Vuelta a España 2016 Rumours

[Gigs_98]

Covadonga in the first week is okay.
Is it possible that stage 20 goes to Bola del Mundo? Not that I hope it, but we haven't seen it since 2012, and its near to Madrid. The last week starts at the east coast, and Bola del Mundo is on the west side of Madrid, but in the east of Madrid there are no mountains so it wouldnt really surprise me if this climb is part of the route

 

[jens_attacks]

i hope covadonga will be an itt, there were rumours about it.

 

[DFA123]

Covadonga in the first week is okay.
Is it possible that stage 20 goes to Bola del Mundo? Not that I hope it, but we haven't seen it since 2012, and its near to Madrid. The last week starts at the east coast, and Bola del Mundo is on the west side of Madrid, but in the east of Madrid there are no mountains so it wouldnt really surprise me if this climb is part of the route

It could be going further south after the ITT in Valencia. Maybe they will go back to Calar Alto + Velefique - or something in the Sierra Nevada for the last big mountain stage.

 

[Valv.Piti]

A very good thing about this Vuelta is it isnt backloaded. Only Quintana, Froome and maybe a couple of others can allow themselves to be around 70-80% at the start if they realistically have a chance of winning. La Camperona, Ezaro and especially Covadonga are hard climbs with extremely high gradients

 

[staubsauger]

Covadonga in the first week is okay.
Is it possible that stage 20 goes to Bola del Mundo? Not that I hope it, but we haven't seen it since 2012, and its near to Madrid. The last week starts at the east coast, and Bola del Mundo is on the west side of Madrid, but in the east of Madrid there are no mountains so it wouldnt really surprise me if this climb is part of the route

It could be going further south after the ITT in Valencia. Maybe they will go back to Calar Alto + Velefique - or something in the Sierra Nevada for the last big mountain stage.

Apparently Pico Veleta was newly paved just recently. It ain't gonna be realistic. But one may dream.

 

[ice&fire]

This page adds a stage finish in Puebla de Sanabria to what we know.

http://www.ciclo21.com/la-vuelta-de-2016-cada-vez-menos-secreta/

That should be stage 6 or 7. I guess it will be similar to the 5th stage of the 2013 Vuelta, neglecting the nearby Alto del Peñón.

 

[ice&fire]

I don't know what to make of this:
http://www.laregion.es/articulo/deporte-local/tercera-etapa-saldra-maceda/20151201080128585254.html

Four stages will depart from or arrive to a place in the province of Ourense. After having confirmed the towns hosting the finish of stages 3, 4 and 5, I guess this means there will be one more stage in Galicia then would follow the stages to Sanabria and La Camperona. With six stages in such a close area, they could rearrange their order in any imaginable way.

Then Unipublic goes on to making some noise about 2017 and the Canary Islands while we are still wondering about the mountain stages at the end of the 2nd and 3rd weeks.

Sat 20/8, Stage 1: Laias - Castrelo do Miño TTT
Sun 21/8, Stage 2: Ourense - Pontevedra? (Flat - Downhill finish)
Mon 22/8, Stage 3: Marín - Ézaro (Murito finish)
Tue 23/8, Stage 4: Betanzos - San Andres de Teixido (Cat 2 MTF?)
Wed 24/8, Stage 5: ? - Lugo (Flat finish)
Thu 25/8, Stage 6: Lugo??? - Luintra?
Fri 26/8, Stage 7: Maceda? - Puebla de Sanabria
Sat 27/8, Stage 8: ??? - La Camperona (Cat 1 MTF)
Sun 28/8, Stage 9: Cistierna - Alto del Naranco (Cat 2 MTF)
Mon 29/8, Stage 10: Oviedo? - Lagos de Covadonga? (Cat 1 MTF)
Tue 30/8, Rest day
Wed 31/8, Stage 11: Cantabria???
Thu 1/9, Stage 12: Basque Country???
Fri 2/9, Stage 13: ??? - Urdax
Sat 3/9, Stage 14: Mountain stage in Navarre or France???
Sun 4/9, Stage 15: Mountain stage in Huesca???
Mon 5/9, Stage 16: Alcañiz? - ???
Tue 6/9, Rest day
Wed 7/9, Stage 17: Xabia - Calp (ITT)
Thu 8/9, Stage 18: ???
Fri 9/9, Stage 19: ???
Sat 10/9, Stage 20: Big mountain stage only Unipublic knows where ???
Sun 11/9, Stage 21: Final parade in Madrid

