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Vuelta a España 2021 route rumours

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Pico Villuercas confirmed, but no info on which side they'll climb.
Some rumours dare to say first from the N, then from the SE after a loop around Guadalupe.

North side:
picovilluercas65.gif


Southeast side:
Villuercas.gif
 
And after Villuercas, the race will go from Navalmoral de la Mata to El Barraco.
So these are the two stages on the weekend before the second rest day.

The link mentions the climbs of Pedro Bernardo and Mijares.

PedroBernardoSW.gif


MijaresS.gif


There's also the small climb to San Juan de la Nava with around 5km to go.

20190228050247-sanjuandelanavaperfil.png


Missing in the article is La Centenera, still waiting to be used in a pro race

CenteneraW.gif


...and this short nasty climb they had in 2019 after Serranillos
altodeaguilonesporbarriodeelmoriscoperfil.jpg


If they skip these two, I'm afraid this will be underwhelming. Blame on Carlos Sastre!!!

Meanwhile, Pereiro bets on riders not being nice to his mother after they complete the stage he's proposed.

 
I didn't even think about Sastre living in El Barraco because he was born in Comunidad de Madrid! El Barraco is the Spanish Palù di Giovo.

I designed a route around El Barraco a few years ago using said climbs. The design was to be a one-day mountain classic in honour of José María Jiménez.

TE5JRL2.png


Within the town you can take a small uphill ramp to the finish - 900m at 5,3%, but with a couple of steeper ramps. This profile from 39x28 is of the climb out of the Gaznata valley, so the opposite side of the climb. We can do it so that we climb San Juan de la Nava (top climb in ice&fire's post) then have just under 4km downhill, then the final kilometre of this.

perfil%20el%20barraco.gif


As for the Pereiro stage, with 200km between Sanxenxo and Mos, here are a few climbs that could fit on the route:

CotoRedondo2.gif

(almost certain, as in the middle of the terrain between the two)

aloiasf10.gif

(as far as San Fins - to the south of Mos, close to the Portuguese border)

a-fracha-marcc3b3n.png

(definitely on the route between the cities if they want to use it, as far as the junction at 5,1km)

sancosme01.gif

(very close to O Porriño, could be climbed either in whole or in part)

Altimetr%C3%ADa_A_Groba.PNG

(a few different sides to this, was climbed in the 2013 Vuelta)

Here's a stage that serves as a preview for one of my unpublished Vueltas in the Race Design Thread, which uses a bunch of these climbs in sequence:
6XhqwjW.png


And a PRC one:
pontevedra-baiona-ok.png


I think a feasible finale here would be to go over Monte Aloia via San Fins, then either descend into Gondomar, then follow the PRC course to the Universidade de Vigo, or descend via A Granxa toward O Porriño, then climb San Cosme, short flat, then the final steep kick up to the Universidade and a descent direct into the finish as you can see from my stage from the summit of the Universidade to the other side of O Porriño and a couple of kilometres false flat uphill into Mos.
 
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Pico Villuercas confirmed, but no info on which side they'll climb.
Some rumours dare to say first from the N, then from the SE after a loop around Guadalupe.

North side:
picovilluercas65.gif


Southeast side:
Villuercas.gif
Whoa that north-side climb would sure fit for La Vuelta—it’s a murito, but a murito inside an average mountain pass climb :)
 
Right, Óscar, here you go. Gauntlet laid down.

nEInYa6.png


That's the Coto Retondo profile above for the first 5,5km (last 3,5km at 10%)
Monte da Fracha for 5km @ 7,8% (inc 2km at 13%)
Uncategorised repecho from Soutomaior
O Areeiro / O Campiño for 5,9km @ 5,7%
Uncategorised repecho to the airport before a long gradual downhill into Vigo
Monte da Groba for 11,4km @ 5,5%, descending to the Atlantic at Mougás
Monte da Valga for another 5km @ 7,8%
Uncategorised climb into Villachán do Monte
Monte Aloia via San Fins, as far as the 8,5km mark on the profile above (6km @ 7,6% with the last 3km averaging 10,7%, then a short descent, then 1,7km @ 8,4%), cresting 31km from home)
Alto de San Cosme as per profile above (5,4km @ 6,8% with last 2km @ 11,2%) 12km from the line, then a short descent and then a final uncategorised ramp of 1km at 9% shortly after that, and then a descent almost all the way to the line, with a short ramp of about 250m at 7% inside the final kilometre and the finish at the Pavillón Óscar Pereiro.
 
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Haha, this comment was really predictable!

Do you honestly think it's necessary or should be a fairly large amount of ITT in every GT? All three of them? Each year?

We are getting to a point where it's the opposite happening. A negligible amount of time trial in every single Grand Tour, year after year. And I will not even talk about the trend towards hilly time trials when it's a middle/long distance one. There should be a 50km pan flat time trial from time to time in a grand tour.
 
