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2018 Vuelta a Espana Route Revealed
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 27-06-2018 09:18
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Week 1: Calling all sprinters
The Vuelta a Espana organisers are certainly targeting the sprinters field here, and have designed an ideal opening week for the fast men. 7 consecutive flat stages, with the battle for the leaders and points jersey set to continue across the week.
The start is in Leon, heading south to a finish in Salamanca, before the race heads towards the eastern side of the country, with finishes in Valladolid, Segovia, Albacete, Utiel and Valencia. We then head to Andalucia, starting with the Stage 7 finish in Malaga.
Week 2: That's enough of that
Stage 8 is the sign of change, with an uphill finish in Gibraltar. Not to the top of the rock as last time though, but still enough to shake things up. We then head to Cadiz for one more sprint, and also some reconnaissance - as the final 55km will be repeated the next day, in a long individual time trial.
Still within Andalucia, we head to Cordoba for a hill stage that is set to favour the hill stat, but then Sierra Nevada provides us with finally, the first mountains of the race. A rest day follows, and we are up north in Tarragona for Stage 14 and another individual time trial - this time over a harder course.
Week 3: This is what they came for
After surviving the monotony of the first week, the climbers really come to play in the final week, after the taster in Sierra Nevada. There's one Catalunyan flat stage, to Castelldefels near Barcelona, and then it is show time. Stage 16 ends up in Andorra, and from there there is a long 230km stage of suffering on Stage 17, eventually ending in France at Peyregudes.
More climbing in the Pyrenees follows, up to the Stage 20 finish at Plan. Stage 19 does suggest hills, but it is still going to be the mountain stat that is key there. No flat stage to end the race, as we are going west. The final destination of this year's race is the Angliru. Will the title be decided right at the wire here?
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10x Flat
7x Mountain
1x Hill but Mountain
1x Hill
2x ITT
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| Heine |
Posted on 27-06-2018 10:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
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I think I can hear some managers rejoicing over this route
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-06-2018 10:27
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World Champion
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Holy mother of...
That certainly is a way of reducing racedays of the top sprinters 
Also a good way of making sure that the GC riders won't win the points competition - if the best sprinters manage to finish the race without OTL'ing on stage 13 or 17.
This one looks very interesting aswell btw. A short prologue in the end would have seen Coquard go here for sure. As it is this can be a leaders jersey fest for 8-12 different top sprinters. Not sure it will give the best PPrD value for a rider like Coquard - will have to look into that 
No real hilly stages, this one is very much open for riders like Alarcon, Dombrowski, Schleck, Herklotz. Also a great opportunity for a top 5 for riders like Hirt, Guldhammer, Yates and maybe even Marquez.
Probably too much for the pure mountain riders to really suit Lecuisinier despite of that long TT, which unfortunately comes at a rather uninteresting time. Also for riders like Vlatos and Coppel the timing of the TT is worthless as they can't keep a good GC position for anything but a day. It's a pure GC TT to hand over some minutes for the best TT'ers before they get attacked in the mountains.
Will be very interesting to see which top GC riders will turn up knowing that they'll probably not take the leaders jersey before stage 12. Definately something to toy with for several managers with subtop leaders.
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| roturn |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:13
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SotD wrote:
This one looks very interesting aswell btw. A short prologue in the end would have seen Coquard go here for sure. As it is this can be a leaders jersey fest for 8-12 different top sprinters. Not sure it will give the best PPrD value for a rider like Coquard - will have to look into that
Read: Coquard will be in here for sure. 
From a sprinter team`s point of view, I love this Vuelta. From GC point of view I hate all 3 of them when looking at my 2nd tier stage racers.
Only one celebrating is Koep, who is supposed to continue his series. |
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:14
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World Champion
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That's not a Vuelta route At least some nice multi-mountain stages are there. I do miss the hilly stuff.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
1x  x1
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 00:23
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| Heine |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:23
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Grand Tour Specialist
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roturn wrote:
SotD wrote:
This one looks very interesting aswell btw. A short prologue in the end would have seen Coquard go here for sure. As it is this can be a leaders jersey fest for 8-12 different top sprinters. Not sure it will give the best PPrD value for a rider like Coquard - will have to look into that
Read: Coquard will be in here for sure.
From a sprinter team`s point of view, I love this Vuelta. From GC point of view I hate all 3 of them when looking at my 2nd tier stage racers.
Only one celebrating is Koep, who is supposed to continue his series.
All 3? Where is the TDF!
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:26
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What's this? An early 2000's TDF route?
It's going to be interesting to see which GT riders risk his season here. As already stated, they won't start scoring until second half of race, so that could prevent some top riders from appearing here to maximize points.
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| roturn |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:27
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Team Manager
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Heine wrote:
roturn wrote:
SotD wrote:
This one looks very interesting aswell btw. A short prologue in the end would have seen Coquard go here for sure. As it is this can be a leaders jersey fest for 8-12 different top sprinters. Not sure it will give the best PPrD value for a rider like Coquard - will have to look into that
Read: Coquard will be in here for sure.
