Vuelta a España Vuelta 2026 route rumours

[houtdffan]

Surely, it's still officially called 'La Vuelta Ciclista a España, but that just gets shortened to "La Vuelta" or even "The Vuelta" because people are lazy.

On asos page, its just la vuelta now

 

[Sciatic]

They go in China, they also did in Utah and Pro Cycling challenge (or whatever it was called).
It's just that Europe doesn't have many paved roads that high.

True, tour of Utah did twice in it's history (2014 and 18), and perhaps that climb in Turkey they raced recently. But the riders/teams in those races was not what i mean by the "modern" pro peloton in which powerful teams/riders have baulked at rainy descents, chances of snow in passes, and complained vigorously about including Montmartre in Stage 21 of the last Tour de France. Im quite sure they would protest climbing to 3,200 meters as "unsafe."

 

[Sciatic]

On asos page, its just la vuelta now

For context, the TDF has been "Le Tour" as long as I can remember, both in anglophone and french publications. I don't know why you would think that's somehow minimizing or controversial. That just how language often works.

 

[ice&fire]

True, tour of Utah did twice in it's history (2014 and 18), and perhaps that climb in Turkey they raced recently. But the riders/teams in those races was not what i mean by the "modern" pro peloton in which powerful teams/riders have baulked at rainy descents, chances of snow in passes, and complained vigorously about including Montmartre in Stage 21 of the last Tour de France. Im quite sure they would protest climbing to 3,200 meters as "unsafe."

That's what South American football teams complain about when Bolivia beats them in their home stadium at 3600m.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

They go in China, they also did in Utah and Pro Cycling challenge (or whatever it was called).
It's just that Europe doesn't have many paved roads that high.

The Alps are huge but also steep with big vertical relief (up to 3-3,5 km). Their base is low and at 3000 m there are few plateaus, mostly steep terrain. Thats why they are so dramatic, beautiful but also roads dont rise super high. Completely different from US Rockies with base at 2000 m (or from way more gentle Sierra Nevada in Spain where 3000+ is possible)

 

[OlavEH]

I fear they would use a +3000m MTF to justify an otherwise poorly designed route.......

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Im quite sure they would protest climbing to 3,200 meters as "unsafe."

Posted without comment.

 

[OlavEH]

To summarize, some of the GC stages rumoured are:

All Andorran mountain stage
Alto de Aitana
Mountains south of Albacete, perhaps Monte Ardal
Something in the south, but not Sierra Nevada. Perhaps

 

[houtdffan]

Posted without comment.

Thats a nice remco friendly diesel climb

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The Alps are huge but also steep with big vertical relief (up to 3-3,5 km). Their base is low and at 3000 m there are few plateaus, mostly steep terrain. Thats why they are so dramatic, beautiful but also roads dont rise super high. Completely different from US Rockies with base at 2000 m (or from way more gentle Sierra Nevada in Spain where 3000+ is possible)

That and the fact that nobody‘s managed to put a road on a glacier yet and the snow line is just lower in the Alps than in the Rockies or Sierra Nevada because of latitude.

 

[ice&fire]

Peñas Blancas MTF on the last Friday:

Estepona acogerá uno de los finales de etapa más decisivos de la Vuelta Ciclista a España 2026

Será el 11 de septiembre y tendrá como punto de llegada el Refugio de Peñas Blancas

ayuntamiento.estepona.es

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Thats a nice remco friendly diesel climb

False flat basically. Aero Remco would murder Pogi on his wheel.

 

[MeganT]

Here it's said this new Granada climb will star the penultimate stage:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1995032297402237353

View: https://x.com/jorge_matesanz/status/1995032297402237353?t=Ck_i3UxNUzlwqMP0npJ09g&s=19

 

[Red Rick]

Forum homies have been waiting for Alguacil for years. It's really good for a MTF.

15. Collado del Alguacil (Andalucía)
The Sierra Nevada's hidden treasure

The Sierra Nevada range of mountains, down in Andalucía, have historically featured very heavily in the Vuelta. But despite how commonly used they are, Unipublic are still making "discoveries" in the region. The traditional ascent of the climb, such as that seen in 2010, while very long (over 20km), is seeing its wide open, beautifully tarmacked roads at 5% becoming too easy for the modern péloton unless set up with some killer predecessors. In 2009, they elected to climb to Sierra Nevada via a new side, actually a new pair of sides - they first climbed the Alto de Monachíl (aka El Purche, or the Collado del Muerto), which had been in and of itself the final climb of the day in 2006, then shortly after that joined the main Sierra Nevada road, elected to take a second, steeper route via Collado de las Sabinas. The result? In 2013, the riders tackled the Alto de Hazallanas, basically climbing to El Dornajo, which is the point where the two roads from Granada (the main one that linked to El Purche, and the one from Güéjar Sierra) meet, and the two roads up to Pradollano diverge from one another. This year, they have discovered another short, steep climb to the south called Cumbres Verdes.

