Today’s Vuelta a Espana stage concludes with the first ever ascent of the first category Mas de la Costa, an ultra-steep, technical climb that could cause further surprises in the battle for overall victory. The riders will be greeted by a welcome message painted on the road: Aquí empieza el infierno -Hell Starts Here. After which, the Vuelta peloton certainly faces a very real world of pain.
The Mas de la Costa climb - which translates roughly as ‘the farmstead with the slope’ - is only 4.3 kilometres long, but is, as Cyclingnews discovered when checking out the route, exceptionally challenging. The rare data, present on a stone plaque on the right of the road at the foot of the climb is daunting: in such a short distance, there’s an average gradient of 12.7 percent, a vertical gain of 486 metres and reaching a height of 982 metres above sea level. The summit is on a lonely hillside set deep in the most rural part of the region of Valencia.
Even the ten kilometres before the climb are not straightforward, albeit on normal roads running deep inland in the province of Castellon in northern Valencia. Constantly undulating, combined with the current heat wave and coming at the end of a 177.5 kilometre stage with 3,640 metres of vertical climbing; you can see why Alberto Contador warned on the rest day about how dangerous this stage could be. It is also why he and his rivals went to see the climb instead of enjoying a quiet rest day.
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This final approach to the town of Llucena will certainly help fracture what remains of the peloton. A narrow, twisting run through the town’s main square, a sharp left hand bend in the main square and finally a short uphill section taking the peloton back into the countryside all provide added difficulty.
There’s a fast, fairly technical descent on broad roads out of the town for a couple of kilometres to add to the tension, and then with a left hand fork the road abruptly narrows as the climb itself begins. Positioning will be crucial, given what follows, all the way to the top, is a strip of road barely more than a car’s-width at any point and with no false flats or downhills at all.
On dusty cement
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