La Vuelta 2023, Stage 12 (Ólvega - Zaragoza), course, route, profile, animation

“Thursday, 7 September Between Olvéga and Spain’s fifth-largest city, Zaragoza, a route awaits. A sprint stage, so to speak, because it goes up less than 900 metres and down almost twice as much. ’Zaragoza, dat is de stad van mijn dromen’ (Zaragoza, that’s the city of my dreams), sang the Flemish chansonier Jimmy Frey in the 1970s. Sébastien Hinault must have thought the same when he sprinted against Lloyd Mondory, Greg Van Avermaet and Tom Boonen in the 2008 Vuelta. He won against renowned names, it was his biggest victory ever. Otherwise, Zaragoza does not play too big a role in the history of the Vuelta. The stage will be very demanding for several reasons. Although the stage is marked as a flat stage, it is not really. Not because there is much climbing, on the contrary. The route is almost continuously downhill and always stays below 800 metres altitude. So the downhill section provokes a high speed, so to speak. In addition, there can be windy sections that could split the peloton into several parts. You can’t win La Vuelta on this stage. But you can lose if you have bought a ticket for the wrong part of the peloton. “ ( & Routes ’n’ Maps ’n’ Flags) Creating cycling stage animations requires a lot of work and computing power. You are welcome to support me with a donation: