Rate the 2015 Vuelta Route!

[Eshnar]

http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/la-vuelta-hace-oficial-su-recorrido-todos-los-perfiles-10-01-2015

Will post my evaluation later...

 

[LaFlorecita]

First impression. Not bad. Would have liked a MTF in the last 5 stages (not an additional MTF). The ITT is nice. 7/10.

 

[Descender]

Couple of real mountain stages where the hardest climb is not the MTF, decent flat ITT, three descent finishes after the MTFs. Couple of stages for breakaways.

It's far from perfect, but I'm feeling generous. 6/10.

BOOM.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Max 5, but my expectations were low anyway.
First 10 stages offers very little variance. Race might leave me for dead already here.
Better mid race design than usual.
Its a course mainly for uphill sprinters.

J-Rod, Valverde etc again.

 

[Ruudz0r]

I like it, better then I originally expected

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Better than in the last years, decent flat time trial and severals finish in downhill for mountain stages. 6/10.

 

[roundabout]

What downhill finishes in mountain stages?

 

[Arredondo]

Some good designed stages, like stage 20.

I give it a 7.

 

[Descender]

What downhill finishes in mountain stages?

Stage 18 and 20. Pseudo-downhill finish in stage 19. Certainly not alpine queen stages, but much more than Unipublic has to offer usually.

 

[Red Rick]

Still way too many one climb stages. 8 for Vuelta standards, 5 for GT standards. Gave it a 7

 

[May0maniac]

I gave it a 6, but 7 could also be ok. I dislike the first week but the rest is pretty good for a Vuelta.

 

[icefire]

Biciclismo has updated the URL after the OP

http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/la-v...corrido-todos-los-perfiles-y-video-10-01-2015

 

[Carols]

Gave it a 7.

I like it! A really difficult middle week, but 2 major opportunities in the 3rd week to make up time. Decent length ITT. Plus descent finishes in the 3rd week for those with the chops to have a go if they need to find time somewhere.

A different and likeable Vuelta route.

Carol

 

[Taxus4a]

I like, It is not so good as Giro is this year, but it is clearly better than these previous years.

It is not a youtube route with everything for the last 3 kms.

It has variety, differentes stages and finish, and it is equilibrate with that crono in my land: Burgos.

There are more really mountanous sateg than previous years: 2 . Andorra is really hard but short and Asturias is long and hard, with a finish really hard.

We have interesting mountain or medium mountain stages. The last three stages has not mountain finish, wich is more interesesting that just to wait for a hard final for three days.

Riaza stage is nice and hard, bad roads up and down wind and a climb at the end.

Yes, it is not bad.

For me this year Giro: 8, Vuelta: 7 and Tour: 6.

 

[hfer07]

gave it 8 solely on the different approach taken by ASO/Unipublic on the intend to spice up the first week with few surprises, then bulking up the 2nd with the most demanding stages-just to leave the brave ones with the ITT and stage 20 to make their mark. I hope the big names take up the challenge after the Tour, but I doubt it......

looks promising to me

 

[Ferminal]

What did I give the Giro? It's better than that. Though the sticker shock on the Vuelta routes is never as bad as the other two.

 

[Ferminal]

What is the climb at the end of the second stage? Anyway, I like it.

lol @ the TTT though, I'd prefer an 1100m prologue to that.

 

[Taxus4a]

What is the climb at the end of the second stage? Anyway, I like it.

lol @ the TTT though, I'd prefer an 1100m prologue to that.

A TTT is the best way to present a a race to the people. It is a visual an photogenic especiallity, but IMO must be short, becouse for me it is quite not fare for GC. And you give the chanto for a team to win a stage that way, something that some teams demand.

For me this is the way

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Not a fan of GT routes where one or two stages are much harder than the rest. Not a great concept for a three week race, IMO. Same reason I dislike the Giro route, but this is worse, given the large amount of filler stages.

 

[icefire]

What is the climb at the end of the second stage? Anyway, I like it.

lol @ the TTT though, I'd prefer an 1100m prologue to that.

The climb at the end of stage 2 is la Mesa de Villaverde.

 

[gregrowlerson]

The complaint on many occasions with grand tours is that they are too back loaded, and that especially that week 1 doesn't have much for the GC riders. This Vuelta has a category 1 MTF on stage 7, and three smaller summit finishers before that.

Another regular complaint with grand tours is the repetitive use of the same mountains (Tourmalet anyone? ). If I heard correctly, than all 9 uphill finishers of this Vuelta have never been used before. That is incredible.

We also tend to get annoyed when there aren't any descent finishers. This Vuelta has three, stages 18-20. Quality.

The ITT could be longer, but this is the Vuelta. There are two genuine mountain stages, and not too many pancake flat stages. I give the route a 9.

 

[Kwibus]

2 descent finishes of which one after proper climbs is a big bonus and a huge thumbs up to the Vuelta organisation.

I only gave it a quick glance, but it looks quite good specially for Vuelta standards.

 

[Kwibus]

The complaint on many occasions with grand tours is that they are too back loaded, and that especially that week 1 doesn't have much for the GC riders. This Vuelta has a category 1 MTF on stage 7, and three smaller summit finishers before that.

Another regular complaint with grand tours is the repetitive use of the same mountains (Tourmalet anyone? ). If I heard correctly, than all 9 uphill finishers of this Vuelta have never been used before. That is incredible.

We also tend to get annoyed when there aren't any descent finishers. This Vuelta has three, stages 18-20. Quality.

The ITT could be longer, but this is the Vuelta. There are two genuine mountain stages, and not too many pancake flat stages. I give the route a 9.

I gave it a 7, based on a quick glance. Tbh reading your short summary an 8 would be better, maybe a 9. There is quite a bit variation as well, maybe a bit too much mtf finishes, but oh well...

 

[Netserk]

For a Vuelta this is very good. Best route in several years. I gave it an 8, it was closer to 9 than 7 (for Vuelta standards, I would've given it a lower number if it was compared to Giro and Tour routes as well).

 

[Eshnar]

Will post my evaluation later...

Gave it a 6.

The first week is the usual Unipublic crap. Not much to say there. Then the we have the stage in Andorra that is ofc good and the penultimate weekend which doesn't make much sense to me, granted that the last stage is nice. Then we have an odd third week with an almost-40 kms ITT (which is short by any standard, and more by considering we have 9 MTFs), two lame "descent finishes" (the first one is not more than the standard Gap stage, while the second one is plain stupid, and I'm actually surprised Descender is happy about that) and finally a stage 20 which to me is the only thing that saves the route besides stage 10. A Vuelta stage where you can actually attack from far and where you cannot wait for the last 3 kms

A big leap forward with respect to the last Vueltas, but still far from being good.

the Giro route is a level or two above this. The Tour is a level or two below.