It wasn't even the hardest climb on the stage it was in though
and it was only the 3rd hardest climb of the race
steepest climb does not equal hardest climb
It wasn't even the hardest climb on the stage it was in though
2nd straight year with French stages? Go straight to the Alps Maritimes after stage 1? Similar path to this years first week, hopefully they don’t butcher it incredibly like this year.
They can easily enter either Catalonia or Andorra on stage 4 even with stage 2 also starting in Monaco and short (by Vuelta standards) transfers after stages 2 and 3. Finish someplace like Mont Faron on stage 2 and you have your race start sorted from both a logistical and a sporting perspective.Wonder if they simply follow the coast or if they put themselves in a weird position of having to make a long transfer again. With the race reportedly finishing on the Canary Islands you'd assume they'd want to avoid an unnecessarily long transfer early on in the race.
I personally fancy a finish on Mont St. Claire.They can easily enter either Catalonia or Andorra on stage 4 even with stage 2 also starting in Monaco and short (by Vuelta standards) transfers after stages 2 and 3. Finish someplace like Mont Faron on stage 2 and you have your race start sorted from both a logistical and a sporting perspective.
For the hosting cities/regions, Vuelta stages are cheaper that Tour stages. For Unipublic, French cities/regions pay better than Spanish ones. It's a win-win situation!2nd straight year with French stages? Go straight to the Alps Maritimes after stage 1? Similar path to this years first week, hopefully they don’t butcher it incredibly like this year.
View: https://x.com/cirogazzetta/status/1964053202757894233No Teide finish is probably related to restrictions to finish inside the National Park area. As an alternative, they can try at the Observatory, which is outside the National Park and still above 2300m. In any case, I'm not a big fan of those superlong and shallow climbs.
On the other hand... this is one of the most Guillén-style climbs in Tenerife and the area (Masca valley) is overfeatured in Instagram and overcrowded.
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Guillén can resist everything except temptation
Izaña via Alto de Los Loros is perfectly fine. At the first Mirador you can turn right instead of left and descend into Santa Cruz.No Teide finish is probably related to restrictions to finish inside the National Park area. As an alternative, they can try at the Observatory, which is outside the National Park and still above 2300m. In any case, I'm not a big fan of those superlong and shallow climbs.
With the WT calendar already confirmed for next year, presumably only if the UCI acquiesce, and I don't think the UCI will want to devaluate the WT if they can avoid it. And with the heightened importance of UCI points in recent years, it's a far more problematic step for the race organisers (who ultimately are caught in the crossfire here) than it was during the spat around 2008.Would it be possible for all Spanish races to withdraw from the WT?
At this point, I am not convinced there are 21 stages worth of potentially interested towns/regions that have no problem with hosting a race that features IPT. Even among those that do not support a ban on IPT, I doubt there will be many who are interesting in paying to host a very obvious target for protests.That's Canary's out of the Vuelta then.