Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucía - Ruta del Sol 2022 (February 16-20)

[Devil's Elbow]

The ultimate mid-mountain race, done wrong. Not a single flat stage, and aside from El Purche just after one of the starts, no big climbs either.

Startlist

Stage 1

The combination of final climb and uncategorised ascent to the finish line is identical to the 2020 stage, won by Gonzalo Serrano.

Puerto de El Boyar:

Puerto de Algámitas:

Alto La Parrilla + finish (1.3k at 7.2%) - steepest part comes just before the line

Stage 2

This finish is unfortunately not the same as last year's, they finish at the bottom of the fortress rather than on top of it. Still a difficult one, though.

Alto del Higueral:

Puerto Sierra Cristina

Puerto Salto del Caballo

Alto de las Grajeras

Puerto del Castillo

Final climb: 3 km at 5.9% with the final 600 metres at 11.1%, the final 200 metres are on cobbles.

Stage 3

Alto del Higueral (inconveniently 3 kilometres from the eponymous climb used the day before)

Puerto del Morrón: the first 6.9k of the profile below (up to the junction to Montefrio), then another 1.5 km at 3.6% to the summit

Puerto de Tocon

Alto de Cacín: 4.0 km at 3.0% followed by the final 3.7k of the profile below

Alto de Ochíchar (this is the climb just before the intermediate sprint)

The final kilometres are rolling and, at times, very narrow and/or technical. We have 1.1 km at 3.3% ending with 700 metres to go, this is followed by a slight downhill, then finally turning right at just over 250 metres to go onto the wide final stretch, which averages 4.2%.

(stages 4 and 5 in a separate post due to image limit)

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Stage 4

Alto de el Purche (KOM at the first of the two summits):

Puerto de Blancares:

Puerto de Gorafe:

The remainder of the stage is rolling, the last bit of uphill ending at 4.8k from the line where the road turns to a gradual descent. The finish looks extremely messy once again. The downhill continues into false-flat to about a kilometre from the line, where they hit the first of three roundabouts in quick succession. They turn somewhat to the right here, then 90 degrees to the right at the second roundabout 300 metres further. The final roundabout, at 600 metres to go, will only be a 30-degree (but somewhat tight) left-hander onto a narrower road assuming they remove the traffic furniture (if not, it's a death trap). The road turns into a slight false-flat uphill right near the end (only at 1-2% though), turning a little to the left again at about 200 metres to go.

Stage 5

Puerto Fuente del Gallo + Puerto de Tíscar:

The uncategorised climb to La Iruela (the one in between the first and second intermediate sprint) is very hard. It's 2.2 km at 9.3%, but that's only half the story. With Google, I get the following numbers...

• 410 metres at 5.6% on the main road
• 560 metres at 12.5% turning into town - and even that section is irregular, based on Streetview - steepest pitch maybe at 20%?
• 280 flat metres, through the centre of the town on a narrow road with urban cobbles, then a sharp turn left onto...
• another 215 metres on cobbles at 11.6%, now narrow enough that two riders next to each other is already a tight squeeze
• another 180 metres on an equally narrow road that is no longer cobbled, at 11.0%
• the final 590 metres back on a wider road but still at 11.5%

Either way, next is the climb to Iznatoraf, the first 14.3 km of the profile below (up to the 1001 m marker):

And then finally the climb to Chiclana de Segura, the first 7.4k of the profile below:

 

[Remy55]

this route is utterly disappointing

 

[Escarabajo]

Great effort and nice summary Devil's Elbow. However I have to disagree with you. Route lacks queen stage.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Does anyone know why Israel pulled out?

 

[ice&fire]

Having the only two Cat1 KOM (El Boyar and El Purche) of the race in the first 25km of their respective stages is undeniably original.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

this route is utterly disappointing

They are bypassing so many good climbs in the second halves of stages... it's now completely reliant on racing from a long way out.

Some examples of what could have been (road surface permitting):

El Jaramillo (summit about 11 kilometres from the finish on Stage 1)

Hoya de Charilla-Collados de Frailes (summit is about 20 kilometres from the finish on stage 2)

And then Stage 5 is a travesty in general. There's a bunch of options, all of them starting after La Iruela. Even an alternative that follows most of the original route would be a major improvement, this starts with the following climb in between La Iruela and Iznatoraf...

...then takes the direct route from Iznatoraf to the start of the final climb. You can cut the distance from Iznatoraf by 11 kilometres by taking the J-6220, this adds the easy climb to Sorihuela del Guadalimar (4.6 km at 4.1%) to the route as well. This variant starts after Villanueva de Arzobispo, so it has the added bonus of replacing mostly flat with mostly hilly terrain.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Does anyone know why Israel pulled out?

I wasn't aware they had pulled out, they are on the startlist. But both Fulgsang and Woods aren't racing when they originally supposed to be.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Fuglsang, Woods, Bilbao, Madrid, Teuns, Kelderman all removed from the startlist

 

[Earns1985]

Well, in a second or third week of a grand tour, every one of these stages would be a breakaway stage.

GC wise one can say that the last km of stage 2 and perhaps also stage 5 will create small differences.

Important will be, how the first hours of racing will be ridden. If we will see the standard procedure: Weak break goes, peleton rides a slow tempo, but enough to catch them in the end, all will come down to the last kms of stage 2 and stage 5. But if strong riders and teams will also ride pretty agressive in the beginning of the stages, then things can get interesting..

 

[RedheadDane]

Does anyone know why Israel pulled out?

They what? They published their roster earlier today.

(Fuglsang got Covid, and Woods is just regular-sick)

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Oh, I see. I just read somewhere that they weren't lining up at all.

 

[janraaskalt]

Fuglsang, Woods, Bilbao, Madrid, Teuns, Kelderman all removed from the startlist

Two Spanish cities which aren't even in Andalucia removed from the startlist?

 

[SafeBet]

Fuglsang, Woods, Bilbao, Madrid, Teuns, Kelderman all removed from the startlist

Nibali too.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Two Spanish cities which aren't even in Andalucia removed from the startlist?

Pello Bilbao and Gino 'Madrid' Mader

 

[tobydawq]

Meh. Bahrain's original roster was hilarious: Landa, Bilbao, Mäder, Poels, Caruso, Teuns, Sánchez.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Meh. Bahrain's original roster was hilarious: Landa, Bilbao, Mäder, Poels, Caruso, Teuns, Sánchez.

What's even more funny is Landismo was supposed to be the leader from that squad.

I know Teuns is focusing on Opening weekend. I don't know why Bilbao and Mader aren't included

 

[RedheadDane]

Oh, I see. I just read somewhere that they weren't lining up at all.

I suppose it is possible that a whole bunch of the published roster tested positive too. But that would be *** bad luck!

 

[Samamba]

This startlist went from GT tier to shambles real fast.

Obviously still a good amount of great riders here, but 50% of the WT peloton getting sick the last month is pretty annoying. I guess better now than in a month.

 

[sir fly]

Useful percours ahead of the proper season opener ten(ish) days from today.

Though, I still remember the profile that provided early season epicness 7 years ago.

 

[Escarabajo]

It is better that they get sick now than later. With this variant is very hard for them to avoid it. So better now than later (at least for a few months).

 

[Nirvana]

Who get infected now could very well take it again in july...

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Pozzovivo will start for Intermarche Wanty

 

[Hugo Koblet]

And Woods will start after all. That's really weird.

 

[Samamba]

So is Woods sick or not lol? If he's fit he's basically the clear favorite to win this imo with this route.