Vuelta 2014 route rumours

[sensations]

First three stages in the Provincia Cadiz in Southern Andalusia as reported previously and Jerez has confirmed it will host the first stage which will involve the Fortress of Jerez in some capacity.

Also Murcia will be involved in some way accoring to a few journalists so the first week or so will probably roughly travel along the southern Spanish coast from Andalucia up towards Valencia (and a wild guess a rest day/transfer after that)

Question is at what point of the race they'll include a stage or two surrounding Ponferrada in preparation for the 2014 World Championships - that would pretty much give a good hint with regards to the second half of the route.

 

[Afrank]

I'm going to make a prediction for the 2014 route, I predict 15 uphill finishes.

And for a bold predicition, I predict...a...descent finish.

 

[The Hitch]

I predict...a...descent finish.

Angliru again?

Question is at what point of the race they'll include a stage or two surrounding Ponferrada in preparation for the 2014 World Championships - that would pretty much give a good hint with regards to the second half of the route.

I think they would be intelligent to place it in the middle/beginning of the 2nd week. That would tempt a lot of riders to do the Vuelta.

 

[Afrank]

Angliru again?

Probably.

 

[Red Rick]

What will be repeated from this year?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Would it be churlish to suggest that I expect Lagos de Covadonga and Bola del Mundo? Maybe they'll repeat El Dornajo since it was popular.

 

[il_cobra]

i'm wanting to see arcalis, navacerrada, abantos, cerler and other old school stuff right now

 

[coinneach]

First three stages in the Provincia Cadiz in Southern Andalusia as reported previously and Jerez has confirmed it will host the first stage which will involve the Fortress of Jerez in some capacity.

Also Murcia will be involved in some way accoring to a few journalists so the first week or so will probably roughly travel along the southern Spanish coast from Andalucia up towards Valencia (and a wild guess a rest day/transfer after that)

Question is at what point of the race they'll include a stage or two surrounding Ponferrada in preparation for the 2014 World Championships - that would pretty much give a good hint with regards to the second half of the route.

If they are going up the east coast to Valencia, any chance of the Xorret de Catí coming back?

You could have an exciting finish downhill from their to Petrer or Castille

 

[roundabout]

If they are going up the east coast to Valencia, any chance of the Xorret de Catí coming back?

You could have an exciting finish downhill from their to Petrer or Castille

Going over Tudons and Torremanzanas along the way.

Abantos would be cool, but the surface was already horrible in 2007.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Apologies if this has been posted http://cyclinghistorybyfbs.blogspot.in/2013/06/rumores-recorrido-vuelta-espana-2014.html

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Praise be to Allah, those last 3km of Camperona are brutal. I'm assuming this would be after some Asturian monolith stage, so probably arriving there via Vegarada, San Isidro or Tarna. It is always going to be a Vuelta stage where everything important is in the last 3km but they may as well put some climbing in the legs first. Vegarada is partially sterrato too, so like the Trobaniello side of Ventana is probably not an option.

However, it would be absolutely awesome if they could get Fuentes de Invierno to pay up again like in 2008, but instead of sending the riders to the main Estación de Esquí Fuentes de Invierno, they sent them to Fuentes de Invierno-Riopinos, the smaller, less salubrious station on the other side of the mountain. That way you'd have about 8km of flat and a short uphill puncheur finish after this:

Now, bear in mind that the final 6km of this is all sterrato, and a kilometre and a half before that is Bola del Mundo-style concrete... and this is about as Finestre as it gets as long as they're not doing Trobaniello. The main difficulty is linking something up to it. La Colladona is the most likely, but leaves a good 15km of false flat heading into Vegarada; the other option is, especially if following on from a Covadonga stage, doing Tarna-Señales then descending through the Puerto de San Isidro, the problem with that is the summit of Señales is 50km from the start of the ascent to Vegarada, however the lead-in climbs are much harder.

