La Vuelta

The expectations or the results so far in any season doesn’t matter to the Movistar Team in La Vuelta: it always makes this team really excited to get to the start of the Spanish grandtour, where they’ve built a big portion of their legendary history in their 42 appearances (just as many as years they’ve spent in the peloton). The 2021 race is back to its full, 21-stage scheme in its traditional August / September dates, travelling from one cathedral to another as it starts in Burgos (Sat 14th Aug) with a hilly 7km ITT and ends in Santiago de Compostela’s Plaza del Obradoiro (Sun 5th Sept) with another time trial, the second and decisive one, over a 33km demanding course.

The first week of the race, shouldn’t the Meseta winds -or the ones in the Murcia coast (Saturday 21st)- avoid it, will offer more bunch sprints than usual in La Vuelta, even if climbers will have already many days to exploit their abilities. The peloton will get to the Picón Blanco (Monday 16th), a regular feature in the Vuelta a Burgos; the short, sharp ascent of Cullera (Thursday 19th), a 1.7km climb at 10%; and two grueling routes over the second weekend of racing. Friday 20th will feature six climbs on stage seven, finishing atop Balcón de Alicante; Sunday 22nd, on the other hand, will take the riders over big heights in the Almería mountains, ending at the Alto de Velefique.

Halfway through the race, breakaways will stand a bigger chance, with the Almáchar (Cat-2) climb just before the finish in Rincón de la Victoria (Tuesday 24th) and the traditional ascents of San Jerónimo and 14% -yes, that’s its name- en route to Córdoba on Thursday 26th. Nevertheless, the race favourites will have another three days to keep full attention at on week two: the brutal finish in Valdepeñas de Jaén (Wednesday 25th), at the end of a short, nervous 133km route; the never-used-before Pico Villuercas (Saturday 28th), the highest mountain pass in Extremadura, with almost 15km at 6%; and a spectacular 15th stage (Sunday 29th) in Ávila, over the climbs of Centenera (Cat-1), Pedro Bernardo (Cat-2), Mijares (Cat-1) and San Juan de Nava (Cat-3) en route to El Barraco.

From Ávila, La Vuelta will travel north to Cantabria to start a brutal third week, comparable, or even harder, to other Grand Tours you could think of. Other than the TT showdown, there will be three ‘etapones’: the one to Los Lagos (Wed 1st Sep), the legendary finish preceded by the Hortigueru (Cat-3) and 2x Collada Llomena (Cat-1); the Queen stage (Thursday 2nd) atop the long-awaited Gamoniteiru (HC; 14.6km at 9.8%), with San Lorenzo (Cat-1), La Cobertoria (Cat-1) and the Cordal (Cat-2 + Bonus); and a very demanding stage 20 (Saturday 4th) through Pontevedra, with 202km, almost no flat roads and five categorized ascents towards the Castro de Herville (Cat-2; slopes up to 16%). Riders will get to that stage after 3,200m elevation gain a day prior, 4,500m on Thursday, 3,400m on Wednesday – and a long TT still remaining! Watch out for those final days…