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2017 Vuelta a España course preview: the Angliru is back

The season's final Grand Tour starts in Nîmes, France on Saturday

August 15, 2017
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The 72nd edition of the Vuelta a España, this year’s final Grand Tour, starts Saturday in Nîmes, France. The race is often unpredictable because of late-season fatigue and, recently, well-designed courses. The past few editions–with JJ Cobo, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Horner, Alberto Contador, Fabio Aru and Nairo Quintana taking titles–have been engrossing affairs. Canadian Cycling Magazine begins our preview of the race with a look at the route.

Course overview: Nine summit finishes including the dreaded Angliru
Back in January the ASO co-ordinators announced this season’s return of the Angliru, the legendary 12.2-km climb that averages 10.2 per cent and reaches 23.5 per cent, for the queen stage on September 9.

Aru and Bardet will get reacquainted not even a full month after the Tour de France.

The race will finish uphill nine times, one less than the 2016 edition and the same number as 2015, including summit finishes on Angliru, Los Machucos, Santo Toribio, and in Alicante, the Cumbre del Sol. Summit finishes are evenly distributed at three per week. Some of the final climbs, like Calar Alto, La Pandera and Sierra Nevada in the second week, are very long.

Shorter, more explosive final climbs that have marked the last two Vueltas have been reduced from six in 2016 to four.

Week 1: Andorra and short, steep finishing climbs
The traditional team time trial kick off is in Nîmes, a city famous as an ancient Roman Empire outpost and for its bullfighting arena. It’s the first Vuelta big shove off abroad since the Netherlands in 2009. After two more days in the south of France, the race crosses the border at Andorra la Vella.

Although the race heads into Andorra for early climbing on Stage 3, an uphill finish comes later Stage 5, which concludes on a 2-km ramp to Ermita Santa Lucia averaging almost 12 per cent. There are climbing finishes on Stages 8 and 9 too with the 3.8-km, 11 per cent climb of Xorret de Cati, followed by a 2-km finish, and the 3.6-km, 10 per cent climb of Cumbre del Sol respectively.


Week 2: The Sierras

After the first rest day, the racers continue with a hard week in the south of Spain featuring three more summit finishes at Calar Alto, Sierra de la Pandera and the 30-km clamber to the Sierra Nevada ski station. Stage 15 featuring the Sierra Nevada is only 129-km (two kilometres were added since the route was announced) and has a Cat. 1 as well as the Especial summit finish.


Week 3: The time trial, 28% grades and Angliru
Rest day two is the setting for a long transfer to northern Spain. There, the riders will roll the only individual time trial of the race, a 40.2-km chrono starting on the Circuito los Arcos motorcar race track. It’s the longest Grand Tour time trial since the 2015 Giro d’Italia and the longest Vuelta race against the clock since 2011.


Two more summit finishes on new, 14-km Los Machucos and Santo Toribio follow. Los Muchucos on Stage 17 has a section in its middle that’s 28% and is surfaced with strips to slow cars in the winter. It’s nasty.


The Angliru showdown comes on the penultimate day. Like Stage 15 to Sierra Nevada, the course is short at 119.2-km and has a Cat. 3 and two Cat 1’s before the Angliru. September 10 is a procession into Madrid where the red-jersey wearer will be crowned.

August 19, Stage 1: Nîmes (France) (TTT) 13.8-km
August 20, Stage 2: Nîmes (France) – Gruissan (France) 201-km
August 21, Stage 3: Prades (France) – Andorra la Vella (Andorra) 158.5-km
August 22, Stage 4: Escaldes-Engordany (Andorra) – Tarragona (Spain) 193-km
August 23, Stage 5: Benicassim – Ermita Santa Lucia 173.4-km
August 24, Stage 6: Villareal – Sagunto 198-km
August 25, Stage 7: Lliria – Cuenca 205.2-km
August 26, Stage 8: Hellin – Xorret de Cati 184-km
August 27, Stage 9: Orihuela (Alicante) – Cumbre del Sol 176.3-km
August 28: Rest Day
August 29, Stage 10: Caravaca de la Cruz – Alhama 164.8-km
August 30, Stage 11: Lorca – Calar Alto 188-km
August 31, Stage 12: Motril – Antequera 161.4-km
September 1, Stage 13 Coín – Tomares 197-km
September 2, Stage 14: Ecija – La Pandera 175-km
September 3, Stage 15: Alcala la Real – Sierra Nevada 129-km
September 4, Rest Day
September 5, Stage 16: Circuito los Arcos – Logroño (ITT) 40.2-km
September 6, Stage 17: Villadiego – Los Machucos 180-km
September 7, Stage 18: Suances – Santo Toribio 168.5-km
September 8, Stage 19: Parque de Redes – Gijon 153-km
September 9, Stage 20: Corvera – Alto de l’Angliru 119.2-km
September 10, Stage 21: Arroyomolinos – Madrid 101.9-km