With the final route of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana set to be announced on January 13, more and more details of the parcours are starting to emerge. If the reports and rumours prove to be true, the 2018 Vuelta will again feature numerous steep mountain finishes, confirming its brutal reputation. The 73rd edition of the Vuelta a Espana will be held between August 25 and September 16.
We know for certain that next year’s Vuelta will start in Malaga in the south of Spain. For the first time since 2009, the Vuelta a Espana will kick off with an individual time trial instead of a team time trial.
It has been dubbed the museum stage, with the riders setting off from the Centre Pompidou right on the Malaga sea-front before heading around the historical streets and past the plentiful cultural sights that Malaga boasts. At 10 kilometres, it is not strictly a prologue and the coastal route will provide some early challenges, as will the small section of marble near the finish line.
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Malaga will play host to two further stages before waving off the peloton at the start of stage 4. A finish at Caminito del Rey gorge looks almost certain in the opening week. The climb of Alto de la Mesa is just 2.5 kilometres but it has some steep ramps that could provide a platform for an attack. An expected start in the Murcian town of Puerto Lumbreras may also come in the first week.
At the same time as confirming the details of the opening stage in Malaga, race director Javier Guillen admitted that “we are once again betting on uphill finishes.” He added that there would be anywhere between eight and 10 uphill finishes, with at least two new to the Vuelta a Espana.
One such new addition is the Basque Monte Oiz climb near Bilbao, which is expected to feature in the final week. Bilbao-based newspaper El Correo speculated that it could even be the decisive summit on the penultimate stage. Monte Oiz, which has been dubbed the “new Angliru” is a 15-kilometre ascent that features a highly irregular gradient that averages six per cent but goes as high as 25 per cent and reaches an altitude of 1000 metres at the top.
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