Sound confusing? Here, thanks to the PRC guys, is a map of the routes to the summit, colour-coded. Route 1 is the traditional Sierra Nevada route. Route 2 is the sector from El Dornajo to Pradollano, which is steeper, and was used in 2009. Route 3 is El Purche (so in 2009 they climbed section 3, part of section 1 then section 2). Route 4 is El Dornajo via Hotel Duque; route 5 is the steeper version of the same route, El Dornajo via Haza Llana, as seen in the 2013 Vuelta.

Starting from Pinos Genil, Collado del Alguacil is 17,2km @ 6,6%. This would be a worthy ESP climb in many circumstances anyway, but the fact that this climb features some descent and has a brutal second half measuring 8,5km @ 9,8% (the final 7,8km measures 10% on the button) throws us down the gauntlet on this one. In theory, you could cut it in half and only do that steep bit, but that would leave us with a descent of those scary Haza Llana slopes, which I can't honestly say I would recommend. The first half of the climb is shared with the climb to El Dornajo that we saw in the 2013 edition of La Vuelta, so a positive is that we do still get to see the stunning sights at the Embalse de Canales, which comes early on the route, as the road snakes alongside it. At this point the roads are still wide, pretty and in perfect condition as we head into the picture perfect mountain town of Güéjar Sierra. We arrive there after 7km of climbing, most of which has been very manageable; only one kilometre at 7,7% has been what you'd call serious climbing; only 3 ramps of 10% or more, and a kilometre of flat has broken up the climbing. There's even a downhill ramp & some more flat and rolling terrain as we head through the town.

But then, things get nasty. The road suddenly ramps up to a violent 20%, literally almost immediately after leaving the main road (which becomes the El Dornajo road). And while it cannot sustain such a brutal gradient for long, it signifies a violent end to the ceasefire; no more will the gradient flatten out, and the riders can wave goodbye once and for all to anything other than punishing climbing for the last 8,5km of suffering. Because of the similarly steep final stretches, PRC compares this to the legendary Col du Granon, though if anything the final stretch of Alguacil is very slightly steeper (Granon is longer and slightly tougher overall, however). Other popular comparisons for this brutal closing stretch are Passo Giau from Caprile, and - though the climb is much shorter and Alguacil only has half the false flat sections - the legendary Italian side of the Colle Agnello.

For a while, the road is narrow, but it isn't long before things widen out again, and the conditions improve until we are on pristine mountain tarmac again.

Though the first 3km of this part of the ascent average just under 9%, they do ramp up to 16%, which ensures riders will have a bit of suffering in their legs before we start seeing steep switchbacks and the average gradients get into the double figures. With 5km remaining, we are thrown into a kilometre averaging 10,7%, and it's almost all at this steepness - very consistent and only once getting up as high as 14%. The next two kilometres average 9,9%, but they throw in a bit more inconsistency and ramps that can be used as the platform for attacking, getting up to 14% three times and also once as far as 16%. The steepest of all is kept for the final two kilometres; these average 10,7% and we also find, in our penultimate kilometre, the toughest slopes of this part of the climb, getting up as far as 18%, which not only illustrates the comparative relentlessness of the climb, but also is likely to hurt far more when it's considered that there is likely to be the factor of heat to take into the equation in southern Spain at the time of year they'll be there, and also that much of this climb is along the southern ridge of the mountains, so very exposed to the sun.

(once more, I have plundered the resources of APM's Martín Cerván for several photos here, since he has several phenomenal galleries of Andalucían climbs)

While there is no ski station, cable car or anything at the summit of the Collado del Alguacil to house the trappings of the race, there is a nice plateau that offers a lot of wide open dusty-surfaced space where the tarmac runs out that can be used to hold the race. After all, though there aren't buildings or platforms here, there is more than there is at Ancares or Cuitu Negru, both of which have been able to hold La Vuelta. And it's not like the few dwellings at El Dornajo paid for the stage last year either - Güéjar Sierra did. And as long as Güéjar Sierra wants to pay for La Vuelta, Collado del Alguacil should be a possibility.

