Volta ao Concelho de Loulé: high temperatures, calçadinha, steep slopes and team time trial
XVII Volta ao Concelho de Loulé Juniores
From 14 to 16 april
First international event of the youth structure of the Contador Foundation this season. Festive dates in the field of work, ideal for competition in lower categories before the stop, also, of the school activity. The days of Easter are usually full of events and sporting competitions in different sports, disciplines and categories, and cycling is no exception. As far as the youth category is concerned, these days host a competition of great renown at continental level. The Volta ao Concelho de Loulé is here.
Under the direction of Félix García Casas, the blue expedition sets off for the Algarve to face three days of intense cycling on the winding mountain routes with views in some cases to the nearby Atlantic coast and with a really attractive Mediterranean forest scenery. Friday’s race will also feature a double sector that will be rounded off with an urban team time trial. And all the days will always have sections of calçadinha, the characteristic cobblestones used in the urban centres of the neighbouring country, as they pass through many towns. Some of them, such is the orography of Lusitanian urban centres, are on a slope.
As far as the mountains are concerned, perhaps the Alto da Picota (3 km at 6%), in the first sector of the second day, which also includes the cobbled Querença climb (1 km at 7%), and above all the double passage through Barranco do Velho (the first, 6.6 km at 4.5%; the second, on another slope, shorter and gentler) and the wall of Tor (1.5 km at 7.5%, with gradients of over 10%) in the final stage emerge as the main orographic obstacles. Tor is crowned less than ten kilometres from a finish that, on the other hand, climbs upwards.
Nil Aguilera, Balint Feldhoffer, Lucas Guillermo, Alem Herráiz, Iván Polo and David Puente make up the sextet with which the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team will participate. A peloton of 161 cyclists makes up this edition of the Portuguese race, which returns to its usual dates with the joint organization of the Câmara Municipal de Loulé, the Associação de Ciclismo do Algarve, the Federação Portuguesa de Ciclismo and the clubs of the city, both road and mountain bike. Quite an event.
The stages.
Thursday 14: Ameixial – Loulé (60 km).
Friday 15 (a): Loulé – Loulé (87 km).
Friday 15 (b): Loulé – Loulé (12 km CRE).
Saturday 16: Loulé – Loulé (115 km).