We are getting to a point where it's the opposite happening. A negligible amount of time trial in every single Grand Tour, year after year. And I will not even talk about the trend towards hilly time trials when it's a middle/long distance one. There should be a 50km pan flat time trial from time to time in a grand tour.

If there was 100 km ITT, bavarianrider would stil complain that it wasn't 130 as in the golden days where Indurain had won the Tours before they began.
 
Haha, this comment was really predictable!

Do you honestly think it's necessary or should be a fairly large amount of ITT in every GT? All three of them? Each year?

There hasn`t been a decent amount of TTs in ANY GTs for years now.
When was the last time we even had a 40km+ TT?
GTs should crown the best allrounders and they should be hard and tough.
Everyone rembers the MTT to the Ventoux in 1988, the Morzine TT of 1994, St. Emmilion 1996, St Etienne 1997, Cap Decouvertes 2003 to mention just a few.. Nobody rembers some whack ass 30 minute TT.
 
There hasn`t been a decent amount of TTs in ANY GTs for years now.
When was the last time we even had a 40km+ TT?
GTs should crown the best allrounders and they should be hard and tough.
Everyone rembers the MTT to the Ventoux in 1988, the Morzine TT of 1994, St. Emmilion 1996, St Etienne 1997, Cap Decouvertes 2003 to mention just a few.. Nobody rembers some whack ass 30 minute TT.
The Vuelta 2010 and 2011 had a >45km long ITT. Since then, only in 2018 the ITT winning time was below 46 minutes.

BTW: those who remember the 1988 Ventoux MTT should check their faulty memory. :p
 
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We are getting to a point where it's the opposite happening. A negligible amount of time trial in every single Grand Tour, year after year. And I will not even talk about the trend towards hilly time trials when it's a middle/long distance one. There should be a 50km pan flat time trial from time to time in a grand tour.
I think there should be more variation between the GTs. After Unipublic's "success" with a bunch of murito MTFs, especially the Tour has done something of the same. The extra section on Belles Filles. Col de Portet, Col de la Loze, etc.

I would like more variaton between the GTs.

Vuelta: Shorter and aggressive stages, muritos, a small amount of ITT
Giro: As much variation as possble. Long medium mountain stages, murito stages, mono climb mountain stages and longer monster mountain stages, etc. And here I'm fine with both a smaller amount of ITT (30-40km) and a larger amount (70-80 km). That really depends on the rest of the stages and the start list.
Tour: Here I'm fine with a larger amount of ITT, 70-80 km, not 100++. Should be balanced with several longer and tough mountain stages.
 
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My dream in the Tour would be if they took a couple of years and surfaced the Parpaillon as well as sorting out the tunnel at the top, it could make for some dream stages (Bonnette + Parpaillon for a finish in Embrun etc)

E.g. simple example:
unknown.png
 
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There hasn`t been a decent amount of TTs in ANY GTs for years now.
When was the last time we even had a 40km+ TT?
GTs should crown the best allrounders and they should be hard and tough.
Everyone rembers the MTT to the Ventoux in 1988, the Morzine TT of 1994, St. Emmilion 1996, St Etienne 1997, Cap Decouvertes 2003 to mention just a few.. Nobody rembers some whack ass 30 minute TT.
Well, I woudn't complain if they added some more ITT kms, but as already mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I don't think it is a necessity. And especially not in the Vuelta or Giro.

You complain so much on this issue specifically, that one should think that a large amount of ITT is absolutely necessary to create and entertaining and exciting GT. That is definitely not the case. I'm really glad the route design in Grand Tours in general don't only creates opportunities for riders like Dumoulin, Thomas, Roglic, etc. to win.
 
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...so, what does this mean for the women? They still have a 3-day race corresponding to the final 3 days of the Vuelta on the calendar, but obviously the format they've been running can't work on the course provided for the Vuelta. I can't see them putting the women into an ITT on the same course as the men on the final day (34km ITT in a three day race, just before the Worlds? Seems unlikely), but the Mos stage does offer potential as the women could easily do a modified version of that stage, starting in Redondela or O Porriño most likely, possibly even doing the same stage as the men but starting in O Porriño to make it 115-120km with 5 climbs, since with the Giro downgraded and Itzulia cancelled the WWT has even less climbing than usual this season.
 
Well, I woudn't complain if they added some more ITT kms, but as already mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I don't think it is a necessity. And especially not in the Vuelta or Giro.

You complain so much on this issue specifically, that one should think that a large amount of ITT is absolutely necessary to create and entertaining and exciting GT. That is definitely not the case. I'm really glad the route design in Grand Tours in general don't only creates opportunities for riders like Dumoulin, Thomas, Roglic, etc. to win.
Just like the 2007 Tour route only created opportunities for riders like Evans and Leipheimer?

And an amount of ITT km comparable to the 2008 Tour would make it impossible for a climber to win?

The last GT with a long ITT (Giro '15) also really suffered from it, right?
 

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