Rate the 2015 Vuelta Route!

[icefire]

Can you do the same to the Giro stage I pointed out? I'm curious.

The profile gives figures for the elevation of most significant points in the route, but also includes many small ripples that are difficult to estimate. Neglecting them gives ~2100m. Being very generous with the additional climbing my guess would be 2400-2500m.

 

[guncha]

Better than TDF, much worse than Giro. At least Vuelta has an ITT. Mountain stages in general are lame, except for 2 or 3 stages.

4 out of 10 to me. Is there any possibilty to see the lenght and gradients of the climbs? Vuelta tends to give 1st cat. too liberally.

 

[Asturiano]

4 out of 10 to me. Is there any possibilty to see the lenght and gradients of the climbs? Vuelta tends to give 1st cat. too liberally.

Well, on this stage Vuelta gave less category to the climbs they deserve:

Aristébano: 15 km - 3'5 % - It's not a 3rd cat it's a 2nd cat

Alto de Forcalllado: 4'3 km - 6'2 % - No category for it but I think it deseves a 3rd cat

Alto de Piedratecha (Tineo): 9'2 km - 5'5 % - It's not a 3rd cat it's a 2nd cat

Alto de la Cabruñana: 4 km - 7'8 % - 3rd cat is true

Alto de Tenebredo: 3'5 km - 9'17 % - 2nd cat is true

Alto del Cordal: 13 km - 5'5 % - 2nd cat is true

Alto de la Cobertoria: 10 km - 8'76 % - it's not a 1st category it's more an Special Category

Alto de Alba: 6'65 km - 11'2 % - Special Category is true (no more tan 7 kms but it's REALLY hard)

This stage has 14 km over 10 %.

 

[TANK91]

This route is absoloutely perfect for Froome lol. I hope he wins the TDF then does the Vuelta we all know he can do around 10 days at a good level in the 2nd GT. If he can get to Week 2 in good shape he would hardly have any worries about the final week. I think someone like Valverde or Purito will win it they will probably not have a great TDF and not go all out like Froome would. Maybe this is perfect for Aru to do the Giro/Vuelta he may win the Vuelta.

 

[Asturiano]

This route is absoloutely perfect for Froome lol. I hope he wins the TDF then does the Vuelta we all know he can do around 10 days at a good level in the 2nd GT. If he can get to Week 2 in good shape he would hardly have any worries about the final week. I think someone like Valverde or Purito will win it they will probably not have a great TDF and not go all out like Froome would. Maybe this is perfect for Aru to do the Giro/Vuelta he may win the Vuelta.

Who knows?.

 

[Arredondo]

This route is absoloutely perfect for Froome lol. I hope he wins the TDF then does the Vuelta we all know he can do around 10 days at a good level in the 2nd GT. If he can get to Week 2 in good shape he would hardly have any worries about the final week. I think someone like Valverde or Purito will win it they will probably not have a great TDF and not go all out like Froome would. Maybe this is perfect for Aru to do the Giro/Vuelta he may win the Vuelta.

If you rode a Tour, you will get punished by fresher riders in the Vuelta. The Vuelta is all about not having too many race days, and definitely not a Tour in your legs. Look at the past years.

If someone like Aru or Betancur are doing the Giro/Vuelta combination (which is likely the case), they will have a much bigger chance to win it.

 

[May0maniac]

If you rode a Tour, you will get punished by fresher riders in the Vuelta. The Vuelta is all about not having too many race days, and definitely not a Tour in your legs. Look at the past years.

If someone like Aru or Betancur are doing the Giro/Vuelta combination (which is likely the case), they will have a much bigger chance to win it.

Aru wants to ride the TdF after the Giro, he says that it will be a great learning experience and i think he wants to have at least one stage win in every GT.

 

[staubsauger]

There - most likely- aren't any high quality fresh riders at the Vuelta, because most of them are either going for the Giro / Tour or the Tour / Vuelta double.

One of Valverde and Purito may be fresher at the Vuelta. But in fact these two are easy to handle even without full peak, because they barely put in any strong attacks to fear about. These are not the riders to crush a tired Froome.

Pozzovivo, Betancur and Majka will be the dark horses to look after! Majka will come out of the Tour after a domestique role, but is able to hold a long-time peak. Betancur may have weight and form issues after the summer break again. But especially Pozzovivo could easily become a very dangerous man. Such a front loaded parcours should definitely favor a rider which always seems to have his peak in the first two weeks of a grand tour.