 

[ice&fire]

The opening TTT will be 28kms long
http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/vuelta-2016-la-crono-inicial-sera-de-28-kilometros-01-12-2015

 

[Libertine Seguros]

There is no way they give Lagos de Covadonga cat.1. That's an ESP MTF in any Vuelta. The legacy of the climb is such that it will stay that way even if there are a dozen harder climbs in the race (there won't be, but there feasibly could be in the Vuelta; La Marta, Angliru, Fumanyà-Pradell, Coll de Pal, Mont Caró, Calar Alto from Tijola, Calar Alto from Gergál, Haza Llanas, Sierra Nevada via Haza Llanas, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas and La Bobia could feasibly be put in the same route).

Naranco should come after Cruz de Linares, Campo Dosango and La Manzaneda OR La Colledoria, La Degollada and El Violeo.

 

[Velolover2]

How long/hilly is the ITT going to be?

 

[ice&fire]

There is no way they give Lagos de Covadonga cat.1. That's an ESP MTF in any Vuelta. The legacy of the climb is such that it will stay that way even if there are a dozen harder climbs in the race (there won't be, but there feasibly could be in the Vuelta; La Marta, Angliru, Fumanyà-Pradell, Coll de Pal, Mont Caró, Calar Alto from Tijola, Calar Alto from Gergál, Haza Llanas, Sierra Nevada via Haza Llanas, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas and La Bobia could feasibly be put in the same route).

Naranco should come after Cruz de Linares, Campo Dosango and La Manzaneda OR La Colledoria, La Degollada and El Violeo.

They will enter Asturias from Leon throught Tarna, so I guess Cruz de Linares, Dosango (or Tenbredo) won't be in the stage. We can expect maybe Colladona, Colladiella or Santo Emiliano followed by Padrún and Manzaneda.

I know Covadonga is ESP, but the legacy of the climb was spoiled more than 20 years ago by Jalabert. It was something like... can you imagine Rogers winning on Zoncolan?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

The opening TTT will be 28kms long
http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/vuelta-2016-la-crono-inicial-sera-de-28-kilometros-01-12-2015

Thats something. I dont have anything against TTT's (as a matter of fact, I kinda like them) as long as they are... long. Yes, I know, 28 isnt long, but for a opening TTT, its long. Tasty compared to a simply uphill finish, a sprint stage or as we have grown used to, a short TTT that doesnt matter one bit. And the recent one, literally not one bit.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

The opening TTT will be 28kms long
http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/vuelta-2016-la-crono-inicial-sera-de-28-kilometros-01-12-2015

Thats something. I dont have anything against TTT's (as a matter of fact, I kinda like them) as long as they are... long. Yes, I know, 28 isnt long, but for a opening TTT, its long. Tasty compared to a simply uphill finish, a sprint stage or as we have grown used to, a short TTT that doesnt matter one bit. And the recent one, literally not one bit.

Yeah. I know what you mean. Normally an opening ttt often used to be a simple show act to see all riders and teams. Like this year in a prezty heavy way. 28 kilometers is pretty long for that. But still not too long. It sounds nice on paper.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

The opening TTT will be 28kms long
http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/vuelta-2016-la-crono-inicial-sera-de-28-kilometros-01-12-2015

Thats something. I dont have anything against TTT's (as a matter of fact, I kinda like them) as long as they are... long. Yes, I know, 28 isnt long, but for a opening TTT, its long. Tasty compared to a simply uphill finish, a sprint stage or as we have grown used to, a short TTT that doesnt matter one bit. And the recent one, literally not one bit.

Yeah. I know what you mean. Normally an opening ttt often used to be a simple show act to see all riders and teams. Like this year in a prezty heavy way. 28 kilometers is pretty long for that. But still not too long. It sounds nice on paper.

I really dislike TTTs, much rather have a 28km ITT on stage 1, that will be a cool and unconventional way to start it. Then next stage a monster medium mountain stage (before two flat stages) which forces the people who did badly to attack. A TTT of 28km might be short to actually do anything (create gaps). For example, the Giro 2012 one was a waste of a stage: 33km and 31(!) seconds only separated the top 10.

