FROM THE ARCHIVES: This is a past profile from the 2011 Vuelta a Espana, but you can easily adapt this to this year’s Vuelta (and 99.9% of your riders wouldn’t know the difference if you used a past stage!).
This very challenging mountain stage includes the steepest road of this Vuelta on the final mountaintop finish. In this profile, I give you the cues and the cautions as you coach your students through the challenge. BONUS! Also included below is another fun mountain stage from the 2010 Vuelta, this one filled with attacks and counterattacks.
Stage 15 of the 2011 Vuelta a Espana from Avilés to Angliru in the north of Spain includes the steepest segment on the final mountaintop finish—an average 10% grade with a 23.5% grade for a short segment! Can you even fathom how steep that is? Just walking up that hill would be hard, and most of us mere mortals might be able to get up this monster if we serpentined our way…IF we could hope to complete it.
You’ll want to caution your riders not to go overboard, but you also now have the cues to keep them in check. In this profile, I tell you how to coach them through the challenge.
Do we have an alternative for “un poco flamengo”?