 

[Arredondo]

Aru wants to ride the TdF after the Giro, he says that it will be a great learning experience and i think he wants to have at least one stage win in every GT.

Yeah i remember it. He wants to learn a lot from Nibali in the Tour.

Well, then is Betancur left

 

[hfer07]

2014 Vuelta Highlights

I leave this to remain us of epic battles to come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AYYDkP27Ko

 

[Gigs_98]

gave it a 6. It is much better than the routes of the last years but not as good as the routes from the giro and the tdf. I am happy that they put two downhill finishes in the last week. That will put much preassure on the athletes on the stages with a mtf becuase they need to get time on these stages and in the last week the cyclists have to take much risk on the downhill finishes so at the end it could become very interesting.

 

[Flamin]

What a *** ridiculous climb at the end today.

I just thought about this topic because I remember being stunned of how high the route scored in the poll. People still think the same now?

The route is a disgrace.

 

[jsem94]

I never voted. I would now give it 3. And that's pretty generous.

 

[Red Rick]

It's the racing that is a disgrace. This Vuelta is actually better designed than any of the 3 previous ones.

 

[Carols]

It's not the route, it's the riders. They are all working on fumes it appears. No one has the strength to light it up, the opportunities are there.

 

[BigMac]

The racing isn't a disgrace. Riders are tired. You don't see them reach the finish line as if they could have done twice the effort on the day.

 

[hrotha]

Re:

The racing isn't a disgrace. Riders are tired. You don't see them reach the finish line as if they could have done twice the effort on the day.

They arrive tired to the finish line because they've just sprinted for the last km. That's normal and expected. It's also a far cry from saying they're racing as hard as they can, because it's obvious from A) the speed, and B) the size of the groups, that they're usually taking it easy.

So Purito or Majka or whoever are tired? Good. Imagine how tired their rivals are.

 

[BigMac]

Or, the speeds are direct reflection of their fatigue and the big groups mean everyone is around the same level. Confirmation bias. How do you know they only look tired because they sprinted for the last km? I see riders well in their limit crossing the line - otherwise if one were to apply those standards, it would only be acceptable for riders to come in half-dead and collapsing from their bikes.

 

[roundabout]

Did I vote? Oh well, serves Guillen and co right for using the climbs which have the most insane ramps at the top.

And BigMac, FWIW watching the last climb it seemed that Aru at least was focused on doing the best last KM possible and the idea seemed to be that the big guy would drop by himself.

 

[Flamin]

No sane person would attack from far out with such a steep final climb. Unless you're waaay stronger than everyone else, it's suicide. I can't blame the riders.

And that it's better designed than the previous 3? Lol, so? They were also crap.

 

[Billie]

the good stages are still to come. In sierra madrilena they luckily decided to stay away from these ridiculous ramps.

 

[Gigs_98]

The route has several problems:
-First week only has ___/ stages and no difficult passes. However we at least saw some very good racing on the final climbs
-The great andorra stage came far too early. If that stage had been raced today there would have been much more carnage because the final climb gave you the possibility to do a long range attack
-3 mtf's in a row is stupid because the riders are afraid to attack on the first two stages because they might fade on the last one
-3 mtf's in this row is even more stupid because you don't even get good racing on the last stage because the last few hundred meters are so ridiculously steep.

However there are still good stages to come which might make the battle for the gc very interesting. Moreover I didnt know how steep the final climb today was, which is another reason why I rated it 6.

 

[SafeBet]

The route of course sucks as always but everybody knew it from the get-go. That's not to say the riders are making a good use of it.

 

[ice&fire]

The route has several problems:
-First week only has ___/ stages and no difficult passes. However we at least saw some very good racing on the final climbs
-The great andorra stage came far too early. If that stage had been raced today there would have been much more carnage because the final climb gave you the possibility to do a long range attack
-3 mtf's in a row is stupid because the riders are afraid to attack on the first two stages because they might fade on the last one
-3 mtf's in this row is even more stupid because you don't even get good racing on the last stage because the last few hundred meters are so ridiculously steep.

However there are still good stages to come which might make the battle for the gc very interesting. Moreover I didnt know how steep the final climb today was, which is another reason why I rated it 6.

Yep, 3 MTFs in a row at the end of the second week is a problem and automatically leads to bad racing in the third one, even more so if it is steep. Grossglockner, Zoncolan, Gardeccia.

 

[May0maniac]

The riders are riding it like the 2012 Giro, if Tom pulls a Ryder it will be hillarious.