Barely 48 hours after he took the overall lead of the Vuelta a España, Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) faces two very different types of climbing tests as the race heads into the mountains of Asturias for back-to-back first category summit finishes at Collau Fancuaya and Les Praeres.
Both days contain more than 3,00 metres of vertical climbing in northern Spain, the first in the sierras of western Asturias, also home to climbs like the Angliru and Gaimoniteiru, and the second further east, in the better-known Picos de Europa mountain range.
According to the latest weather forecast, a deluge on the scale of Thursday’s downpour that accompanied Evenepoel and the peloton as they squelched their way up the Pico Jano is thankfully not likely. But even with drier conditions, as a way to round off the first week, the 2022 Vuelta route designers have opted for anything but a gentle warm down.
While Pico Jano was used in the Vuelta a Besaya junior bike race before making its debut in the Spanish Grand Tour, the Collau Fancuaya has never been used before in a race, amateur or professional.
But while the Fancuaya’s 10.1-kilometre slopes, averaging 8.5%, represent a ‘classic’ mountain challenge, Les Praeres is a ‘side of a house’ climb of the kind the Vuelta organisers have decided to make a trademark ascent in recent years.
“Don’t forget that Les Praeres was where Simon Yates won in 2018 and then he went on to win the Vuelta overall that year. So it’s clearly a finish which can tell us a lot about the different GC contenders, even if it’s only four kilometres long,” 1988 Tour de France winner and long-standing TV cycling commentator Pedro Delgado, who regularly checks out all the summit finishes of the Vuelta before the race, told Cyclingnews.
“It’s very short and very tough, and although there are quite a few climbs earlier on the stage, really the finish is so hard it’s all that will count. And even if it’s less difficult, it’s a similar story with the Fancuaya stage.”
While stage 8 starts with a second category ascent, the Alto de la Colladona, the 70 kilometres before the Fancuaya itself contains only three third category climbs, all a long way from the finish. As such, the final ascent will almost certainly be where the entire stage is decided.
“The Collau Fancuaya is a very different kind of climb to Les Praeres, much more of a normal first category ascent and much longer,” Delgado said. “The last seven…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…