icefire said:
This is another of the stages whose parcourse has changed wrt to the one presented in December last year.
Stage 3 had removed one pass over Puerto del León and added some extra kms over the highway around Málaga. Checking the old profile for stage 4 hosted by CN there is a difference in the height of the finish: the old one was at 910 m, the new one is at 985 m. The roadbook is confusing about the lenght of the different sections in the final km but it does mention gradients above 20%. If that's too much for Gilbert to repeat today's win, Rodríguez is the man.
That's right. Other changes are:
1.- The TTT, 3,5km shorter.
2.- Malaga, as mentioned.
3.- Valdepeñas, the new uphill steep final.
4.- In Alcoy, they added the Puerto del Revolcat, heading directly from Benifallim to the finishline. In the old one, they made a flat loop than now is gone (thank god). Also, they added another uphill finish here.
5.- In Toledo, they extended the lenght to 230Km without any need. The Vuelta always talking about shorter stages (that i don't like) but they make this flat stage way to long god knows why.