Vuelta a España 2014 Overview

[Hugo Koblet]

Where are the mountain stages?

Really, really bad route. There's gonna be a lot of extremely boring stages.

 

[Netserk]

Look on the bright side, at least there won't be much coverage.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Where are the mountain stages?

Really, really bad route. There's gonna be a lot of extremely boring stages.

Stage 16 and 20

It's a shame that they have gone easy this year when we have nearly every top GC rider taking part.

Thank you Arnout for posting.

 

[barmaher]

One saving grace is the fact that if Froome, Quintana or Contador have "good sensations", they are likely to light it up whenever possible.

It might still be a good race. But it would be lovely to have a couple more interesting stages; maybe wind etc. might be favourable to spice it up a tad.

 

[gmedina]

Hmm...I think this years vuelta might be a really close battle...I'd love to see Uran take it. With this Vuelta design, are Quintana/Froome still the men to beat?

 

[Arnout]

Too many copy+paste errors with the profiles

Climb profiles for stage 16:

(...)

Watch out for the wind in stage 8.

Thanks. The URLs for the profiles are actually very logical, so I just copy pasted them, then changed one number but that obviously didn't work out as well as I'd hoped

 

[deValtos]

Wow, just noticed the final stage is a 10km prologue/TT. I glazed over it the first time assuming it was a flat sprint stage.

If the GC works out in the organizers favour such that it ends up being a decisive stage it'll be an awesome finish along the streets of Santiago de Compostela. Then again, it might not be relevant to the podium at all.

 

[No_Balls]

Ignoring the suckfest of a route for the moment i'll try to be optimistic about it. Its not the obvious Froome-Nairo-Contador route but more of a kind were the puncheurs has a plenty to say. Meaning it could actually lure out the heavyhitters to do something legend(wait for it)dary where none expects it. A couple Fuente De's in the making?

 

[Descender]

I honestly cannot recall a worse GT route than this one.

It goes bad --> worse --> worst --> 2014 Vuelta route.

 

[Red Rick]

I honestly cannot recall a worse GT route than this one.

It goes bad --> worse --> worst --> 2014 Vuelta route.

Tour de France 2012 says hello

 

[yespatterns]

Im actually okay with the route. After a surprisingly good course design at the TDF this year, the Vuelta was going to be on the backfoot anyway. Hopefully the variety of stages and level of GC competiotion with keep things heated and interesting.

 

[Stromeon]

Forgotten how bad the route is. (ie Warning: Rant approaching)

First week is a complete mess - no geographical logic to it at all and it contains about 3 or 4 of those hilly-flat stages that are usually reserved for the breakaway, except it's the first week so it probably won't be, so we will have sort-of-reduced bunch finishes, which are imho the least interesting types of finishes. Also, the organisers, despite starting the race in Andalucia and spending a considerable amount of time there, somehow contrive to miss out the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range bar one middling climb in favour of 'meh' stages that could be easily implemented elsewhere, which in turn would actually help the route to get closer to becoming an actual Vuelta a Espana, in the literal sense.

Stages 8,9,10 and 11 are all decent, indeed I'm rather pleased that, for one stage at least, they've abandoned the 'well it worked last year so it will work every year' theory and actually included a NEW never-before-seen climb in San Miguel de Aralar! The TT could also be interesting as well, although it could do with being a bit longer.

Anyway, enough with the positive talk, as we are quickly confronted with the s****yness that is stage 12. I mean honestly...?
Moving quickly on, we have stage 13, which is typical Vuelta fare, 14 which is an expert lesson (from past masters, it has to be said) in the avoidance of descents, so again is pretty typical Vuelta fare, even up to the hellish gradients on the last climb.

Then Lagos de Covadonga is back... at least it's a nice climb...
And then in stage 16 we finally have a proper mountain stage! Not a lot to complain about here for once!

However my joy is short-lived as I start to consider the last week as a whole. Rather like the first week, in terms of going in the general direction of A to B, this is a non-sensical mess, as can be seen from the map. This might be passable, if it was for the sake of balancing the route and spacing out the mountains. But no... instead we are treated to an agglomeration of big mountain stages, followed by an insipid trio of flat/probably insignificant hilly stages. Looking at the map, surely it would be easier to have the Lagos de Covadonga stage starting from the south (ie actually somewhere remotely near where the last stage finished) and then have a flat stage along the coast before the Farrapona stage, thus balancing things out and encouraging more action from the favourites as they have an extra day to rest... obviously not, however.
Instead we have an unnecessary detour to the west coast as we pass the finishing town, without actually having decent stages to merit this oddity as for three days of GC irrelevance in what should be the climax of the race. Penultimate stage is fine, I suppose, and the last stage will in about 20% of cases be exciting and 80% a procession.

So to conclude, it's a half-arsed unbalanced waddle around about a quarter of the country with no semblance of geographical direction. Including transfers, it crosses over itself ten times, which tells a story. At least the racing can't be worse (famous last words)

 

[May0maniac]

Hmm...I think this years vuelta might be a really close battle...I'd love to see Uran take it. With this Vuelta design, are Quintana/Froome still the men to beat?

IMO Froome yes, Quintana could have some problems with the typical vuelta uphill-sprints, i thinks he's not explosive enough for those. Not that he can't accelerate, but he really shines after multiple and/or long and hard climbs when his opponents are already done

 

[hfer07]

Thanks Arnout for the preview. Is a pity to have a rather average Parcours this year when the big names minus Nibbs are riding it.

