I'll comment on the individual stages
Stage 1: Puerto Banús - Marbella TTT 7.5km. This is as silly as it gets. If they want to do the TT along the Paseo Maritimo and 7kms is all they have, go somewhere else before as in Benidorm 2011 or make it an ITT. I guess that the point of a TTT must be connected to some gimmick like using a boat as in 2012. Unipublic is getting closer and closer to
this.
Stage 2: Alhaurín de la Torre - Caminito del Rey, 165km. Typical murito finish to ensure that GT contenders show up at the end of the stage. They could have made it harder (Torcal de Antequera is just 35kms away) or more scenic. They've done neither and the race will go next to the actual Caminito del Rey 90 and 50kms before the finish. I guess they've chosen to get some bumps (Álora and Carratraca) as close as possible to the finish.
Stage 3: Mijas - Málaga, 165km. One for the sprinters with a small bump 7kms from the finish. I wonder what that might be.
Stage 4: Estepona - Vejer de la Frontera, 203km. Another HTF preceded by a small bump, probably something like the stage Mathews won last year. Last 50kms along the coast, so we might get some wind.
Stage 5: Rota - Alcalá de Guadaira, 182km. Another one for the sprinters. At least with Guillén we know we don't get two like this in a row.
Stage 6: Córdoba - Cazorla, 204km. Wow, second stage longer than 200km. Unfortunately the choice of departure and finish has forced them to take the shorthest route, avoiding any difficulty. This could have been a great hilly stage. As it is, it's just all together till the final murito.
Stage 7: Jódar - Capileira, 188km. Again, departure and finish forces taking the shortest path. Anyway, not bad for the first long climb in the race.
Stage 8: Puebla de Don Fadrique - Murcia, 186km. Twice Cresta del Gallo: good. Cresta del Gallo further from the finish than actual distance suggests: bad, and I guess on purpose.
Stage 9: Torrevieja - Cumbre del Sol, 168km. Another murito finish, 3.5km @ 10%, the first 3km done twice. The loop could been much shorther than the 40km proposed. Unipublic again spoiling the stage design on purpose.
Stage 10: Valencia - Castellón, 152km. Downhill finish after Desierto de las Palmas further from the finish than the map suggests. For the third day in a row, Unipublic being Unipublic.
Stage 11: Andorra la Vella - Cortals d'Encamp, 138km. Best Vuelta mountain stage design ever. Worthy of the Giro.
Stage 12: Andorra - Lleida, 172km. Another one for the sprinters after 6 days.
Stage 13: Calatayud - Tarazona, 168km. Hilly terrain. Climbs are not very difficult but roads are narrow and twisty. Not an easy stage for the sprinters but the approach from the final climb to the finish could have been more direct.
Stage 14: Vitoria - Fuente del Chivo, 213km. First of the silly MTFs that are trademark of the Vuelta at the end of the second week. Gladly surprised to see el Escudo. Even if it is far from the finish the climb is hard and the stage is unusually long for Vuelta standards.
Stage 15: Comillas - Sotres (Jitu de Escarandi), 175km. An alternative to the overused Lagos de Covadonga and as poorly connected to other climbs as that classic climb. The hardest kms are the last three ones.
Stage 16: Luarca - Quirós (Ermita del Alba), 184km. Good muntain stage with a difficult start to ensure a quality break, good finish with a perfect connection of the last three climbs, but poor middle section.
Stage 17: Burgos - Burgos, ITT 39km. Flat but short. Too short to be the only ITT. And probably too late. I'm not sure the climbers will be aggressive enough in their terrain to get a good buffer. On top of this gaps between specialists and non-specialists tend to be smaller at the end of a 3 week race unless someone is really at the limit of his strengths or is cr6p at ITT.
Stage 18: Roa de Duero - Riaza, 204km. Long and difficult. Not a single flat in the last 100kms. Always up and down on very narrow and twisty roads with a few sections paved with rough concrete (read: to improve traction in high gradients). The final climb is not very hard but the descent is on a rough, cracked and narrow road with many curves blinded by the mountain or the trees. This can be a good stage if riders want to race.
Stage 19: Medina del Campo - Ávila, 185km. Fake descent finish where Unipublic has taken the easiest possible route avoiding el Mediano and climbing the easy Paramera instead of the classic Navalmoral. This is for a break or big bunch at the feet of the medieval walls before the final bump.
Stage 20: San Lorenzo del Escorial - Cercedilla, 181km. The good: it doesn't finish in a ridiculous MTF and they're doing the climb to Morcuera from Guadalix, 1km shorter and 100m more climbing than the usual start from Soto del Real. The bad: the classic climbs in Madrid are no longer hard enough for the pro peloton (Cotos in particular), the stage is short, the descent of Navacerrada is almost a motorway and the loop between the two ascensions to Morcuera is longer and easier than it could have been. Only someone going nuts in the second ascension to Morcuera can save the stage. Most probably a descent finish where nothing will happen to reinforce Unipublic stance on the matter.
Stage 21: Alcalá de Henares - Madrid, 93 km. Usual parade for the sprinters.
As an overall conclusion, we've got incremental improvements from provious editions, together with a set of new hills and mountains to keep doing the same thing in different places. The only ITT is mostly flat but too short and too late. Medium mountain stages are mostly limited to murito finishes with uninteresting run-ins. The 'easier' last week is officially a consequence of finishing in Madrid, having all new MTFs and complains from riders in 2013 about the transfer from Angliru; it is also rumoured to be a candy to entice the Tour winner. But what most bothers me is the evidence of Unipublic spoling some stage designs adding unnecesary flat between climbs of between the last climb and the finish.
Barely a 6.
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