La Vuelta managed to celebrate its 75th edition in a 2020 marked by the pandemic. A tremendous success, but at the cost, among other sacrifices, of asking the fans to stay home. Therefore, for the 2021 edition, the organization wanted to fulfill an old request of its followers: to include one of the most demanded ports, the terrible Gamoniteiro, with its 15 km at almost 10%, which will be promoted this Thursday, September 2, in the decisive 18th stage.
“We had waited a long time for him to be included in the race and it is a joy. Hopefully the situation improves and the Asturian fans can be present in the ditches ”, explains Dani Navarro, Asturian cyclist from Burgos-BH, who attended with AS to recognize the unprecedented ascent. There in the Sierra del Aramo, where Angliru made world fame, the Gamoniteiro now appears with the same vocation: to be a mythical peak.
Its first part coincides with another classic ascent such as La Cobertoria and after nine intense kilometers in which the average of 10% produces deep wear, the detour to the top of Gamoniteiro is taken. “It has nothing to do with Angliru. I have known this climb well for years and its difficulty lies in its constant unevenness. Only after that turn is there a small landing to take up very hard ramps “, explains the runner, a lover of this area, where it is not difficult to find former workers from the mines of the region wearing a jersey enjoying their wonders on the bike.
During the ascent, which after starting in the council of Lena advances towards the top located in that of Quirós, “the landscape is becoming more and more beautiful, although I do not think that we can look at the race,” says Dani Navarro while leaving your right a beautiful mountain lake. And it is that the climb does not give respite. “That is why I believe that these types of ports are more decisive than Angliru, where the rampons on television are very spectacular, but we are standing still. Here in the Gamoniteiro the hardness is increasing, and more at that height of Vuelta and with the stage that we will carry on, ”he explains. Because all the terrain will be just as demanding, a route with well-known classic ports such as San Lorenzo, La Cobertoria and El Cordal. “It is going to be spectacular. Hopefully a good day will come out of those that we have in Asturias at that time, because with rain the danger and nervousness would be added in the descents ”.
And so, while Dani Navarro climbs steeply slopes above 10%, the antennas that crown the Gamoniteiro can be seen. And the road gets even steeper to reach 16% and 17%. The icing. “I hadn’t upload it for a long time, but I’m remembering everything …”, he says with a half smile. It refers to that outcome in which the cyclist, who will carry more than 150 km on his legs up and down, looks up, caressing the finish line, although he still has the hardest.
“This last mile and a half is very demanding. It seems that it never ends! It is endless “, recognizes after facing final sections that reach 14% on average, the surprise that this Gamoniteiro reserves for the brave who ascend it, although in return the landscape that has already been glimpsed between slopes and ravines, becomes a vision wonderful, with the magic of the Asturian environment.
An end worthy of a queen stage, of a great cycling day … The gift that the Spanish round wanted to offer to all those fans who had been demanding the presence of the colossus for years, and who will generate so many headaches for the organizers, which they will have to do magic in the face of the logistical challenges proposed by a summit with hardly any space to host the race caravan. But the inconveniences hardly overshadow the enormous virtues that can be seen from the 1,772 meters of altitude of its summit. Those who have agreed to hobby and organization. On September 2, the story of an idyll begins: that of the Gamoniteiro with La Vuelta.
Asturias, La Vuelta and the desire of Navarro and Burgos-BH
Asturias is always the protagonist in La Vuelta, although in recent editions it has been more so for its spectacular routes than for the triumphs of the runners of the Principality. The Spanish round has an inexhaustible source of land in Asturian ports to create decisive stages, from Lagos de Covadonga or the now mythical Angliru to new discoveries in recent editions such as Les Praeres, La Cubilla or this Gamoniteiro. The organization has dispensed with the configuration of its latest layouts of classic areas such as Andalusia, the Basque Country or even the Pyrenees, absent in 2021 … but the 2009 edition, which started in the Netherlands, was the last in which Asturias was not present. Since then, it has always been an obligatory step.
However, the successes of Asturian runners in the Spanish round in recent years have not been so prolific. Historically, names like those of José Manuel Fuente Tarangu, Vicente López Carril, José Enrique Cima, Santi Pérez or Samuel SánchezTo give a few examples, they have been illustrious winners in stages of La Vuelta, but since Dani Navarro himself raised his arms in Cabárceno Park in 2014, no cyclist in the region has achieved it. “We all like to try to shine in the stages that pass through our land. Of course, in this Vuelta I will have two stages marked, such as those of Lagos de Covadonga and this one of Gamoniteiro. We will try to be on the run or be protagonists “, says the Burgos-BH cyclist. In fact, the closest the Asturian fans came to celebrating a victory for one of their own was in the 2017 stage ending in Gijón, in which Iván García Cortina was third and Navarro finished ninth, both on a break in the who could not prevent the victory of a fantastic stage hunter like Thomas De Gendt.
Dani Navarro, on whom Burgos-BH has bet this season at the age of 37, will also have double motivation to be part of a team that lives a very special edition due to the departure from Burgos. “We all know how important this edition is going to be for the team and hopefully we can achieve something great like what Ángel Madrazo achieved in Javalambre in 2019”, says the runner, who aspires to still give good cycling days. And if it is in the great objective of his team, La Vuelta, and in the passage of the road through his land, all the better.