Greatest cycling climbs #5 Alto de L’Angliru (Vuelta a España)

Alto de L'Angliru (Vuelta)

ALTO DE L’ANGLIRU

Location: Asturias, near La Vega-Riosa, Spain
Altitude: 1573 m
Length: 12.2 km
Vertical climb: 1245 m
Average gradient: 10.1 %
The steepest part, the Cueña les Cabres: 23.6 % (3 km from the summit) 

"Angliru starts off relatively easy - the average gradient on the first 5 km is 7.6 %, enough to hurt but well within the realms of rideable for a professional. The sixth kilometre is easy, flattening for a while and even descending for a short way. From then on, it gets tough. Very tough. The average gradient for the last 6 km is 13.1 %, beginning to stretch the boundaries of what can be done - but, as if that wasn't harsh enough, there's the Cueña les Cabres 3 km from the top with a gradient of 23.8 %."

http://cyclopunk.blogspot.com/2011/08/vuelta-espana-stage-15-preview.html

To be honest, Monte Zoncolan is brutal, but so is Alto de L’Angliru:

"We’re not animals and this is inhuman," David Millar cursed while refusing to cross the finish line in 2002.

"You go at 9 kilometers an hour. It's hell. There’s nothing remotely like it," said Roberto Heras, winner on the Angliru in 2002.

“What do they want? Blood? They ask us to stay clean and avoid doping and then they make the riders tackle this kind of barbarity,” said Vicente Belda, the manager of the Kelme team.

"Climbing the Angliru would have been impossible 20 years ago simply because the gears we used were too high. It's only advances in equipment that enable races to be taken up climbs like that now," said former British pro cyclist Graham Jones.

Prior to 1999, Alto de L’Angli (alternative name La Gamonal) was unknown among road cycling community. In 1996, Marcel Prieto (director of the ONCE team) explored the climb. He was impressed and introduced the climb to the Vuelta’s organization. At that time organizers were favoring the climb to Lagos de Covadonga which had been used several times since first inclusion in 1983 (and was last climbed in 2010). 

However, two years later the organizers of the Vuelta wanted a mountain to rival the Alpe d'Huez and Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France and the Mortirolo Pass and Monte Zoncolan in the Giro d'Italia, which would go on in 2003 to add one of the world's most demanding climbs, the Zoncolan, in an attempt to compete with the new Spanish climb. 

The Angliru was first included in 1999, on stage eight from León. José Maria Jiménez won after catching Pavel Tonkov a kilometer from the finish. He dedicated the win to Marco Pantani, disqualified from that year's Giro d'Italia, saying: "I dedicate it to Pantani by everything that he has suffered in this time."

In 2000, Gilberto Simoni won the stage at Angliru (all time fastest ascent time for Heras: 41'55''). 

In 2002, Roberto Heras won the stage:

In 2008, Alberto Contador won stage at Angliru finishing 42 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde and 58 seconds ahead of Joaquin Rodriguez. That year, the 10th place rider was three minutes back of Contador's winning time.

 

In 2011, Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins lost the overall lead of the Vuelta in Angliru. The climb proved to be too much for the Brit.

Juan Cose Cobo (Geox-TMC), who started the day in fourth overall 55 seconds behind Wiggins, took the stage and the leader's red jersey after a brilliant performance on the mountains slopes that ramp up to 24 %.

The Spaniard attacked with 6 km to go, and crossed the line 48 seconds ahead of Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM), Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC) and Britain's Chris Froome. Wiggins finished 1'21" behind Cobo who won the Vuelta. Certainly, Alto de L'Angliru proved its cruelty.

Year	Winner of Angliru stage
1999	José Maria Jiménez (ESP)
2000	Gilberto Simoni (ITA)
2002	Roberto Heras (ESP)
2008	Alberto Contador (ESP)
2011	Juan José Cobo (ESP)

We will kill the Monte Zoncolan first. Alto de L'Angliru is next on the list.