bassano said:
I think it Is very nice route, good amount of ITT, no TTT, nice and enough long mountain stages (except ****** Andora one).
Only how was just mentioned, I am missing really challenging stage, all are medicore with decent amount of climbed meters. And final ramp in stage 7 looks very nice and long enough.
There is a TTT.
This is still a bad route, but it has some positives. The Andorra stage is being criticized, but it's probably the best mountain stage of the route. No flat kms and all three climbs are hard, with the second-to-last climb (Gallina) being the hardest. There's also a rest day right after that stage. Plus, there's 4km of flat "sterrato" on the last climb, between Engolasters and Els Cortals.
There's a welcome increase in "real" multi-climb mountain stages, though the Madrid mountain stage is underwhelming. 2015 was a lucky break, and this stage is even easier. But still, we've got Andorra + El Acebo + La Cubilla + Navacerrada, four up-and-down mountain stages with several hard climbs. When was the last time we had that in a Vuelta route?
I like the 20th stage to Gredos not so much because of the stage but because of the decision to draw that kind of stage as the last one. The stage itself could and should have been harder, but we could very well see action on Peña Negra, which is nice.
Also, I think people are overestimating the number of sprint stages.
Many of those supposedly "flat" stages are deceptively challenging for sprinters.
The Javalambre stage is not strictly _______________/
The Bilbao stage is a nice hilly stage, and the one after that to Los Machucos is even better.