyway 10 is good 1 is bad.

Imma be generous and give it a 3 on account of the couple of proper mountain stages.

The absolute lack of descent finishes, the absurdity of a GT where more than half the stages finish uphill and the ridiculous ITT of 38 kms, with hardly a flat km in it don't allow me to give it a passing grade.

 

[Eshnar]

6.

Pros:
+ Peyragudes stage is a lot better than I'd ever expected from Unipublic (I'm not saying it's perfect though).
+ Stage to Haza Llanas is good, even if we probably won't see anything until the final kms.
+ Stage to La Gallina is not bad.
+ Stage to Finisterre is very good.
Cons:
- The abundance of uphill sprints risk to interfere with the true mountain stages
- The final week is somewhat disappointing
- The ITT is hilly and therefore will help the usual kind of gc riders like last year.
- No Descents

 

[GP Blanco]

A 6, but only because I prefer a lopsided uphill GT over a lopsided pancake flat sprint GT.

By the way, did anyone notice that the English language profiles are last year's?

 

[cineteq]

Bravo Unipublic, gave it a 9.

Funny to see the doomsday boys complaining about the lack of descents. But they don't get there are a couple riders who would take advantage or attack on a descents. So why bother?

Does anybody know if they'll have bonus seconds this year?

 

[Eshnar]

Does anybody know if they'll have bonus seconds this year?

Have a guess

 

[LaFlorecita]

6.

Pros:
+ Peyragudes stage is a lot better than I'd ever expected from Unipublic (I'm not saying it's perfect though).
+ Stage to Haza Llanas is good, even if we probably won't see anything until the final kms.
+ Stage to La Gallina is not bad.
+ Stage to Finisterre is very good.
Cons:
- The abundance of uphill sprints risk to interfere with the true mountain stages
- The final week is somewhat disappointing
- The ITT is hilly and therefore will help the usual kind of gc riders like last year.
- No Descents

this pretty much

I voted 6/10

 

[LaFlorecita]

Bravo Unipublic, gave it a 9.

Funny to see the doomsday boys complaining about the lack of descents. But they don't get there are a couple riders who would take advantage or attack on a descents. So why bother?

Does anybody know if they'll have bonus seconds this year?

that's exactly what we or at least I want

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Positive:
- A stage is over 200km long
- There are some genuine multiple-mountain stages
- There's an actual half decent stage in Andorra, which must be a first
- Very few genuine flat stages

Negative:
- No descent finishes
- Peyresourde
- Too many immediate repeats
- Naranco a 1st category. Really?
- Completely and utterly imbalanced
- There is a TTT, and it is too long
- Where they are introducing climbs that are legitimately hard enough for the typical Unipublic one-climb stage, they are stopping halfway up
- Too many sprints
- Not sure why they're not doing Creueta then the French side of Envalira
- Formigal stage is horrible, and I assume they're trying to get lightning to strike twice after the unexpected success of Fuente Dé
- Anglirú stage is way too easy. I know that everyone would wait until Anglirú anyway, but if they go over a couple of tough passes first (Cobertoria, San Lorenzo) then riders have more pain in their legs and gaps can be bigger
- needs another time trial

 

[Descender]

Bravo Unipublic, gave it a 9.

Funny to see the doomsday boys complaining about the lack of descents. But they don't get there are a couple riders who would take advantage or attack on a descents. So why bother?

Does anybody know if they'll have bonus seconds this year?

This doesn't even make sense.

 

[Red Rick]

Gave it a 6 for the following reasons

6.

Pros:
+ Peyragudes stage is a lot better than I'd ever expected from Unipublic (I'm not saying it's perfect though).
+ Stage to Haza Llanas is good, even if we probably won't see anything until the final kms.
+ Stage to La Gallina is not bad.
+ Stage to Finisterre is very good.
Cons:
- The abundance of uphill sprints risk to interfere with the true mountain stages
- The final week is somewhat disappointing
- The ITT is hilly and therefore will help the usual kind of gc riders like last year.
- No Descents

for the rest

+ Mirador de Ezaro could create some chaos 30km from the finish

- Although Peyragudes is a good stage, it's still an already overused climb in the tour, so i don't like that they used this particular climb.
- It's very lame that the ultimate GC stage is an exact copy of a stage ridden only two years ago

 

[cineteq]

This doesn't even make sense.

If you care to elaborate, we might take you seriously. Otherwise it's just hot air. As far I know Nibali is not riding La Vuelta, so why bother?

 

[LaFlorecita]

If you care to elaborate, we might take you seriously. Otherwise it's just hot air. As far I know Nibali is not riding La Vuelta, so why bother?

Only Nibali could attack on a descent, you mean?

 

[Red Rick]

If you care to elaborate, we might take you seriously. Otherwise it's just hot air. As far I know Nibali is not riding La Vuelta, so why bother?

Nibali doesn't need to race for a stage that ends with a descend to create some action

 

[cineteq]

Nibali doesn't need to race for a stage that ends with a descend to create some action

Right, but that wasn't my point. We all know he's a complete rider.

Only Nibali could attack on a descent, you mean?

Which other GC rider can make a difference on a descent successfully nowadays?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Right, but that wasn't my point. We all know he's a complete rider.

Which other GC rider can make a difference on a descent successfully nowadays?

SANCHEZ who might as well ride la Vuelta

the thing is. it makes the stage less predictable. Riders could attack on the climb or on the descent. And riders like Alberto or sanchez can attack on the climb and use the descent to create a larger gap. Or dropped contenders could try to come back.

 

[Descender]

Exactly.

____

 

[Eshnar]

the thing is. it makes the stage less predictable. Riders could attack on the climb or on the descent. And riders like Alberto or sanchez can attack on the climb and use the descent to create a larger gap. Or dropped contenders could try to come back.

Marry me.

 

[Forunculo]

I bet riders like Gesink and Nibali will do Vuelta hard to prepare the worlds

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That's a good point - hilly Worlds tend to inflate the Vuelta startlist due to preparations so even people that drop out partway through can enliven the race, like in 2009 with Valverde/Sánchez/Evans/Gesink in the GC mix, and people like Cunego livening up mountain stages. Similarly, the weakest field recently has been 2011, where a pancake flat Worlds meant most hilly/mountain guys had packed up for the season by the time the Vuelta rolled in to town.

 

[jens_attacks]

7/10


good :

wow 27 km ttt. this is monster long lol. better than those 12 kms i guess
valdepena de jaen because i like it
monachil-hazallanas stage,looks good.let's hope there will be at least 40 degrees
bales-peyresourde-peyragudes. proper mountain stage
naranco just because i like it and it's legendary climb,lots of people will be there



bad
again, itt kms.ridiculous
too early for angliru, 2011 was like yesterday

 

[Red Rick]

When was the last time the Vuelta had a stage longer than the peyresourdes stage?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

When was the last time the Vuelta had a stage longer than the peyresourdes stage?

Aaaaaages. We've come close a few times though; the Liège stage in 2009 was 226km, the stage to La Rabassa in 2008 was 223km, the Arcalis stage in 2007 was 220km, Almendralejo in 2006 was 220km.

Got it!

Stage 4 of the 2005 edition, Ciudad Real - Argamasilla de Alba, 232km. It was a sprint.

Edit: apologies, you said longer, not same length.

It was stage 2 of the 1998 edition, Córdoba to Cádiz, 234km.

 

[airstream]

Cool cool cool! The more MTF's the better because part of them anyways are doomed to end up with nothing.