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2023 Vuelta a España Route Revealed
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Posted on 10-01-2025 17:59
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jandal7
Welcome to the Vuelta a España - the second Grand Tour of the year! Often the forgotten youngest brother of cycling's grand trio, it always provides entertainment and some of the toughest stage racing the season has to offer. This is a classic edition - loads of climbing stages of different types. Even if it doesn't have the 6-7 high Alpine stages that the Tour or Giro usually boast, there are plenty of tough hilly and medium mountain stages - and when the high mountains do hit, they hit hard, and are some of the toughest days on the calendar. It's one for a true all-around stage racer or an aggressive climber, with bookending individual time trial kilometres, hills, mountains, everything in between and even a TTT.

Week One: Can't be won, can be lost!

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A deceptively important first week of La Vuelta awaits us, beginning with a prologue around the beautiful city of Cáceres. Beginning at the north end of the border with Portugal, we then spend three stages moving south towards Andalusia with chances for the sprinters - and certainly with three days there will be plenty of opportunities for bonus seconds to be gained and the GC to be shaken up as those sprinters with a good prologue vie to take over the red jersey.

However as we reach the southernmost tip of Spain we have a new innovation for the race - Stage 5 doesn't actually finish in Spain but on the famed Rock of Gibraltar, the limestone monolith providing an awesome spectacle visually and for the riders as it's quite a sharp climb (4.2km @ 8.9%, with 1000-400m to go being at an average of 16%!) which should not only see a new race leader but indeed some riders with GC ambitions losing time early. If that wasn't enough of a GC shake-up, it's a 1-2 punch with the race moving back to Spain (if it had much of a choice... Gibraltar isn't even 5km long) for a 38km team time trial around Cadiz which will certainly lay the table of the next two weeks with the GC contenders all on different times. The week finishes with another flat stage (except for a small cobbled climb in the first half) with a rude interruption towards the end - this time it's two rude interruptions, before a descent into Córdoba, which could be a day for the opportunists of various varieties, or a tough sprinter - even a frustrated GC contender?

Week Two: Southern Skies

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It's been a crime to be around Andalusia and not hit the mountains, but the race makes it a prolonged stay as we jaunt around the climbs of Southern Spain for a week. Stage 8 takes us into the mountains of the Sierra de Cazorla without taking in any major climbs in a rolling stage which, much like Stage 7, could go anywhere. Watch out for the short but steep uphill finish. Stage 8 is a short medium mountain stage which loses elevation over the day - but try telling the riders that as despite not being the high mountains this is a tough day which will sap the legs even if it doesn't cause explosive gaps (particularly as the hardest climb is the first). An uphill sprint could be an interesting finish to a day which looks like it could be one for the breakaway. Stage 9 is a chance for the sprinters after five days without much of a sniff, as we take in more mountain views without major climbs before a flat trip into the desert of Almería.

Stage 10 stops the foreplay and finally gets into it: after looking at the high mountains on the horizon for a week now, we get a 214km multi-mountain epic finishing at the Calar Alto Observatory after a 15km climb with an average of 6% but with pitches well above that including near the end. After a week in Andalusia we head east for a couple of days towards Valencia, with two more opportunities for the sprinters. It feels wrong to call Stage 14 simply "hilly" - it's a typical gnarly Valencian stage with plenty of tough shorter climbs which will no doubt catch out some of the GC contenders and see a great battle for the stage win over the final climb of Xorret del Catí, which the riders take on then descend part of to the stage finish. By the end of Week Two we've had plenty of entertainment and opportunities to lose time, but still only had one high mountain stage. Don't worry, there's more on the way.

Week Three: You want mountains? I'll give you mountains!

pcmdaily.com/images/mg/2023/Profiles/top_vuelta 3.jpg

Stage 15 is our second high mountain stage and one with seven categorised climbs, none to be taken lightly, in its 211 kilometres. The finish on Fuente del Chivo is a brutal one - 21km @ 5% but with the first seven kilometres averaging around 3% it's steeper than it sounds and comes after barely a descent from the preceding climb. Stage 16 is another day for the sprinters before Stage 17 provides a medium mountain stage with the finish of a high mountain one on Peña de Francia - 11km at nearly 7% and once again part of a 1-2 punch with little respite in between. Stage 18 features some tough climbs but can almost be pencilled in already for a GC truce and a breakaway win with the long descents and valley roads, including to the finish. And also because of what's to come in the final three days.

