Vuelta a España 2017 Rumours

[ice&fire]

AS web site features today an article including a video of the climb to Los Machucos

http://ciclismo.as.com/ciclismo/2016/10/06/vuelta_espana/1475787562_457770.html

They mention the possibility of having that stage on the last Friday of the race; which means either they don't know yet if the final mountain stage will be Angliru or Veleta or they just want to trick the Cantabrian authorities about how decisive the stage will be.

 

[ice&fire]

Antequera will host a stage finish:

http://www.europapress.es/andalucia/malaga-00356/noticia-antequera-coin-acogeran-final-salida-etapas-vuelta-espana-2017-20161013172228.html

This confirms they'll go to Andalucia.

 

[Olanogiro]

A first idea of the general route:

-1º: Nimes CRE

-2º: Nimes-Perpignan

-3º: Perpignan-Catalunya. (por ejemplo: Perpignan-Girona de media montaña)

-4º:-Catalunya-Catalunya (por ejemplo: Girona-costa Tarragona)

-5º: Catalunya-Aragón. (por ejemplo: LLeida-Zaragoza o LLeida-Jaca)

-6º: Aragón-La Rioja.

7º: La Rioja-Cantabria

8º: Etapa de Los Machuchos si no hace en la anterior (que se podría perfectamente)

9º: Asturias

10º: Angliru


RELAX

11ª: León-Medina del Campo

12ª: Medina del Campo-La Covatilla

13ª: CRI zona Salamanca

14ª: Béjar-Ávila (murallas)

15ª: Ávila-Sierra de Madrid

DESCANSO y traslado en AVE



16ª: Córdoba-Sevilla

17ª: Sevilla-Peñas Blancas

18ª: Eetepona-Antequera

19ª Antequera-Granada/Jaén.

20ª IRAM

21ª: Madrid

 

[ice&fire]

This link especulates with a route having stages in Andalucia in the 2nd week and the Northern mountains in the 3rd week.

http://www.malagahoy.es/article/deportes/2389188/antequera/y/coin/hitos.html

The truth is that apart from the departure in Nimes, the finish in Madrid we only know the finishes in Los Machucos and Antequera and the bid from Angliru. So as we're still clueless about the Vuelta we can keep bashing the Giro route for a while

 

[Red Rick]

Thing with the Angliru is that with the Angliru stage design doesn't matter, and that they've managed to avoid it for a few years. I wouldn't mind it, and if it would mean they they do a little better in the quality/quantity department of MTF's and murito's, then I'm all for it.

 

[ice&fire]

http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/deportes/vuelta-2017-llega-catalunya-5606052

The 4th stage will be hosted in Catalunya, probably around Tarragona. This suggests the race will go through Valencia to the South, maybe to Andalucía before a transfer to the North in the last week. It is not yet known which way they'll follow to cross the Pyrenees.

 

[ice&fire]

Angliru is confirmed:
http://www.lne.es/cuencas/2016/11/17/vuelta-espana-anuncia-regreso-mitica/2014600.html

The fill article is only available for subscribers. We'll have to wait to know if this will be in the second or the third week of the race.

 

[jens_attacks]

Angliru is not confirmes. Only the mayor of riosa said it..

 

[TromleTromle]

From altimetrias...
...Maggie Cort to win 3-4 "flat" stages in 2017..

This is to over-murito....

1. Nimes - Nimes (C.R.E.)
2. Nimes - Le Cap d'Agde
3. Narbona - Girona
4. Lloret de Mar - Salou
5. Tortosa - Más de la Costa
6. Segorbe - Xativa
7. Ontinyent - Cumbre del Sol
8. Denia - Xorret del Cati
9. Petrer - Caravaca de la Cruz
DESCANSO
10. Águilas - Calar Alto
11. Desierto de Tabernas - Veleta
12. Sierra Nevada - Antequera
13. Coin - Córdoba
14. Pozoblanco - Guadalupe
15. Navalmoral de la Mata - Avila
DESCANSO
16. Madrigal de las Altas Torres - Benavente
17. La Bañeza - Alto de l'Angliru
18. Pola de Lena - Sotres
19. Santo Toribio de Liebana - Los Machucos
20. Santander - Santander (C.R.I.)
21. Alcobendas - Madrid

 

[Red Rick]

Antequera and los Machucos profiles?

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Antequera and los Machucos profiles?

I guess this one is Antequera:

and Los Machucos:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Gigs has posted the same profiles I did so I'm taking them down, however there are two sides to Machucos, the other side looks like this:

My assumption would be they'll use the side Gigs posted, but then they climbed the easy side of the Garita de Herbeira in the 2016 Vuelta... and the Bustablado side has those ramps of 25%...

