"Brutal" new 20% monster climb rumoured for next year's Vuelta a España

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...