Vuelta 2015 rumours

[icefire]

Twice Cresta del Gallo

 

[Dr. Juice]

Only 2 real mountain stages. Last 3 stages are a joke. Never again I'll get my hopes up.

 

[Descender]

They ****ed up the profile of the penultimate stage.

Quick analysis:

+ Two proper mountain stages:

BTW if La Gallina is Cat. ESP, so is Cobertoria E.

+ A couple of decent descent finishes, and after the big mountain stages at that (OMG WTF ZOMG!!!1!)

Plus the following, penultimate stage: http://www.biciciclismo.com/comun/n...icial-su-recorrido-todos-los-perfiles-021.jpg.

All three stages are consecutive. Weird.

+ A decent ITT. Short, not enough, but I'd feared worse.


- Lack of proper hilly stages. The Castellon and Murcia stages get my blood boiling... they ****ed up potentially interesting stages on purpose, since they're afraid the big guys will try it out there. **** that.

- Loads, loads of essentially ______________/ stages. But we knew that already.

- 7,4km TTT. WTF? Pointless.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

The race course including maps and profiles is already in the web:

http://www.lavuelta.com/15pr/es/recorrido/vuelta.html?e=1

[...]

Thanks. Almost tailor-made for Froome, like I thought.

 

[roundabout]

Cumbre del Sol looks steep. Is this the talked about steep side?

Escudo, ok. Didn't rally expect it.

Finally, a flat TT again.

WTF, Paramera?

What's the profile of stage 20?

 

[Descender]

Cumbre del Sol looks steep. Is this the talked about steep side?

Escudo, ok. Didn't rally expect it.

Finally, a flat TT again.

WTF, Paramera?

What's the profile of stage 20?

Three descent finishes in a row, at the end of the Vuelta. What.

 

[roundabout]

Ah, ok. Seems about as expected given the description.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So Piedratecha is cat.3 but La Comella and Cordal N are cat.2 and Quesera is cat.1?!

Also, if they're going from Luarca to Tineo, why not Ambasvías (12km @ 3,2%) then the legitimately cat.1 Alto de Bustellán, over 13km at over 7%? That's a proper early test, and doesn't add distance to the stage or involve much re-routing at all.

I mean, it's not just the things in my ESP climbs thread that Unipublic are annoying. There are dozens of cat.1 climbs around to discover as well.

 

[Descender]

So Piedratecha is cat.3 but La Comella and Cordal N are cat.2 and Quesera is cat.1?!

Also, if they're going from Luarca to Tineo, why not Ambasvías (12km @ 3,2%) then the legitimately cat.1 Alto de Bustellán, over 13km at over 7%? That's a proper early test, and doesn't add distance to the stage or involve much re-routing at all.

I mean, it's not just the things in my ESP climbs thread that Unipublic are annoying. There are dozens of cat.1 climbs around to discover as well.

Cobertoria E being the same category as La Quesera is absolutely absurd.

 

[Dr. Juice]

Okay the profile on stage 20 is wrong. We get a nice stage.

Overall...it's okay but not great. Better than last year or 2012.

5,5/10 pts

 

[Asturiano]

Aristébano: 15 km - 3'5 % (max 6 %) - IMH it's a 2nd cat.

Alto de Forcalllado 4'3 km - 6'2 % - IMH it's a 3rd cat.

Alto de Piedratecha (Tineo): 9'2 km - 5'5 % - IMH it's a 2nd cat

Alto de la Cabruñana: 4 km - 7'8 % - IMH it's a 3rd cat

Alto de Tenebredo: 3'4 km - 10'5 % - IMH it's a 2nd cat

Alto del Cordal: 13 km - 5 % - IMH it's a 2nd cat

Alto de la Cobertoria: 10 km - 8'76 % (with 5'4 km over 11'33 %) - IMH it's a ESP

Alto de Alba: 6'65 km - 11'2 % (with 5 km over 10 %) - IMH it's a ESP

More that 70 kms of climbs y more than 4500 metres of total percentage.