Including it is pretty easy. Even if Javier Guillén does not want a stage that spends 200km looping up and around various climbs in the exact same area around Granada and the Sierra Nevada, so restricts what we can do, there are still options. The Collado del Alguacil has long been a popular climb with traceurs such as myself (although it does not appear in any of my three Vueltas published on this site to date, nor in the fourth iteration I scrapped. My fifth Vuelta is undecided on the subject), owing to its extreme difficulty in the closing stages and the ease with which it can be connected to other great climbs.

This is the 2013 Vuelta stage to El Dornajo; bear in mind you could easily descend El Dornajo and put Collado del Alguacil on the end of that; or just straight up replace Dornajo with Alguacil. By far the most popular option is to include the climb of Collado de las Sabinas, i.e. route 5 (El Dornajo por Haza Llana) and route 2 (Collado de las Sabinas por El Dornajo) from that map above, then descent the traditional route of Sierra Nevada back to Pinos Genil. This enables options such as Sabinas/Pradollano - Granada - El Purche - Alguacil, or, more commonly, seeing Sabinas transition directly to Alguacil, placing that brutal Sierra Nevada climb of 23km @ 6,4% topping 40km from the finish and descending right into the base of Alguacil. For the truly sadistic traceurs (that's me, if you're wondering) there is El Purche - Sabinas - Alguacil. Mirador del Cabra Montés is often used when coming from the south, because it's a bit closer, but for a longer stage or if not going the super brutal route, Haza del Lino from earlier in this thread could work as well if they start somewhere like Adra or Motril, which would give you an ESP opening climb, a cat.1 to El Purche, an ESP in Sabinas and another ESP to finish on Alguacil - arguably the hardest stage the Vuelta would ever have put out.

 

[hayneplane]

Posted without comment.

Just imagine riding that as an individual time trial. Only Jonas would finish within 10 minutes of Pogacar. Without drafting and no descents to recover you would have sprinters and their domestiques finishing 90 minutes behind.

 

[vappaxbipmv]

Just imagine riding that as an individual time trial. Only Jonas would finish within 10 minutes of Pogacar. Without drafting and no descents to recover you would have sprinters and their domestiques finishing 90 minutes behind.

I wouldn't be surprised if Remco would do really well here, it's still shallow enough that aero matters a lot. Especially on a TT bike

 

[houtdffan]

Just imagine riding that as an individual time trial. Only Jonas would finish within 10 minutes of Pogacar. Without drafting and no descents to recover you would have sprinters and their domestiques finishing 90 minutes behind.

There are very long and flat Remco sections. First 27km for instance. From km 46.5 to 62.5, and again in the final 8.5km

That's nearly half the course tailor made for Remco

 

[ice&fire]

Here it's said this new Granada climb will star the penultimate stage:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1995032297402237353

View: https://x.com/jorge_matesanz/status/1995032297402237353?t=Ck_i3UxNUzlwqMP0npJ09g&s=19

That dude is just speaking out his wishes. Everyone can have his/her own wishes and post them on the web.

 

[hayneplane]

I wouldn't be surprised if Remco would do really well here, it's still shallow enough that aero matters a lot. Especially on a TT bike

Can you really sustain an aero TT position on a TT bike for 2 and a half hours+

I do agree that the gradients suit Remco and it wouldn’t shock me if he was close enough if it could be done on a TT bike.

 

[houtdffan]

Can you really sustain an aero TT position on a TT bike for 2 and a half hours+

I do agree that the gradients suit Remco and it wouldn’t shock me if he was close enough if it could be done on a TT bike.

that 21km at 6.6% section would need a road bike.

Remco likely would do 2 bike changes on that course

 

[Red Rick]

Can you really sustain an aero TT position on a TT bike for 2 and a half hours+

I do agree that the gradients suit Remco and it wouldn’t shock me if he was close enough if it could be done on a TT bike.

Adds a new skill element surely.

Realistically, I think if we're gonna think of that climb as a gigantic MTT then we're so far out of anything we normally it gets stupid to predict, apart from Pogacar winning because Pogacar.

 

[Cookster15]

Then of course there is the fact that Colombian climb starts near sea level but finishes at over 4,000 metres (13,500 feet)! I think that is outside even Pogacar's known limits. The mind boggles. Might be many DNFs.

Anyway, its fun to hypothesize. Back to the 2026 Vuelta route ....