 

[Kwibus]

I love the TTT as a discipline, but I just don't like it's effects on the GC.

 

[ice&fire]

Since the unveiling of the ITT in the 3rd week there have been many rumours and questions about what direction the race would take from there. Some people in cycling fora suggested the race would go to Sierra Nevada in the South, whereas some others pointed back to the North for the final show at Mont Caro or Turó de l'Home. According to this web site, they're not going far away from Alicante. Aitana. Can we get Xorret de Catí the day before as well?

http://www.arueda.com/el-alto-de-aitana-se-perfila-como-ultimo-juez-de-la-vuelta-2016/

According to that link the stage finish in San Andres de Teixido (Garita de Herbeira) has been dropped and stage 6 is still unknown.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also putting the Luintra finish in stage 4 and Lugo in stage 5 seems so nonsensical, surely the other way round makes eleventy billion times more sense, and then Maceda can be the start town of the supposed Puebla de Sanabria stage. 4 and 5 still would make little sense, but unless they're perhaps going in the Ponferrada/Bembibre direction so making stage 7 a much more difficult stage over Peñón, my best hope for stage 6 would be something around A Fonsagrada for a medium mountain stage.

 

[ice&fire]

There was an announcement a few days ago that the province of Ourense would host stage departures or finishes in four stages and the fourth one would be a departure from Maceda. Then someone must have confused the departure of the fourth stage involving a place in Ourense with the fourth stage of the race.

This link has stage 4 to San Andrés de Teixido as confirmed, but it is one month old
http://www.ciclo21.com/la-vuelta-2016-tendra-5-etapas-en-galicia/

To me it makes more sense riding around Galicia clockwise (Ourense, Pontevedra, Coruña, Lugo) and come back to the starting point to go to Sanabria as I posted here

Edit: The official twitter account of Deputacion da Coruña also confirmed Ézaro and Teixido
https://twitter.com/Depucoruna/status/661822812206833664

 

[ice&fire]

Queen stage rumour from the twitter accout of a cycling web site I never read before:

https://twitter.com/_RoadAndMud/status/672735240826331137

https://twitter.com/39x28web/status/673516270860546048

They insist their sources are trusted, but after last year prank about Trobaniello I don't know what to think of this.

 

[Wallenquist]

Rumour:

 

[ice&fire]

This confirms the more logical order of the Galician stages.

Looking at the mountain stages, our only hope for having several decent climbs is stage 14 if they go to Aubisque after Soudet and Marie Blanque (they might add Burdinkurutzeta as well).

It seems that Unipublic is afraid of riders going on holidays after the Olympics if the Vuelta is too hard and the course is starting to look like a 3 week long Tirreno-Adriatico.

 

[BeagRigh]

Consecutive ITTs on stages 18 and 19?! I'm not buying that...

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Consecutive ITTs on stages 18 and 19?! I'm not buying that...

Only one of them will be an ITT. The author just doesn't know which one. If I had to guess I'd say none of them: it'd be stage 17, just after the rest day.

There's something that makes little sense in that course. The transfer between stages 15 and 16 is much longer than the one between stages 16 and 17 over the rest day.

 

[BeagRigh]

Re: Re:

Consecutive ITTs on stages 18 and 19?! I'm not buying that...

Only one of them will be an ITT. The author just doesn't know which one. If I had to guess I'd say none of them: it'd be stage 17, just after the rest day.

There's something that makes little sense in that course. The transfer between stages 15 and 16 is much longer than the one between stages 16 and 17 over the rest day.

Thanks, makes more sense! I agree with you that the final week don't look right.

 

[ice&fire]

The full article from AS, quoted by CN, talks about 10 hill/mountain finishes.
http://ciclismo.as.com/ciclismo/2015/12/10/vuelta_espana/1449702759_949067.html

Let's see:
Stage 3: Ezaro
Stage 4: Teixido (Garita de Herbeira)
Stage 6? Luintra?
Stage 8: La Camperona
Stage 9: Naranco
Stage 10: Lagos de Covadonga
Stage 14: Aubisque/Aralar?
Stage 15? somewhere in Aragon (Formigal, Panticosa, Rapitan, Cerler?)

We still miss two, maybe both in the last week. Xorret de Catí and Aitana?