Vuelta a España 2016 Rumours

[ice&fire]

The official web site has the 2016 route profiles
http://www.lavuelta.com/la-vuelta/2016/us/overall-route.html

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Cav will be thrilled

There are 6 sprint stages. How many chances does he need to win at least one?

 

[Arredondo]

Boring route. I agree mostly with Libe, but not concerning finish on Aubisque. It's a climb the Tour has hardly used the past years, and it's a good hard climb in general.

So i like stage 13, 14 and the ITT. Mirador de Ezaro is good as a finish, and the idea of tackling some unknown climbs is also good. But apart from that, no

 

[Carols]

I don't think it's to bad at all. Plenty of opportunities before the final week to take time. There are some pretty nice stages mid race IMO. The final week is a bit lame but stages 15, 17, 19 and 20 can make a difference. There are really only 2 ____________/ stages that I see. Anyway as always, it is up to the riders to make the race and I hope they will!

 

[Breh]

Re: Re:

Cav will be thrilled

There are 6 sprint stages. How many chances does he need to win at least one?

It has as much uphill finishes as last years Vuelta and he wasnt too pleased with that iirc.

Think we'll see like 3 real sprint finishes. I don't mind.

 

[yaco]

Last week is similar to the Vuelta in 2015 and that made for exciting racing. It doesn't matter how EXCITING a race appears on paper it comes down to how the riders race.

I count 5 pure sprint stages.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

Absolutely fricking abysmal. Cycling is just so pathetic in 2016.

There is still hope, that Gomes will debut Alto de São Macário in July and I like Rio and Pais Vasco. But yes, I get your point. It is getting worse year by year.

 

[Vesica]

Oh come on, don't only blame the stages. It's the riders which make the competition as well.

 

[roundabout]

Alisas and Fito only 1st category passes in Spain.

lol

Cycling is dead, long live the wall-bike.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Last week is similar to the Vuelta in 2015 and that made for exciting racing. It doesn't matter how EXCITING a race appears on paper it comes down to how the riders race.

I count 5 pure sprint stages.

What? WHAT?
Only because there is an ITT you don't see a difference between the last week 2015 and the last week 2016? To remind you in 2015 we had:
ITT --> medium mountain stage with downhill finish --> medium mountain stage with the avila finish --> very hard last mountain stage with downhill finish --> flat parade
2016 we have:
Extremely steep mtf with no interesting climbs before --> boring flat stage --> ITT --> ESP mtf with no serious climbs before

Lets say we would have the gc situation from 2015 again in 2016. On stage 17 Aru probably would gain more time on Dumoulin after a boring attack on the last 3 km's. On stage 18 nothing would happen. On stage 19 Dumoulin probably wouldnt be able to get the jersey back from Aru because of stage 17. And even if Dumoulin would have the leaders jersey again, instead of the great stage 20 we actually saw, we would simply see an attack by aru somewhere on the final climb and Aru would win. Ofc its possible that it would be completely different but at least I hardly see a way in which the final week would be as dramatic as it was.

 

[Gigs_98]

Alisas and Fito only 1st category passes in Spain.

lol

Cycling is dead, long live the wall-bike.

And both climbs wouldnt even be 1st category climbs in the other gt's

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Ey? There are more cat.1 climbs in Spain than that.

La Camperona is cat.1 and so is Peña Cabarga. Both are debatable because of steeper slopes, but the Tour de France has given cat.1 status to Côte de Chevrères and Planche des Belles Filles, La Camperona is harder than both and Peña Cabarga is comparable to the latter (I think cat.2). Verbier was also cat.1 in 2009 and so Mirador del Fito isn't so preposterous to call cat.1, but I would have thought cat.2 is fairer. Formigal has also been given cat.1, which I'm not sure about. And a 120km stage, yeuch. Mas de la Costa has been given cat.1 because it's a finish, but if that's cat.1 and Ézaro is cat.3, what the hell is a cat.2? Mende is cat.2 in the Tour.

Soudet should probably be ESP. I would argue that Aitana could debatably be cat.1 or ESP depending on how generous you're feeling, and given its pivotal position as the penultimate day MTF it gets the ESP status. Hopefully we get a better stage than we did in 2009, when it was t he first real mountain stage, and everybody stayed together until the last kilometre when Damiano Cunego chased down David Moncoutié's solo break.

