Vuelta a Espana 2016

Starts 20th August.
Interesting routes with 10 summit finishes.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/

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Yay! Fucken love la vwelter.

Purito to go out in a blaze of glory?

will Froome be up for it?

I'd like to see Quintana in full flight. But he's pulled out the lympucs :(

If the guff from the Movistar team is true, Quintana has been suffering from illness/allergy, take your pick. Hayfever sufferer, its maybe why he never managed to go past well, fifth or sixth gear, since a below par Quintana still snagged a podium. If he can get back to his best then he will potentially beast it. Later in the year, less pollen, less guff, more Nairo's dead eyes. Those dead, dead eyes.

I hope so! Love Purito hard

Yeah, love the Vuelta! I'm in.

Stages and distances -

Vuelta a Espana 2016
Saturday August 20th: stage 1: Balneario Laias - Castrelo de Miño (Ourense), 29.4 kms (TTT)

Sunday August 21st: stage 2: Ourense - Baiona, 159 kms, Hilly

Monday August 22nd: stage 3: Marín (Pontevedra) - Mirador Ézaro, 170 kms. Hilly, summit finish 1.

Tuesday August 23rd: stage 4: Betanzos - San André de Teixidó, 161 kms. Hilly, summit finish 2.

Wednesday August 24th: stage 5: Viveiro - Lugo, 170 kms.

Thursday August 25th: stage 6: Monforte de Lemos - Luintra, 163 kms.

Friday August 26th: stage 7: Maceda - Puebla de Sanabria, 158.3 kms.

Saturday August 27th: stage 8: Villalpando (Zamora) - La Camperona, 177 kms. Mountainous, summit finish 3.

Sunday August 28th: stage 9: Cistierna - Alto de Naranco, 165kms. Summit finish 4.

Monday August 29th: stage 10: Lugones - Lagos de Covadonga, 186.6kms. Mountainous, summit finish 5.

Tuesday August 30th: Rest Day 1.

Wednesday August 31st: stage 11: Lastres - Peña Cabarga, 168.6kms. Summit finish 6.

Thursday September 1st: stage 12: Los Corrales de Buelna - Bilbao, 193.2kms.

Friday September 2nd: stage 13: Bilbao - Urdax, 212.8kms. Hilly.

Saturday September 3rd: stage 14: Urdax - Aubisque, 195.6kms. Mountainous, summit finish 7

Sunday September 4th: stage 15: Sabiñanigo - Formigal, 120kms. Mountainous, summit finish 8.

Monday September 5th: stage 16: Alcañiz - Peníscola, 158kms.

Tuesday September 6th: Rest Day 2.

Wednesday September 7th: stage 17: Castellón - Mas de la Costa, 173.3kms. Hilly, summit finish 9.

Thursday September 8th: stage 18: Requena - Gandía, 191kms.

Friday September 9th: stage 19: Xàbia - Calpe, 39kms (ITT).

Saturday September 10th: stage 20: Benidorm - Alto de Aitana, 184.5kms. Mountainous, summit finish 10.

Sunday September 11th: stage 21: Las Rozas - Madrid, 102.5kms.

I have always wondered - do organisers specifically aim for Queen/mountainous stages to be on the weekends? They should do (and nice to see Vuelta on board with such a notion...)!

Yay something to fill the post Olympics void. Looking forward to smiley Chavez with Yates in support

On the contrary, the Olympics merely fills the pre-Vuelta void. I love the Vuelta...

Haha the Giro's my favourite, but likely for similar reasons. And true but I'm getting hopeful Tom DeWindmill will be able to compete in the olympic tt. That and I enjoy the chance to get very excited about random sports I couldn't give a toss about for the next 4 years.

Yeah but Rio. Surely this is the most depressing sporting prospect until the World Cup in Russia, then Qatar. The backdrop of a poverty-stricken society, corrupt government, the zika virus, unfinished venus/Olympic village, athletes being mugged on the street by people dressed as policemen. It's an Olympics you feel the people there don't want, and potentially one that could be like Montreal and saddle them with debt for years to come.

It's getting harder to enjoy this huge sporting events, once you start to appreciate the levels of commercialism and corruption that swirl around them. There has even been legal letters threatening companies that aren't sponsors of the game using Olympic related hashtags in their Twitter feeds.

Anyway fuck that, back to the Vuelta.

I do like the Olympics. I like the way it's constantly on and you get people complaining about too much sport and how it messes with their soaps even though the rest of us have to put up with soaps all year round.
I especially like track and field late at night.

Yeah true, its a depressing mess if you actually start to consider how corrupt and ill conceived the entire construct has become. But at the end of the day I do just like watching sports. I want to see a Russian weightlifter lift enough mass that the all the smaller competitors start to orbit him.

Sorry to derail important vuelta considerations. Who's everyones picks? Tour dropouts/flatliners or giro podiumers?

I agree, always liked the Olympics and watching weird, obscure sports, but you want it to be a celebration and given the state of Brazil its going to be hard to watch without that knowledge creeping through my appreciation of it.

But yes, back to the Vuelta, going to be great. I do like you never really know who's going to ride the thing until a couple of weeks before.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/36897241

Chris Froome: Tour de France winner to race Vuelta a Espana after Olympic Games

With Landa as co-leader apparently.

So is Froome just using it as prep for next season with any form a bonus?

I'm actually a little disappointed that so much of this year's Vuelta is held in the north. I think there are only 4 stages south of Madrid compared to last year's 9.

I think every race he starts, he does so with the intention of winning. But the proximity of the Vuelta to the Tour, with the Olympics in between, makes managing peaks of form very, very complicated. So Sky will start the race with Froome as the nominal leader, but will keep Landa in contention too just in case (although Landa's season has been so mixed it'll be no surprise if his form is a bit off too).

Froome rode the Vuelta in 2012, after coming second in the Tour behind Wiggins and getting a bronze in the Olympics TT, and came a distant fourth behind Contador, Valverde and Rodriguez. He was clearly running on fumes at the end.

I'm in Asturias at the minute, and it is phenomenal. Scenery, mountains, roads, and amount of cyclists around all suggest why they're spending a bit of time here again this year.

I really wish I'd been able to bring a bike.

Really can't wait to see this unfold in August. Looking back, I quite enjoyed last year's battle for Tommy Windmills to keep the red. At the time I was ultimately a bit heartbroken. I'd like to see Purito do well, as suggested above.

39 km ITT three days before the end of the race? Rodriguez isn't going to win.

Sorry (not sorry).

Any idea if this will be on ITV4 again? I heard a rumour it isn't.