2012 Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain

Running from Saturday Agust 18th to Sunday September 9th 2012, the 67th Vuelta a España will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,360 kilometres.

• 11 flat stages
  
• 8 mountain stages
  
• 1 team time-trial stage
  
• 1 individual time-trial stage
  
• 10 summit finishes
  
• 2 rest days
  
• 16,5 km team time-trial
  
• 39,4 km individual time-trial stage
  
• 36 mountain passes and hills
  http://www.lavuelta.com/indexen.html
  
  

A beautiful course, lots of mountains & summit finishes, lots of top riders contending. Post your thoughts here...

1 Attachment

• route vuelta 2012.pdf

froomey!

Froome ought to win with the help of a strong team but my money has to be on Contador (unless he has suddenly turned vegetarian.)

He has, hasn't he?

Hope Gesink & Mollema will make up for the tumbling-Tour

shall we do a velogames again?

http://www.velogames.com/

8 mountain stages and 10 summit finishes is impressive.

According to their homepage it is:

• 6 flat stages
  
• 13 mountain stages
  
• 1 team time-trial stage
  

• 1 individual time-trial stage
  Distinctive aspects of the race

• 6 summit finishes

• 2 rest days

• 16 km. team time-trial

• 40 km. individual time-trial stage

• 37 mountain passes and hills

Team Murdoch >>>>>>>>

Lots of fresh blood (not Contador's type) for GE..

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/orica-greenedge-confirm-squad-for-vuelta-a-espana

shall we do a velogames again?

http://www.velogames.com/

I'm in. This may take the rest of the day...

And in case anyone isn't aware, a daily one hour highlights prog on ITV4.

8 mountain stages and 10 summit finishes is impressive.

According to their homepage it is:

[]6 flat stages
[]13 mountain stages
[]1 team time-trial stage
[]1 individual time-trial stage
Distinctive aspects of the race

[]6 summit finishes
[]2 rest days
[]16 km. team time-trial
[]40 km. individual time-trial stage
[*]37 mountain passes and hills

funny, as I copied it from the home page :-/

They must have done a ninja edit :)

haha

but nope http://www.lavuelta.com/12pr/en/recorrido/vuelta.html

But here http://www.lavuelta.com/ still the other.

Very professional.

gets even better, here I count 7 mountain stages ;-)

http://www.lavuelta.com/12pr/en/recorrido/vuelta.html

And in case anyone isn't aware, a daily one hour highlights prog on ITV4.

Ace - thanks!

gets even better, here I count 7 mountain stages ;-)

http://www.lavuelta.com/12pr/en/recorrido/vuelta.html
brilliant! such meticulous attention to detail.

response to my polite e-mail about this:

"Good Afternoom,

The information is the same, one in Spanish and translated into English the
other."

hahahaha, I tried once more, we'll see....

So its Rodriguez v Schleck v Contador v Froome, who are the other contenders?

Sky look like they have bought their climbing a-game, but it simply won't be as regimented as the Tour and plenty of MTFs means potential for loads of GC carnage.

I'll be interested to see if Contador has turned from a racehorse into a donkey, to steal a phrase from the clinic

Greenedge certainly have the best named rider, Wesley Sulzberger

Schleck isnt riding

Oh, how did I miss that. Boo

Well in that case I'll be cheering along Cobo. Maybe he can make it two in a row...

I take it back, **Winner Anacona Gomez **has the best name

A good overview of the route here;

http://inrng.com/vuelta/

^ brilliant guide (as usual).

There are time bonuses awarded with 20 seconds for a stage winner, 12 seconds for second place and 8 seconds for third place. Each intermediate sprint offers 6-4-2 seconds as well.

With all these mountain top finishes this could be quite a different race to this year's TDF, though perhaps with the same team up front?