Something like this from one of the PRC guys would work:

Guillén may prefer to go straight from Cangas de Onis to Arnicio, which is easy enough, misses the first two climbs out and reduces stage length to about 155-160km, with Collado Arnicio (9,6km, 5,9%, cat.2), Puerto de las Señales (18,2km, 5,2%, cat.1), Puerto de San Isidro (11,0km, 3,0%, cat.3) and Puerto de Vegarada (10,8km @ 8,0%, cat.1/ESP).

Hell, if they finish paving the Collado de Sahún I'd be excited for a Cerler finish.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

from the work of sr.festina from a spanish forum.

 

[Netserk]

Lol, that's just hilarious

 

[Afrank]

When your run out of short and steep HTF's, just build them.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

We have actually had something similar to that done before. The Peace Race in 1987 had a legendary 22km time trial around Harrachov. It was a hilly route, and before they started riders were aware that they would be finishing at the wintersports venue in town. They didn't realise that the stage would finish with a climb of this:

That's one of only 5 Ski Flying hills in the world, an insane HS205. So only a couple of hundred metres, but gradients of 666%.

 

[Red Rick]

What was the surface? I guess they had to imagine their own hairpins

 

[The Hitch]

Aren't Holland actually building a man made uphill finish?

I thought that was why the Vuelta will start there in 2015.

 

[jsem94]

Really, the Harrachov ski flying venue? They climbed that? Did anyone make it to the top without stepping off the bike? If that was raced again in cycling, Styby ftw running up the climb.

 

[Red Rick]

Aren't Holland actually building a man made uphill finish?

I thought that was why the Vuelta will start there in 2015.

I haven't heard anything about it in a long time. Latest I heard the plans were to build a 300m high hill that that could be increased over time

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Really, the Harrachov ski flying venue? They climbed that? Did anyone make it to the top without stepping off the bike? If that was raced again in cycling, Styby ftw running up the climb.

Yup, they actually did climb that, insane as it sounds.

Here's Klaus Ulrich Huhn, sports chief at Neues Deutschland, 1/3rd of the organisatorial team for the Friedensfahrt, from die Geschichte der Friedensfahrt (translation mine):

"As the teams arrived in Harrachov at the end of the eighth stage and before nightfall took a look at the time trial the next day, hearts froze, and a debate with the race director ensued. For the sake of creating an attraction, the Czechs had paved the path from the outlet of the giant ski flying hill to the takeoff, and so created a climb averaging 16% and with the main body of the climb at 28%! The iconic Steile Wand von Meerane, at 340m averaging 11%, was a molehill by comparison! Of the 119 riders still in the race at this point, just 41 were able to finish without having to dismount. The East German team had decided after detailed study of the course that they would change wheels at the foot of the slope. This would take time, but would be offset on the climb by the extra grip. Five of the six DDR riders were in the top 12, and laid the foundation for victory in the team classification."

Uwe Ampler won the stage in 33'00, with Zenon Jaskula 22 seconds down, and Vladimir Poulnikov, just 21 at the time, 3rd at 36". The following day Ampler doubled up on a difficult mountainous stage from Harrachov to Karpacz with an MTF.

 

[icefire]

20 posts and no real clue other than the start place and lots of wishful thinking. Guillén is getting really good at hiding secrets nobody wants to know. Or maybe they're just late after having fired Olano.

 

[Asturiano]

Vegarada:

21% here

On this climb there is a place harder than this (25%).

You can watch here the whole thing but there is almost no road in some places (by Montero):
http://www.39x28altimetrias.com/vegaradaasturias.html

 

[Red Rick]

Vegarada:

21% here

On this climb there is a place harder than this (25%).

You can watch here the whole thing but there is almost no road in some places (by Montero):
http://www.39x28altimetrias.com/vegaradaasturias.html

That thing is really rumoured?

 

[l.Harm]

Aren't Holland actually building a man made uphill finish?

I thought that was why the Vuelta will start there in 2015.

Has nothing to do with Vuelta 2015 AFAIK

 

[fraserhughes]

That thing is really rumoured?

I hope not, this is a bit too far: