2021 La Vuelta stays in Spain with a brutal new climb of Altu d’El Gamoniteiru

All-Spanish route with an exciting new climb and a finish outside of Madrid due to Coronavirus

Starting on August 14th the 2021 Vuelta will cover a huge 3,336 kms starting in the northern city of Burgos and finishing 21 stages later in the province of A Coruña which replaces the traditional finish in Madrid.

The route will showcase the beauty of Spain and remind the world of it's beauty as a popular tourist destination worldwide.

The race starts with an 8km time trial in Burgos, quickly followed by the first mountain finish at Picón Blanco on stage three.

The race heads south-east towards the coast and the towns of Valencia and Alicante, the first week concludes at the Alto de Velefique in Almería.

Thesecond week sees the race take on the new climb of Pico Cilluercas and then in the third week the peloton will tackle the Lagos de Covadonga climb and the brand new mountain pass, Altu d’El Gamoniteiru.

The Altu d’El Gamoniteiru is the highest paved road in Asturias, the gradients are quite shallow to start with but they soon ramp up to double figures and stay that way for most of the climb with several sections where the gradients reach 18%.

The climb is 7kms lomg with an average of 10% climbing up to 1,772m above sea level.

The road, although narrow, is surprisingly good. However, there are two short sections (3k from the top and right at the top) of really lumpy cement that is terrible. To make matters worse, they are both on really steep sections of the climb so are really tough to ride on. The hardest part of the climb is the final kilometer which averages 13.3% but keeping the antenna insight helps you to struggle to the top. 

The addition of the Picu Gamoniteiru along with its neighbors the Angliru (in the Vuelta since 1999) and the Lagos de Covadonga will delight Asturian mountain fans!

The race will conclude in A Coruña with a final 33.7 km individual time trial.