But then I think because of that limitation on more challenging stages it might force the riders to be more aggressive & take risks to make up time on one another that we could end up with the greatest GT since the 2010 Giro..

 

[Descender]

Tour de France 2012 says hello

HELLO

 

[Descender]

 

[Red Rick]

I know there were mountains, but with one team controlling you could realistically only expect attacks on 4 stages. Not to mention the parcours was so obviously favoured to the guy the ASO wanted to win

 

[ILovecycling]

I know there were mountains, but with one team controlling you could realistically only expect attacks on 4 stages. Not to mention the parcours was so obviously favoured to the guy the ASO wanted to win

dont bother.He is the biggest vuelta hater in this universe

 

[hfer07]

Tour de France 2012 says hello

As soon as ASO bought La Vuelta, it was inevitable to avoid the poorly designed parcours...

 

[Descender]

I know there were mountains, but with one team controlling you could realistically only expect attacks on 4 stages. Not to mention the parcours was so obviously favoured to the guy the ASO wanted to win

Forget about specific teams or riders. We're talking about routes.

Are you going to sit there and tell me with a straight face the 2012 TdF route was worse than the 2014 Vuelta route?

 

[Descender]

dont bother.He is the biggest vuelta hater in this universe

One way to shut me up: challenge my points with arguments and make me change my mind.

 

[Netserk]

Forget about specific teams or riders. We're talking about routes.

Are you going to sit there and tell me with a straight face the 2012 TdF route was worse than the 2014 Vuelta route?

The 2014 Vuelta route at least has one real mountain stage

 

[Descender]

Forgotten how bad the route is. (ie Warning: Rant approaching)

First week is a complete mess - no geographical logic to it at all and it contains about 3 or 4 of those hilly-flat stages that are usually reserved for the breakaway, except it's the first week so it probably won't be, so we will have sort-of-reduced bunch finishes, which are imho the least interesting types of finishes. Also, the organisers, despite starting the race in Andalucia and spending a considerable amount of time there, somehow contrive to miss out the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range bar one middling climb in favour of 'meh' stages that could be easily implemented elsewhere, which in turn would actually help the route to get closer to becoming an actual Vuelta a Espana, in the literal sense.

Stages 8,9,10 and 11 are all decent, indeed I'm rather pleased that, for one stage at least, they've abandoned the 'well it worked last year so it will work every year' theory and actually included a NEW never-before-seen climb in San Miguel de Aralar! The TT could also be interesting as well, although it could do with being a bit longer.

Anyway, enough with the positive talk, as we are quickly confronted with the s****yness that is stage 12. I mean honestly...?
Moving quickly on, we have stage 13, which is typical Vuelta fare, 14 which is an expert lesson (from past masters, it has to be said) in the avoidance of descents, so again is pretty typical Vuelta fare, even up to the hellish gradients on the last climb.

Then Lagos de Covadonga is back... at least it's a nice climb...
And then in stage 16 we finally have a proper mountain stage! Not a lot to complain about here for once!

However my joy is short-lived as I start to consider the last week as a whole. Rather like the first week, in terms of going in the general direction of A to B, this is a non-sensical mess, as can be seen from the map. This might be passable, if it was for the sake of balancing the route and spacing out the mountains. But no... instead we are treated to an agglomeration of big mountain stages, followed by an insipid trio of flat/probably insignificant hilly stages. Looking at the map, surely it would be easier to have the Lagos de Covadonga stage starting from the south (ie actually somewhere remotely near where the last stage finished) and then have a flat stage along the coast before the Farrapona stage, thus balancing things out and encouraging more action from the favourites as they have an extra day to rest... obviously not, however.
Instead we have an unnecessary detour to the west coast as we pass the finishing town, without actually having decent stages to merit this oddity as for three days of GC irrelevance in what should be the climax of the race. Penultimate stage is fine, I suppose, and the last stage will in about 20% of cases be exciting and 80% a procession.

So to conclude, it's a half-arsed unbalanced waddle around about a quarter of the country with no semblance of geographical direction. Including transfers, it crosses over itself ten times, which tells a story. At least the racing can't be worse (famous last words)

This is the stage the organisers planned for this year's Vuelta in the Granada area:

This is what they could have done with the same finish:

 

[Red Rick]

One way to shut me up: challenge my points with arguments and make me change my mind.

Yeah. At least the Vuelta is perfectly balanced. Weak mountain stages with pretty average mtf's and 2 good mountain stages balanced with a measly 40km in itt'ing is better than 4 mountain stages and 100km of tt'ing

 

[Descender]

Yeah. At least the Vuelta is perfectly balanced.

Be right back, I'm pulling my eyebrows from the back of my head.

Weak mountain stages with pretty average mtf's and 2 good mountain stages balanced with a measly 40km in itt'ing is better than 4 mountain stages and 100km of tt'ing

4 mountain stages? I already posted five (show me the Vuelta's equivalent of the Porrentruy stage), and didn't even mention the Planche des Belles Filles stage.

But I guess you're right, the Vuelta philosophy of "two and a half weeks of monumentally underwhelming ****tiness ended by a single mountain stage and a hilly approach to the sixty-seventh MTF of the race" is definitely better.