Death, taxes and La Vuelta finding another monstrous brute of double-digit gradients to torture the peloton…
We’ll have to wait for January when the route is officially announced for confirmation this one makes the cut, but the cycling world is awash with excited whispers that a summit finish atop the hideously narrow Alto Miserat could be on the cards…
The climb from Pego in the Valencian province of Alicante is 6.7km at an average gradient of 10 per cent and tops out up a narrow goat track of a ‘road’ where the gradients touch 20 per cent.
Almost exactly three years today FDJ visited the berg while on a winter training camp based at the popular off-season destination Calpe, meaning the Strava top-10 is full of names such as Thibaut Pinot, David Gaudu and Stefan Küng, while top of the pile is a certain Remco Evenepoel who enjoyed a “leg-opener” up the slopes ahead of this year’s Vuelta.
But, despite Remco’s 22-minute 18km/h ascent, the climb remains relatively unknown with just over 1,000 riders having completed the full Strava segment.
Just had a look at the whole climb on Google street view… Dear god! What an absolutely brutal climb. And yeah, that finish is so tight. Such a classic Vuelta stage… If they’re using that I can’t wait to watch!
— Tim Bonville-Ginn (@TimBonvilleGinn) December 12, 2022
According to High Cycling’s detective work and the chorus of social media rumours, the recently-asphalted climb could well see a typically hellish Vuelta summit finish in 2023, Lotto Soudal’s Thomas De Gendt (soon-to-be Lotto-Dstny) describing the slopes as “brutal”.
There will be a finish on el miserat? Brutal climb
— Thomas De Gendt (@DeGendtThomas) December 11, 2022
And while we’re all aboard the excitement train some have expressed doubts about the amount of space at the top of the climb, raising questions about whether the logistical mass that follows the race could be held away from the finish line.
CLASSIC Vuelta, Where there is a will, and there is a will, then there will be a way. https://t.co/xnFtE0PXp7
— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) December 12, 2022
The official route for the race will be unveiled in the new year and race director Javier Guillén has already promised “a very mountainous and international Vuelta — the route will be spectacular”.
“It will be a Vuelta decided at the end — no one will be able to relax in the final [week]. We are working on a final stage that will break the profile of a classic mountain stage with so many climbs. It is planned that everything will be decided there. It will be a Vuelta that fans will like. The mountains are going to decide the Vuelta,” he teased.
What we do know is that the Grand Tour will start in Barcelona a week later due to the August UCI World Championships in Glasgow.
Other rumours suggest the Vuelta will once again visit Andorra before Saturday 9 September’s stage finishes at the Col du Tourmalet, in a rescheduling of a stage postponed in 2020 due to French Covid restrictions.
A final week double-header of Angliru and Lagos de Covadonga has also been touted before the race ends in Madrid. Bring your climbing legs…
17 thoughts on ““Brutal” new 20% monster climb rumoured for next year’s Vuelta a España”
This profile looks even more,
This profile looks even more, dare I say it, miserable
https://www.cyclefiesta.com/multimedia/climbs/valencia/miserat-pego.htm
Repeated 20% chunks for 6km? Hell yes (or should that be “yes, hell”)
According to Google Translate
According to Google Translate, Miserat translates as “He was sorry” in Latin. Appropriate if true. Perhaps the grammar school educated here can confirm…
kil0ran wrote:
Finally, nearly 40 years on, the O-level Latin comes in handy! A more accurate rendering would be “he feels pity for” which is indeed extremely appropriate.
Caecilius est in horto.
Caecilius est in horto.
brooksby wrote:
Caecilius in horto sedet.
Excuse me, my PGSSD has just been triggered…
Rendel Harris wrote:
Didn’t it end with “Caecilius interfectus est”? This raised a huge cheer in my class. Little did we know that gerunds and pluperfect subjunctives lay ahead.
And here is the solitary joke
And here is the solitary joke with a Latin theme (apart from “Caesar aderat forte”), created with nothing more than a textbook and a fountain pen.
TheBillder wrote:
Yes, a wall fell on him in Pompeii as I recall! I was always cheering for Grumio the pissed-up slave cook myself.
Grumio! What a character.
Grumio! What a character.
Loved it when he (Caecilius) turned up in Dr Who.
I did Latin primarily so I could skip mid-80s comp games lessons, some of it stuck but not much, mainly because as a 14yo I had to go to the local 6th form to do it and there were girls there, unlike secondary school.
Romanes eunt domus
Romanes eunt domus
(No subject)
This is what my son’s school
This is what my son’s school is using to intro 10yos to Latin (an option along with German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Oh and BSL)
https://www.bolchazy.com/Augury-Is-for-the-Birds-P3971.aspx
It’s simple but hilarious. Dad wants son to be an augur, son wants to be a soldier and is basically insolent and sulky for the entire book.
Am I alone in not being a fan
Am I alone in not being a fan of GTs encroaching on other races’ classic climbs? I don’t want to see the Vuelta on the Tourmalet, the Tour on the Stelvio or the Giro on the Alpe, all the GTs have plenty of classic climbs to use and, as here, there are plenty of wonderful/atrocious (delete according to whether viewing or riding) new climbs to be discovered. The classic ascents are legendary because of their history in their own races, it feels wrong for other races to be appropriating that history. I dare say money is at the bottom of it, as always.
‘Brutal’ may be hyperbolic
‘Brutal’ may be hyperbolic compared to a century ago
Very interesting pictures on
Very interesting pictures on that page. Surfaces almost as bad as standard UK roads in 2022.
Us here living in the eastern
Us here living in the eastern Pyrenees are all hoping that they will finally use the monster that is Coll de Pradell. Over 1000 vertical meters, steepest bits at 21,5%, amazing views at the top AND the road continues after so it’s easy to integrate in a route. KOM of course held by our local rider Sepp Kuss.
Ooh, if I was twenty years
Ooh, if I was twenty years younger… I’d still be cycling in the other direction in terror! That looks a proper bastard. First half looks fun though, I think I’d cycle up to Vallcebre then remember an urgent appointment back in the valley.