From a sprinter team`s point of view, I love this Vuelta. From GC point of view I hate all 3 of them when looking at my 2nd tier stage racers.
Only one celebrating is Koep, who is supposed to continue his series.
All 3? Where is the TDF!
No matter which year. My team simply is not build for any GT GCs. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:42
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Grand Tour Champion
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Two GTs without much hill impact already. Evonik doesnt like that.
That said, quite interesting routes 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| SotD |
Posted on 27-06-2018 11:47
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World Champion
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roturn wrote:
SotD wrote:
This one looks very interesting aswell btw. A short prologue in the end would have seen Coquard go here for sure. As it is this can be a leaders jersey fest for 8-12 different top sprinters. Not sure it will give the best PPrD value for a rider like Coquard - will have to look into that
Read: Coquard will be in here for sure.
From a sprinter team`s point of view, I love this Vuelta. From GC point of view I hate all 3 of them when looking at my 2nd tier stage racers.
Only one celebrating is Koep, who is supposed to continue his series.
Nah Coquard definately isn't a sure thing here. For it to make sense he needs to be 84SPR and I need to have a very strong leadout sprinter. Emerson Santos isn't enough.
If that isn't possible, I really doubt it is a good idea. Also with the changed OVL sprinters are likely to have even fewer racedays hence making GT's a bad idea in general...
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 27-06-2018 20:34
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A GT for the sprinters definitely.
It's going to be tough whether to follow the obvious choice or to go another direction. Inventive solution nonetheless .
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| Roman |
Posted on 27-06-2018 20:49
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Grand Tour Specialist
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The first week looks like it may be a decent idea to change the time bonus system. F1 system would IMO be ideal for GTs, as I think the race could get more interesting especially in the first week if more than podium positions gets you bonus seconds, the jersey holder could change more regularly then. And also I think that all GC stages would be more interesting if every top 10 position matters. It would bring down the difference between the favourites, honestly I don't really like to see a system where the difference between 2nd and 3rd is 4 seconds time bonus and between 3rd and 4th it is 8 seconds. It may be used in real cycling, but for me it just does not make any sense.
And also is there any chance MG GTs could actually have a TdF type of system for sprint jersey? In my opinion the current MG system is a lot boring, because usually the winner of the race also wins the points competition and so the sprinters don't really have something to fight for in a GT with the exception of stage wins. It was not the case in the first few MG seasons. In my opinion flat stages should get you more points for sprint competition so it actually becomes a sprint competition again.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 27-06-2018 22:40
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Look at all these sprints Ciolek would mess up if he stayed with us
I feel like this is sliightly over the top in terms of catering to sprinters, but then again we just had a big discussion about their pprd.
The flat TT will be a major factor in this, so I'm assuming the Tour will go a different way, making for rather unique routes this season.
The problem with an F1 system is that we negate advantages gained outside of the mountains imo, especially in TTs and splits on flat or hilly stages.
The TdF system for intermediate sprints would be worth considering, but currently the AI just isn't made for it as it picks only a couple of sprinters who care, probably randomly when using a DB with so many on a similar level. Also that only applies to flat stages anyway.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 27-06-2018 22:53
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I agree that we need a Giro-type system for the race finishes at least, intermediates set aside. Also I like the idea of F1 time boni.
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| SotD |
Posted on 28-06-2018 06:45
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F1 system could work for top 5, instead of top 10 to avoid making things to extreme from one point to another. If F1 for top 5 doesn't change anything then we could go for top 10 in the future - but to be honest, why should riders finishing 7-8th get a bonus? That isn't really anything special, and would see GC riders with a good sprint get a few bonus seconds for sprinting to avoid splits. We often see some of the best riders sprint for 8-15th. Do we really want a scenario where a lucky result is the decider of who wins a GT?
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| ember |
Posted on 28-06-2018 07:13
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And we're taken 20 years back Should at least be a fun race for the sprinters. Kind of crazy to see nine flat stages open the race, surely that must be a first in the MG? Kind of expect all top, top sprinters to line up here, as the points on offer are just too great of a chance.
Now, please give us some hills for the Tour |
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| Kentaurus |
Posted on 30-07-2018 09:45
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Well as the outsider to this group, this Vuelta suits us perfectly. It would surprise no one for Eastman to lead us here, and the lack of hills is quite nice for him. Hoping we can put up a strong performance with this route (well after week 1).
AZTECA - NBCSN  |
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| Forever the Best |
Posted on 05-08-2018 18:35
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Very late but, does stage 13 finish in Sierra de Lujar? If so the route gets an immediate 10/10.
The user formerly known as 'The Schleck Fan'
Gracias Alberto.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 05-08-2018 19:33
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Sierra de Lujar indeed
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