Stage 19 is another undulating medium mountain day with a very tough finish at Alto de Léon - 7.7km at 7.7% with sections of up to 12%. Then it's time for Stage 20, the Queen Stage, another multi-mountain day but the climbs pale in comparison to the final 1-2 punch to the Bola del Mundo - the first part to Puerto de Navacerrada is 18.3km @ 5.3% with two parts going up to 11%, while the final ascent into the sky and the race's highest point is an absolutely brutal one which will see a final chance for the climbers who have anything left in their legs to gain time - 3.2km at 12.5% including a 500m stretch averaging 17%!

There's one final twist in the tale though, as bookending the race with the prologue is a final time trial in Madrid. 45.6km will see some large gaps and this is what the climbers will have been banking up time for. With only fifty ITT kilometres in the whole race this is definitely open to the pure climbers, but this stage will certainly tip the balance back towards the more refined stage racers.

7 Flat
4 Hilly (2HTF)
4 Medium Mountain (2MTF)
3 Mountain (3MTF)
2 ITT (50km)
1 TTT (38km)
 
knockout
I like how this route feels very different to the TDF one Smile

That final on stage 20 looks brutal!
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters!

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alexkr00
A bit too many time-trial kilometers for someone who was in the top 5 last year and may or may have not renewed with his current team.
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cio93
Hm, it is quite a shame we've only won this once so far...
 
Ulrich Ulriksen
Thanks to Jandal for a great review. Many of these stages including the Gibraltar climb are from Leon40's Vuelta. So credit to him and expect great scenery. Unfortunately the Gibraltar climb relied on one-lane roads a bit much so I had to cut the very top off but still a beautiful stage. Also three of the early sprint stages come from Shaxx's Veulta, so thank to his work as well.

Not sure if McCormick will go for a GT wild card but I guess we would have priority if we did, never having done one. Both this and the Tour are attractive courses for us.
Man Game: McCormick Pro Cycling
 
Luis Leon Sanchez
A great course as would be expected! Thank you to those who put it together and for the write up on it.

It is our home Grand Tour so we will, naturally, have to ensure we’re prepared for an eventful 3 weeks in front of our fans Smile
 
whitejersey
Interesting that both of the revealed GTs so far has a lot of time trial kilometres "only" 50 individual here comparatively to to 80+ in TDF but when you add in the TTT some interesting decisions will have to be made by the managers of top GT contenders. If the Giro is light on TT kms it could end up having a very competitive start list!
 
Fabianski
Hmm... TTT and quite a lot of hills, that might be worth a GT wildcard application Smile
I guess this will be a really tough race, with both S10 and S15 above 200km in length, and apparently S20 being even harder (by the looks of the profiles, I'd have guessed that S10 would be the Queen stage already). Looking forward to the race anyway, whether we'll be there or not Smile

Thanks for the route presentation!
 
jandal7
Fabianski wrote:
Hmm... TTT and quite a lot of hills, that might be worth a GT wildcard application Smile
I guess this will be a really tough race, with both S10 and S15 above 200km in length, and apparently S20 being even harder (by the looks of the profiles, I'd have guessed that S10 would be the Queen stage already). Looking forward to the race anyway, whether we'll be there or not Smile

Thanks for the route presentation!

Queen Stage (if you go by height) was hard to check due to a lot of (very cool) fantasy stages - if they're not a stage with a real profile I can check or guess (which I can do pretty well in Giro and Tour but not Vuelta) I don't know what climbs are in the middle. Most stages looked like they had the end climb as the highest point, and many end around 2000m, with La Bola del Mundo being about 100m higher than Calar Alto Grin But Stage 10 might be harder overall so has an argument there.

So could well be incorrect but with what I could find that was it. Whoever reports it will have stage file access and can definitely prove me wrong Pfft
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redordead
Vuelta could be a fun race, but for who? Hopefully for us Pfft

Thanks for the presentation Smile

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"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
 
tastasol
The prologue and then a good amount of flat stages is probably the most appealing to us. But the question will probably be if Larsen goes here or to the Giro ...
 
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