 

[Descender]

Good route. Lots of variation with some stages finishing uphill, others after a descent, two ITTs, 4-5 tough high mountain stages and plenty of chances to attack from afar. 9/10.

 

[jsem94]

Stages 12-15 really good. The rest is abysmal.

 

[Carols]

Good route. Lots of variation with some stages finishing uphill, others after a descent, two ITTs, 4-5 tough high mountain stages and plenty of chances to attack from afar. 9/10.

Thanks at least someone else thinks it is a nice route! I'd give it a 7.5 or 8.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Good route. Lots of variation with some stages finishing uphill, others after a descent, two ITTs, 4-5 tough high mountain stages and plenty of chances to attack from afar. 9/10.

Thanks at least someone else thinks it is a nice route! I'd give it a 7.5 or 8.

I think Descender's post is clear sarcasm - there aren't 4-5 tough high mountain stages, there's only one ITT, there are very few stages you could categorize as actually finishing after a descent (Bilbao and Urdax the only ones, really) and attacks more than 20km from the line are unlikely in all but about three stages.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Last week is similar to the Vuelta in 2015 and that made for exciting racing. It doesn't matter how EXCITING a race appears on paper it comes down to how the riders race.

I count 5 pure sprint stages.

What? WHAT?
Only because there is an ITT you don't see a difference between the last week 2015 and the last week 2016? To remind you in 2015 we had:
ITT --> medium mountain stage with downhill finish --> medium mountain stage with the avila finish --> very hard last mountain stage with downhill finish --> flat parade
2016 we have:
Extremely steep mtf with no interesting climbs before --> boring flat stage --> ITT --> ESP mtf with no serious climbs before

Lets say we would have the gc situation from 2015 again in 2016. On stage 17 Aru probably would gain more time on Dumoulin after a boring attack on the last 3 km's. On stage 18 nothing would happen. On stage 19 Dumoulin probably wouldnt be able to get the jersey back from Aru because of stage 17. And even if Dumoulin would have the leaders jersey again, instead of the great stage 20 we actually saw, we would simply see an attack by aru somewhere on the final climb and Aru would win. Ofc its possible that it would be completely different but at least I hardly see a way in which the final week would be as dramatic as it was.

Selective memory ! I clearly remember discussion in 2015 centred around that GC would be decided by the end of week 2, because week 3 was comparatively easy - As we saw this was far from the case - Week 3 in 2016 on paper seems similar to 2015 -As I posted earlier, it's the riders who make the course.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Ey? There are more cat.1 climbs in Spain than that.

La Camperona is cat.1 and so is Peña Cabarga. Both are debatable because of steeper slopes, but the Tour de France has given cat.1 status to Côte de Chevrères and Planche des Belles Filles, La Camperona is harder than both and Peña Cabarga is comparable to the latter (I think cat.2). Verbier was also cat.1 in 2009 and so Mirador del Fito isn't so preposterous to call cat.1, but I would have thought cat.2 is fairer. Formigal has also been given cat.1, which I'm not sure about. And a 120km stage, yeuch. Mas de la Costa has been given cat.1 because it's a finish, but if that's cat.1 and Ézaro is cat.3, what the hell is a cat.2? Mende is cat.2 in the Tour.

Soudet should probably be ESP. I would argue that Aitana could debatably be cat.1 or ESP depending on how generous you're feeling, and given its pivotal position as the penultimate day MTF it gets the ESP status. Hopefully we get a better stage than we did in 2009, when it was t he first real mountain stage, and everybody stayed together until the last kilometre when Damiano Cunego chased down David Moncoutié's solo break.

We (Or at least I) only meant passes, so 1st category climbs with a descent. And all the hard passes in stage 14 are in France which means the only 1st category climbs are indeed Alisas and Fito, which both probably aren't even 1st category climbs and are too far away from the finish to cause any action.

 

[Carols]

Good route. Lots of variation with some stages finishing uphill, others after a descent, two ITTs, 4-5 tough high mountain stages and plenty of chances to attack from afar. 9/10.

Thanks at least someone else thinks it is a nice route! I'd give it a 7.5 or 8.

I think Descender's post is clear sarcasm - there aren't 4-5 tough high mountain stages, there's only one ITT, there are very few stages you could categorize as actually finishing after a descent (Bilbao and Urdax the only ones, really) and attacks more than 20km from the line are unlikely in all but about three stages.

