The Vuelta trades the heat for normal temperatures, the high mountains for the medium ones, and one of Superman López' favourite parts of Spain for the one he hates most.
It's another uphill start for the riders, sadly they become less common from here on out. Alto de Fonfría is long and mostly gradual, but irregular enough to hide some steeper sections.
After the climb, the riders more or less double back on themselves to follow the Miño valley, which forms the border between Galicia and Portugal, towards the coast. This makes for a long flat intermezzo, before things get a lot harder in the final two-fifths of the stage. All of this should be familiar terrain for the peloton: the triptych of climbs they will tackle were the first three KOMs of the day on the equally baffling and spectacular final mountain stage of the 2021 Vuelta. First up is the easiest of the three, Alto de Vilachán.
Things go up a notch after that on Alto de Mabia, with some pretty testing lower slopes.
The final KOM is Alto de Mougás, where the peloton exploded in 2021.
The road used as a descent ends right in the middle of Baiona, but right on the edge of town the route veers west. Now I can imagine why Unipublic don't want a descent lasting until past the flamme rouge, but a 10k detour is just too much and dampens the hopes of GC action. The one benefit of the additional loop is that the small climb up to Cabo Silleiro is taken in. It's the final 1.2k of the profile below.
The final kilometres are flat and follow the coast, placing racing below the desires of both the local tourist association and Adam Hansen in this instance.
It's another uphill start for the riders, sadly they become less common from here on out. Alto de Fonfría is long and mostly gradual, but irregular enough to hide some steeper sections.
After the climb, the riders more or less double back on themselves to follow the Miño valley, which forms the border between Galicia and Portugal, towards the coast. This makes for a long flat intermezzo, before things get a lot harder in the final two-fifths of the stage. All of this should be familiar terrain for the peloton: the triptych of climbs they will tackle were the first three KOMs of the day on the equally baffling and spectacular final mountain stage of the 2021 Vuelta. First up is the easiest of the three, Alto de Vilachán.
Things go up a notch after that on Alto de Mabia, with some pretty testing lower slopes.
The final KOM is Alto de Mougás, where the peloton exploded in 2021.
The road used as a descent ends right in the middle of Baiona, but right on the edge of town the route veers west. Now I can imagine why Unipublic don't want a descent lasting until past the flamme rouge, but a 10k detour is just too much and dampens the hopes of GC action. The one benefit of the additional loop is that the small climb up to Cabo Silleiro is taken in. It's the final 1.2k of the profile below.
The final kilometres are flat and follow the coast, placing racing below the desires of both the local tourist association and Adam Hansen in this instance.
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