La Vuelta came past our door: the peloton crossed six Almanzora Valley towns on the way to Calar Alto
Zurgena, Arboleas, Albox, Cóbdar, Chercos and Bacares watched stage 12 of La Vuelta pass through. It ended at Calar Alto with victory for Slovenian Jakob Omrzel.
Automatic translation: this article was translated with artificial intelligence from the original in Spanish. Read the original
This Thursday, 3 September, the Almanzora Valley experienced an afternoon of top-class cycling. The twelfth stage of La Vuelta a España, covering 166.6 kilometres between Vera and Calar Alto, crossed Zurgena, Arboleas, Albox, Cóbdar, Chercos and Bacares before the final ascent to Calar Alto, in the Sierra de los Filabres, where Slovenian Jakob Omrzel, of the Bahrain Victorious team, took the win, according to the official race classification.
Six towns on the peloton’s route
The stage set off from Vera in the early afternoon and soon headed inland. According to the scheduled timetable published by La Voz de Almería, the peloton was due to pass through these towns in the Valley:
- Zurgena, at about 13:40.
- Arboleas, at 13:46.
- Albox, at around 13:55.
After that, the riders had the Alto de Cóbdar ahead of them, a third-category climb of 4.9 kilometres at an average gradient of 4.5%, before continuing through Chercos.
Five climbs and a finish at the very top of the Filabres
The stage was packed with mountains: it featured five categorised climbs. As well as the Cabecico and Cóbdar, both third category, the riders tackled the Collado García, second category (18.5 kilometres at 2.4%), the Alto de Velefique, first category (13.1 kilometres at 7.2%), and the final climb to Calar Alto, also first category, with 17 kilometres at an average of 5.6%, according to the organisers’ figures. In total, the day added up to more than 4,500 metres of elevation gain, according to La Voz de Almería.
After cresting Velefique and passing through Bacares, the race took on the final climb up to the astronomical observatory, at an altitude of more than 2,100 metres. There, at the finish line beside the observatory, Omrzel claimed victory.
As reported by Andalucía Información, the stage passed through some 20 municipalities in Almería, from the coast at Vera to the peaks of Calar Alto, and Almería Provincial Council has presented it as a showcase for the province’s tourism and sports offering.
For residents of the Almanzora, the race passing through meant seeing some of the best cyclists in the world up close and putting the landscapes of our land in the shop window of international cycling, in one of the three Grand Tours on the calendar.