 

[Gigs_98]

All in all, I think this looks like another horrible route. The one posted a few weeks ago would have been way better. Still I wish they would make a route like in 2015 with a relatively easy last week again. That worked so well, I don't understand why they directly went back to make a mtf festival again.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also, the route rumours as brought together by the APM guys has nine MTFs (not out of the ordinary for the Vuelta of course) yet still has a flat stage on a Sunday, and now we're waiting all the way until stage 20 for an ITT. Has "prologue" become a dirty word or something? The last time the Vuelta didn't start with a TTT was 2009. That was the last time also that there were 3 ITTs and the last time, in fact, that there were TWO ITTs longer than 10km. It's interesting though, 2008 was the last Vuelta MTT so that's long overdue as well.

The Antequera stage is not confirmed as an MTF but I'd be surprised if it isn't simply because the first thing I saw when I saw there was a finish in Antequera was that the Torcal is steep and has plenty of space for a finish. Great to see Cálar Alto back though, at least now that I've got my Race Design Thread post about it out of the way so I'm not hopping onto the Vuelta's bandwagon to do it

Worse, there's no "easy" mountain stage to tempt the chaos like we've seen in the previous "all out mountains" editions of the race.

Jitu at least isn't wasted where it is, because fear of the steep part won't be able to tame racing on the Angliru in the way that, say, the fear of La Pandera and Sierra Nevada froze racing on Velefique in 2009; Angliru is so steep there will be time gaps anyway.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Wait, are they actually finishing on Xorret del Cati?

Seems the Vuelta goes back to that same format over and over again, TTT, bunch of muritos and and stage 20 (or very late) ITT due to its 'success'. Apart from those crazy roads they find, their routes don't seem overly imaginary.

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Wait, are they actually finishing on Xorret del Cati?

Seems the Vuelta goes back to that same format over and over again, TTT, bunch of muritos and and stage 20 (or very late) ITT due to its 'success'. Apart from those crazy roads they find, their routes don't seem overly imaginary.

The only confirmed finishes are Nimes for the opening TTT, Los Machucos, Angliru, Antequera and Madrid. Then there is another finish somewhere in Catalunya. Anything else is unfounded rumour.

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Gigs has posted the same profiles I did so I'm taking them down, however there are two sides to Machucos, the other side looks like this:

My assumption would be they'll use the side Gigs posted, but then they climbed the easy side of the Garita de Herbeira in the 2016 Vuelta... and the Bustablado side has those ramps of 25%...

Earlier in the thread I posted this:
http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/deportes/ciclismo/vuelta-espana/201609/16/machucos-final-para-vuelta-20160914221250.html

If they get to los Machucos from Alisas, they will do the Bustablado side.

 

[yaco]

Seems like each GT will have a TT on the last weekend - Reckon TT's work better on stage 19, which gives GC riders one last chance to take back time - Stage 20 of the Vuelta was an epic day, as was stage 20 of the Giro. Makes for good viewing on a weekend.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Seems like each GT will have a TT on the last weekend - Reckon TT's work better on stage 19, which gives GC riders one last chance to take back time - Stage 20 of the Vuelta was an epic day, as was stage 20 of the Giro. Makes for good viewing on a weekend.

Agree with this, altho a ITT certainly can be very entertaining, but a well ridden mountain stage is obviously better.

 

[Poursuivant]

How long is the TT rumoured to be?

 

[Red Rick]

I really don't believe this route

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Machucos from Callao Espina looks like Lagos 2.0

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Machucos from Callao Espina looks like Lagos 2.0

Machucos from Bustablado is preceded by Alisas (Cat 2) with just 2kms of flat and they pass close to a small village called... Arredondo! You cannot dislike it

 

[ice&fire]

Cantabria will host a second stage after Los Machucos, including the legendary Ozalba, la Hoz and finish at the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana.

http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/deportes/ciclismo/201611/19/vuelta-2017-tendra-etapas-20161118230556.html

Yep, another murito finish

Gesink and Mollema won stages here in the Circuito Montañés.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So did Niels Albert!

I can't actually be mad about that AS LONG AS the stage goes after the Machucos one and there is at least one rest day, transitional or easy stage before the next big GC day. I really like the climb to Santo Toribio de Liébana, and after those smaller climbs it could be a great stage coming after the Machucos one - if the route direction suggested by the APM guys fits it could be one of the last road stages of the race with the climbers having few remaining opportunities...