Vuelta 2011

[DAOTEC]

Presented Januari 12, 2011.

 

[Roland Rat]

If this is real, it's a bit of a fudge up by the Diario de Leon!

That stage 16 looks like a cracker.

 

[jens_attacks]

giro and tour routes really lack in terms of ITT km so i hope that vuelta will have at least 80 km ITT to compensate.pandera and nevada in the first week.it looks good.

 

[ttrider]

Really glad that there appears to be 3 itts
Sierra Nevada is a very hard stage to have that early on
at least the vuelta is being different to the giro tour with an element of front loading and more tts

 

[El Pistolero]

Was hoping the El Angliru to be included again, but stage 16 looks also cool.

I see they're also finishing in one of my favorite cities of Europe. Nice

 

[theyoungest]

Boom! Stage 5: Sierra Nevada, stage 6: La Pandera. I like it. That'll put paid to a lot of people's GC hopes straight away.

 

[hrotha]

Sierra Nevada, Laguna de los Peces, Naranco...? Pffffff. Even La Pandera is kind of lame. I hope the final course turns out to be better than this.

That 16th stage is nothing special, by the way. The final climb is only 6 km long, which is a shame because apparently there's another road up there which would make that climb 12 km at 9.25%.

 

[therealtimshady]

bring back the angliru

 

[jens_attacks]

in 2002 it was something like this.nevada followed by pandera,stage 5 and 6.

 

[lucybears]

That 16th stage is nothing special, by the way. The final climb is only 6 km long, which is a shame because apparently there's another road up there which would make that climb 12 km at 9.25%.

this
http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPuerto.asp?id=311
instead of
http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPuerto.asp?id=482

 

[Vonn Brinkman]

Stage 16 looks like a beast.

Expecting real carnage to happen there....the winner of the Vuelta will have to finish in the top three on that stage.

 

[Descender]

I give that article little to no credibility.

Firstly, the parcours of that stage is wrong, doesn't match with the profile of the climb they give.

According to that parcours, the final would be on top of Ancares through Pan do Zarco:

But they give the profile of the opposite side, the climb through Tejedo.

There have been some rumours around that area that the stage could have a downhill finish at the town of Tejedo. They would climb up Tejedo first, then descend through Piornedo and climb through Pan do Zarco, and then go down where they went up first and finish in the town. This would be roughly the last 100km (don't pay attention to the gradient numbers):

That would be a fantastic stage, much much better than any proposed uphill finishes in Ancares. We've already had enough uphill finishes in the Vuelta, thanks. On the other hand, HC mountain passes are scarce and should not be underused.


Secondly, the Govenment of Andalusia announced there are TWO stages planned in their region, and we have SIX in this proposed route.

And thirdly, there are many rumours that appear to be strong and that we can't see anywhere here:

They were supposed to climb the Xorret de Catí and descend it to finish in Petrer probably, but here we have Petrer only as start of the stage.

They were supposed to unveil the Farrapona climb right after San Lorenzo.

They were also supposed to climb the Cordal+Angliru, etc.

 

[icefire]

The detailed profile for the last kms in stage 16 is wrong. This is the way to go from Sª Morela to Ancares:

http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPuerto.asp?id=297

It recalls me a certain climb in the French Alps that features quite often in the Tour.

 

[Skip Madness]

Having mountain-top finishes on Fonte da Cova and Ancares would be a glorious way of wasting two of the best - arguably the two very best - passes in Spain. The Fonte da Cova should head down for La Baña or on for a finish at the Morredero, and if God made mountain stages then it would say that Ancares must come before a finish in Fabero. Using the León side of Ancares as an MTF would be, as PRC so rightly put it, to reduce it to becoming Sierra de la Pandera, and we don't need another one of those.

But as others have mentioned above, this route isn't consistent with a lot of the plans we've heard up until now. In fact, it all reads suspiciously like this comment post (scroll down). PRC is currently tweeting excellently about this (@PlataformaRC), and for anyone who hasn't seen their glorious website, it can be found here.

Sierra Nevada is confirmed anyway, although we still don't know which route up it will be. Nice to have it in regardless, and I like it coming early. I'd take another finish at Valdepeñas de Jaén over the Pandera, personally.

I thought a return to the Covatilla was looking on the cards, too?

 

[hfer07]

having in mind that it's just an sketch, I liked the kind of balance shown on every week with two MTF each. If the official parcours retains the key stages leaked, I'd put more challenges towards the end, to make it more interesting & competitive

 

[Aguirre]

interesting final in basque country, before madrid ITT, let's see what they are able to do, neither bilbao and vitoria have big mountains but interesting curly roads

 

[Descender]

The detailed profile for the last kms in stage 16 is wrong. This is the way to go from Sª Morela to Ancares:

http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPuerto.asp?id=297

It recalls me a certain climb in the French Alps that features quite often in the Tour.

You can also go up the Pan de Zarco road once you reach Murias after descending Sierra Morela.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Laguna de los Peces... big meh. Bit of a garbage MTF, that.

Not convinced by the route, but as said above, we can pick an awful lot of holes in it so there's likely many differences.

If they're finishing with the Basque country stages they could at least use Lagunas de Neila on the route in, or if they insist on going in via Cantabria use a Torrelavega stage rather like the nationals last year that Rubén Plaza won - finished in El Soplao, I believe. The direction of the route means no chance whatsoever for the cobbled climb in Cuenca from the '07 nationals either, which is a sad thing.

 

[The Hitch]

So they are finaly going into Pais Vasco?

Having mountain-top finishes on Fonte da Cova and Ancares would be a glorious way of wasting two of the best - arguably the two very best - passes in Spain. The Fonte da Cova should head down for La Baña or on for a finish at the Morredero, and if God made mountain stages then it would say that Ancares must come before a finish in Fabero. Using the León side of Ancares as an MTF would be, as PRC so rightly put it, to reduce it to becoming Sierra de la Pandera, and we don't need another one of those.

But as others have mentioned above, this route isn't consistent with a lot of the plans we've heard up until now. In fact, it all reads suspiciously like this comment post (scroll down). PRC is currently tweeting excellently about this (@PlataformaRC), and for anyone who hasn't seen their glorious website, it can be found here.

Sierra Nevada is confirmed anyway, although we still don't know which route up it will be. Nice to have it in regardless, and I like it coming early. I'd take another finish at Valdepeñas de Jaén over the Pandera, personally.

I thought a return to the Covatilla was looking on the cards, too?

Good expertise as always.

 

[Descender]

As I said, null credibility. Don't even pay attention to it.

 

[icefire]

So they are finaly going into Pais Vasco?

Can't find the link right now, but I read a few months ago that the Basque regional government had allocated some money for it from next year budget.

 

[blaxland]

So the third grand tour (Vuelta)route is now posted,and im starting to believe to be able to win a GT you must only be a climber who can TT ok.Are the days of Time Triallers winning a GT over?Can only sub 65kg riders win from now on?What does this mean for the future of our sport?

 

[roundabout]

it's only a rumored route, besides there are two time trials even if the last one won't be overly long and a prologue and not many really mind-blowing climbs

save the panicking for next January

 

[icefire]

it's only a rumored route, besides there are two time trials even if the last one won't be overly long and a prologue and not many really mind-blowing climbs

save the panicking for next January

If the last stage remains as rumoured, the shortest distance between Alcalá de Henares and Madrid is 35km (on the highway). We can assume the actual course would be closer to 40kms. That's enough for the likes of Purito losing 4 minutes.

 

[roundabout]

D'oh. Brain freeze. Thought it was closer than that. Thank you for correcting me.