LOL I should have read it instead of skimming and going wow. Duh on me

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Way to many MT/uphill finishes. Too bad, but there are some interesting stages along the way as well.

Gave it a 6 route-wise.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Last week is similar to the Vuelta in 2015 and that made for exciting racing. It doesn't matter how EXCITING a race appears on paper it comes down to how the riders race.

I count 5 pure sprint stages.

What? WHAT?
Only because there is an ITT you don't see a difference between the last week 2015 and the last week 2016? To remind you in 2015 we had:
ITT --> medium mountain stage with downhill finish --> medium mountain stage with the avila finish --> very hard last mountain stage with downhill finish --> flat parade
2016 we have:
Extremely steep mtf with no interesting climbs before --> boring flat stage --> ITT --> ESP mtf with no serious climbs before

Lets say we would have the gc situation from 2015 again in 2016. On stage 17 Aru probably would gain more time on Dumoulin after a boring attack on the last 3 km's. On stage 18 nothing would happen. On stage 19 Dumoulin probably wouldnt be able to get the jersey back from Aru because of stage 17. And even if Dumoulin would have the leaders jersey again, instead of the great stage 20 we actually saw, we would simply see an attack by aru somewhere on the final climb and Aru would win. Ofc its possible that it would be completely different but at least I hardly see a way in which the final week would be as dramatic as it was.

Selective memory ! I clearly remember discussion in 2015 centred around that GC would be decided by the end of week 2, because week 3 was comparatively easy - As we saw this was far from the case - Week 3 in 2016 on paper seems similar to 2015 -As I posted earlier, it's the riders who make the course.

But this last week looks easy in a different kind of way. When we discussed about 2015 we said that if the stages are ridden hard the last week will be great, which was the case. 2016, even if the race is ridden hard, that would still mean that there will only be attacks on the last climb, which is in every case a mtf, which makes long range attacks and really good stages far less likely. Moreover I don't like the fact that the ITT comes on stage 19. I think stage 17 like last year is clearly better.

 

[Red Rick]

The Vuelta route comes out and as usual Descender comes in for the kill. I agree this time, the route is absymal. I'd hoped most of the craziness had passed after 2012 and 2013. In 2014 it wasn't as bad and last year there were actually some nice ideas. But this year they just go back to the HTF without purpose.

 

[hfer07]

Not to convenced, impressed, excited about La Vuelta's parcours....... Is it perhaps the ASO influence starting to appear wide open?

anyways, it looks like La Vuelta is seeking for a Rouleur with greater TT skills to win it- perhaps Dumoulin, Uran* Porte, Kwait*- heck - even G if he gets the go. Nibbs can well bag the Giro-Vuelta combo if he gets it right.

 

[May0maniac]

Not to convenced, impressed, excited about La Vuelta's parcours....... Is it perhaps the ASO influence starting to appear wide open?

anyways, it looks like La Vuelta is seeking for a Rouleur with greater TT skills to win it- perhaps Dumoulin, Uran* Porte, Kwait*- heck - even G if he gets the go. Nibbs can well bag the Giro-Vuelta combo if he gets it right.

Nope, it's just a pretty bad uphill finish fest, nothing that you wouldn't have expected after 2012 and 2013.
I'm not really happy with the gt routes of 2016, both the Tour and the Giro could be much better with a few minor changes and the Vuelta looks pretty bad.

 

[Brullnux]

Not good. Not good at all. Peña Cabarga is a terrible stage, so is stage 17, and Stage 8 is downright abysmal.

Stage 13 is the only stage I like. Mirador would nice as an outlier, a single puncheur finish that is super steep in a whole GT, to test the riders in different way. When you have 4/5, then it's just bad. The Queen Stage is completely in France. If I want a Queen Stage in France, then I watch the Tour. It's the Vuelta a España. While I don't mind if it goes out of Spain, I want it to be an excursion into Andorra or Portugal. Not a country that annually hosts the biggest cycling race in the world. And if it has to be France, then at least make it:
a) a very good (part of a) stage
a2) if it is part of a stage, then make it short, like Stage 13. That's a very nice use.
b) Not your blinking queen stage!

It resembles a harder version of this year's Plateau de Beille stage. A few climbs that will do little more than put kilometres into the legs of the riders, then a MTF that will decide the race. Too may MTFs for the rest. Naranco could be good if they actually put some of the good climbs nearby in. Bilbao is for Matthews.