The Tour of Spain will not include, for now, the stage ending in La Veleta, the climb whose highest point is located above 3,300 meters above sea level. Javier Guillén, the competition director, announced this decision during a press conference held in the city of Valladolid.
“We would like to finish a stage in La Veleta, at more than 3,000 meters of altitude, but at the moment we do not have the necessary authorizations from the authorities”, says Guillén, according to the Ciclo 21 website. “We respect that, but we are still working, to finish a stage at the highest altitude in history.”
42 kilometer ascent
The 42.5 kilometer climb to Pico La Veleta is located in the Sierra Nevada. At 3,300 meters, it is not only the highest asphalt climb in Spain, but also in all of Europe. The road, a dead end, takes you from Granada in approximately 40 kilometers, from an altitude of 709 meters to the summit at 3,300 meters.
Although the top is actually a kilometer later, cyclists must face a section of road that is not yet paved. With an average slope of 6.5%, cyclists will have no less than 2,688 accumulated gradients.
