Vuelta a España 2017 Rumours

[ice&fire]

Re:

IRAM would be the worst option to go, but hey, it's the Vuelta, which means it's likely the option they're going for

The best placed rider in Calar Alto and IRAM will get a jersey for being the King of the Telescopes

 

[Valv.Piti]

Igor Antón to win on Calar Alto 2006-style! I was convinced he was gonna win at least one Vuelta at that point.
Thats the only thing you can possibly blame the almighty Zomegnan off: breaking poor Antón, Giau, Fedaia and Gardeccia was too much for the man in the pouring rain, the 3rd day in the high mountains in a row, 230 km. I miss them both

 

[TromleTromle]

IRAM would indeed be an anticlimax... with the current route rumors I would rather have SN out...

 

[ice&fire]

Cumbre del Sol confirmed on Sunday 27th of August. That would be stage 9.
http://teuladamorairadigital.es/not/7299/la-vuelta-2017-volvera-a-transcurrir-por-calpe-benissa-teulada-moraira-y-el-poble-nou-de-benitatxell

 

[ice&fire]

La Pandera is confirmed. I don't know if this means that one of the rumoured Southern climbs (Calar Alto and Sierra Nevada) will be dropped from the final route.

http://www.europapress.es/andalucia/mas-jaen-00988/noticia-vuelta-volvera-jaen-2017-fin-etapa-pandera-inicio-otra-alcala-20161213151656.html

 

[staubsauger]

Maybe they'll do a three in a row like in 2009. Another option would be to make the Pico Veleta a mountain time trial until the final parking area. That'd potentially mean a similar pattern to the Reiterjoch, Dolomites Stars, Kronplatz combo at the 2008 Giro!

 

[TromleTromle]

Re:

La Pandera is confirmed. I don't know if this means that one of the rumoured Southern climbs (Calar Alto and Sierra Nevada) will be dropped from the final route.

http://www.europapress.es/andalucia/mas-jaen-00988/noticia-vuelta-volvera-jaen-2017-fin-etapa-pandera-inicio-otra-alcala-20161213151656.html

Which approach? Northern dual climb or southern softish?

 

[TromleTromle]

Re:

Maybe they'll do a three in a row like in 2009. Another option would be to make the Pico Veleta a mountain time trial until the final parking area. That'd potentially mean a similar pattern to the Reiterjoch, Dolomites Stars, Kronplatz combo at the 2008 Giro!

That was also unhuman! Only giro could do that. But then again we had ancares, covadonga, cuitu negro in 2012!

 

[Valv.Piti]

The two times they have done that you are referring to it has panned out pretty meh, especially in La Vuelta, but those stages in that Giro were also below par IMO considering their profiles. But man it smells like 2009 Vuelta, then you also have Xorret de Cati + some randoms muritos.
By the way, winners on La Pandera? Heras 2002, Valverde 2003, Kash 2006, Cunego 2009. Not bad...

Ofc, then you also have the 2011 Giro...

 

[ice&fire]

I can't still figure out the second week. There's Cumbres del Sol on stage 9, Sunday. We know there is a stage finish in Caravaca de la Cruz that could be stage 10. A stage from somewhere close to Caravaca de la Cruz to Calar Alto is within typical Vuelta stage lengths, but having the first rest day either before or after stage 10 we would get Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada and La Pandera from Wednesday to Friday. An alternative option would be a transfer during the first rest day from Caravaca de la Cruz to the centre of Andalucía for the known finish in Antequera and another stage before the three MTFs in the weekend, West to East. Then, they'd take another long transfer to the North for the final week.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

The two times they have done that you are referring to it has panned out pretty meh, especially in La Vuelta, but those stages in that Giro were also below par IMO considering their profiles. But man it smells like 2009 Vuelta, then you also have Xorret de Cati + some randoms muritos.
By the way, winners on La Pandera? Heras 2002, Valverde 2003, Kash 2006, Cunego 2009. Not bad...

Ofc, then you also have the 2011 Giro...

Yeah, those Giro stages had Sella, but other than that they weren't exactly great (I have to admit that Menchov was impressive on Alpe di Pampeago, but gc wise it wasn't a great stage).
La Pandera sounds great, I'd love to see it once again.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

The two times they have done that you are referring to it has panned out pretty meh, especially in La Vuelta, but those stages in that Giro were also below par IMO considering their profiles. But man it smells like 2009 Vuelta, then you also have Xorret de Cati + some randoms muritos.
By the way, winners on La Pandera? Heras 2002, Valverde 2003, Kash 2006, Cunego 2009. Not bad...

Ofc, then you also have the 2011 Giro...

Yeah, those Giro stages had Sella, but other than that they weren't exactly great (I have to admit that Menchov was impressive on Alpe di Pampeago, but gc wise it wasn't a great stage).
La Pandera sounds great, I'd love to see it once again.

Pellizotti also tried something on the way to Pampeago. But yeah, those stages were ridden very conservatively. It's there where Ricco lost his Giro d' Italia by failing to attack properly. Not in the tt's, not when Piepoli crashed. When he finally moved from far out it was just a little too late. Sella of course was super impressive although!

Maybe Unipublic puts in one flat stage for the “sprinters“ between. Although that potentially wouldn't change that much.

