The Tour of the Basque Country never before opened with an ITT. The rolling route starts to show its teeth after some 6 kilometres on the first slopes of La Antigua. The elevation gain in 2.3 kilometres is 225 metres, so that’s an average gradient of 9.7%. Tough enough in itself, but it actually is a biased statistic. The last 800 metres on La Antigua go up at 16%, while the steepest ramp of 21% is situated in the last 100 metres before the top. The rest of the route is a flying descent to the line.
La Antigua featured in the 2015 Tour of the Basque Country. Joaquim Rodríguez, Sergio Henao and Nairo Quintana broke clear on the steepest incline and reached the finish line in that order.
Another interesting read: results ITT 2019 Tour of the Basque Country.
Tour of the Basque Country 2019 stage 1: route, profile, more
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