If there’s one thing the Vuelta a España is known for, it’s climbing. The organisers of the Spanish Grand Tour can never be accused of going easy on the riders and not presenting enough opportunities for the mountain goats, and this year is no different, with no fewer than nine summit finishes included. Any rider hoping to win the red jersey will have good climbing legs from start to finish, and have many mountains to conquer before they can lay claim to victory.
But though the climbs of the Vuelta rival those found at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in terms of difficulty, few have attained the same mythical status as the most famous from those Grand Tours. This year in particular, in the absence of notorious names like the Alto de l’Angliru and Lagos de Covadonga, the assortment of climbs features many little-known or unknown quantities, while the parcours as a whole is defined more by the sheer quantity of hard climbs, rather than a select few highlights.
That said, there are still a few that stand out, and are likely to be the toughest and most decisive of the race.
STAGE EIGHT – COLLAU FANCUAYA
As home of the Alto de l’Angliru, the north-western region of Asturias often hosts the most thrilling battles of the Vuelta, and though its most famous mountain is bypassed this year, back-to-back stages here at the end of the first week are set to see the first major tussles in the GC race.
Of the two stages, the former on Saturday looks the toughest. Both are similar in terms of the quantity and difficulty of climbs that precede their summit finishes, with stage eight featuring five as opposed to stage nine’s four. But though the Colláu Fancuaya can’t quite match stage nine’s 13%-averaging Les Praeres in terms of steepness, the sustained effort required to keep going for a climb that is over twice the length means the time gaps are likely to be bigger by the top.
Colláu Fancuaya profile (Unipublic)
About 4km into Colláu Fancuaya is where the legs will really start to burn, as the gradient ramps up into double digits, at one point reaching a truly agonising 19%. The worse news is that upon completing this stretch, they’ve still half the mountain to climb, and therefore can’t afford to go into the red just yet. The final half continues at inclines mostly over 9%, bringing the overall average of the climb up…