 

[ice&fire]

The stage to La Pandera will ride through the muro de Valdepeñas.
http://ciclismo.as.com/ciclismo/2016/12/13/vuelta_espana/1481650110_220969.html?id_externo_rsoc=comp_tw

AS hints at Sierra Nevada the day after La Pandera, but with no Veleta. There's also a mention of a MTF in Andorra (stage 3) not yet disclosed.

 

[staubsauger]

Without the Veleta a Sierra Nevada stage is kinda useless. My excuses to Bert Dietz and David Moncoutie, but that's the way it is!

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Without the Veleta a Sierra Nevada stage is kinda useless. My excuses to Bert Dietz and David Moncoutie, but that's the way it is!

If they go to Sierra Nevada via Haza Llana + Sabinas it's far from useless

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

Without the Veleta a Sierra Nevada stage is kinda useless. My excuses to Bert Dietz and David Moncoutie, but that's the way it is!

If they go to Sierra Nevada via Haza Llana + Sabinas it's far from useless

Maybe they gonna do just that and finish at IRAM! :idea:

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

The two times they have done that you are referring to it has panned out pretty meh, especially in La Vuelta, but those stages in that Giro were also below par IMO considering their profiles. But man it smells like 2009 Vuelta, then you also have Xorret de Cati + some randoms muritos.
By the way, winners on La Pandera? Heras 2002, Valverde 2003, Kash 2006, Cunego 2009. Not bad...

Ofc, then you also have the 2011 Giro...

Yeah, those Giro stages had Sella, but other than that they weren't exactly great (I have to admit that Menchov was impressive on Alpe di Pampeago, but gc wise it wasn't a great stage).
La Pandera sounds great, I'd love to see it once again.

Pellizotti also tried something on the way to Pampeago. But yeah, those stages were ridden very conservatively. It's there where Ricco lost his Giro d' Italia by failing to attack properly. Not in the tt's, not when Piepoli crashed. When he finally moved from far out it was just a little too late. Sella of course was super impressive although!

Maybe Unipublic puts in one flat stage for the “sprinters“ between. Although that potentially wouldn't change that much.

I have to agree with you, Contador was rather bad on Alpe di Pampeago and when he was dropped at the Giau it was the perfect opportunity to take him out of contention, but in the end it was just a bunch of Italian gc contenders looking and yelling at eachother, they blew it.
Back to the Vuelta, La Pandera with muro de Valdepeñas sounds nice and Haza Llana + Sabinas on the next day would be great, even without a finish at IRAM.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Contador was pretty bad on both stages, but he managed his losses as a vet and multiple GT-winner. He played it perfectly considering what he had in the tank. If not Sella had lost that time...

 

[ice&fire]

I just found the profile of la Pandera South. Valdepeñas is just 1km from the river crossing that marks the start of the climb.

 

[ice&fire]

There will be a stage departure from Villadiego. The peloton will stay in Burgos the night before.

http://www.marca.com/ciclismo/vuelta-espana/2016/12/14/5851621a268e3ee8158b45d0.html

 

[ice&fire]

More rumours. although this is a bit puzzling. Hellín will host a stage departure:
http://www.latribunadealbacete.es/Noticia/ZF7C7CB49-E90A-A542-C0BFA44DA06B1238/Hellin-en-la-Vuelta-Ciclista

With stage 7 (Friday) to finish in Cuenca, and stage 9 (Sunday) in Cumbre del Sol there are two options.
Hellin is 220km from Cuenca and that makes for a long transfer. A pan flat stage from Cuenca to anywhere in Albacete is unlikely on a Saturday. And Hellín - Cumbre del Sol would be more than 200km without the loop we saw in 2015.
However after the finish at Cuenca they might go to spend the night at Albacete. The transfer would be 160km in the evening and 60km in the morning before the stage departure. The rumoured but not yet confirmed Xorret de Catí is 120km from Hellín.

 

[TromleTromle]

Re:

I just found the profile of la Pandera South. Valdepeñas is just 1km from the river crossing that marks the start of the climb.

Sure it i the right one? Ranera seems to be much steeper than the climb here:

 

[Kyllingen86]

I am puzzled about these many MTF's.

Several articles (probably with the same original sources) stated that most likely there would "only" be 8 MTF's.


Currently we have Andorra, Cumbre del Sol, (Xorret Cati), La Pandera, (Calar Alto), (Sierra Nevada/IRAM/Pico Veleta), Antequera, Los Machucos, Toribio (the other murito in Cantabria), Angliru... Did I forget any?


I thought maybe Andorra would have that slight downhill at the end (if they climbed it from the Envalira-side and before the news with La Pandera that would have meant exactly 8. Now I am just really confused.

Can anyone btw tell me why La Pandera is so hyped? Is it the history? Looking at just the profile, sure it is a tough mountain but by no means compatible with so many of the other climbs in both Vuelta and Giro - I guess even in the TDF occassionally there are tougher mountains than La Pandera (joking).

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Sure it i the right one? Ranera seems to be much steeper than the climb here:

There are only 4 kms from the river crossing to the summit. Cyclingcols profile makes it look like that distance is 5kms.

 

[TromleTromle]

Re: Re:

Sure it i the right one? Ranera seems to be much steeper than the climb here:

There are only 4 kms from the river crossing to the summit. Cyclingcols profile makes it look like that distance is 5kms.

Aaah - and less steep as well! Gracias!

But it is promissing! Unless they want to do the north side - and do the short through the narrow sterrato access way and cutting out Viejo!

Then we just need 30-35 celsius!