Today marks the start of the 66th Vuelta a España. Starting in Benidorm with a 13.5km evening Team Time Trial and ending on September 11th in Madrid, the route of 3300km is a mix of 9 flat, 10 mountain stages and 2 time trials. Six of the stages will end with summit finishes including the Angliru climb which returns after a 3 year absence. This year’s Vuelta promises to be hard and is sure to be dominated by the true climbers. However with many of the ‘plain’ stages providing opportunities for bunch finishes, there is sure to be a hot points competition as the sprinters fine tune their form ahead of the World Championships in Denmark in October. The first week will see them battle it out particularly on stage 3. Starting in the province of Alicante and finishing in Murcia, this stage is one of the shortest with just two cat 3 climbs. Continue reading Vuelta 2011

The 2011 Skoda Tour is almost done. Today the riders will have to do 152,1 kilometers in the 4th and final stage that runs from Mersch to Luxembourg-city. From the start in Mersch (which is north above Luxembourg-city) there will be a 30,5 kilometers circuit, first heading south to Steinsel including one rated climb: the steep Cote de Steinsel (1200m climb at 10,6%). Via Kopstal and Schoenfels it goes back to Mersch. Continue reading Skoda Tour de Luxembourg 2011 (stage 4)

Today, the battle on the road continues in the northern part of Luxembourg. The stage runs from Eschweiler to Roost over 185 kilometers. Like the two previous stages, this track can also be characterized as undulating and consists of 2088 ascending meters. From the start the riders head north into the direction of Lullange, where they’ll take a turn and continue west towards Marnach. Here awaits the first out of 7 categorized climbs: Marnach (3770m climb at 3.95%). Continue reading Skoda Tour de Luxembourg 2011 (stage 3)