The Angliru is renowned for its brutal steeps as one of cycling\u2019s most savage climbs. Riders have called its 20-percent-plus grades cycling\u2019s ultimate test of suffering.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, for the first time, the women\u2019s peloton will confront its myth and menace during La Vuelta Femenina.<\/p>\n
Set to cap the 2026 edition with the final stage, cycling\u2019s most feared climb is setting up what organizers are calling a \u201ccelebration of a new era in women\u2019s cycling.\u201d<\/p>\n
One rider relishing the looming pain is Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, the Tour de France Femmes defending champion who\u2019s poised to add La Vuelta to her growing palmar\u00e8s<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to do this climb. It\u2019s a mythic climb. It\u2019s going to be very hard there,\u201d Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot told Velo<\/em>. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to expect, so we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n La Vuelta\u2019s final stage on Saturday will be this edition\u2019s longest and most demanding stage.<\/p>\n The colossal climb of the Angliru will decide the final winner of this year\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot comes into La Vuelta winless so far in 2026, but that could change soon.<\/p>\n La Vuelta tackles its first summit finish Friday, and after podiums at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Femmes this spring, she seems overdue for a win.<\/p>\n \u201cI think already [Friday] we can have an idea of the GC classification,\u201d she said ahead of Thursday\u2019s stage. \u201cI\u2019m feeling every day better, so we have to see how I feel on the longer climbs. I\u2019m feeling good, but I also don\u2019t know how the others are feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n The brutal steeps of the monster of Spain often see racers roll out mountain bike gearing and Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot \u2014 who stunned the peloton last year with back-to-back summit win in the French Alps last year at the Tour de France Femmes \u2014 is bracing for a brutal day.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure we need to have the good gearing to climb, and we have the best setup, so I\u2019m not afraid about that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Introduced in 1999, the Alto de l\u2019Angliru was one of cycling\u2019s first \u201cimpossible\u201d climbs, and instantly become one of cycling\u2019s most feared.<\/p>\n The 12.4km ascent averages 9.7 percent, with brutal ramps pitching to 23 percent and extended sections above 15 percent. The 1,200 meters of vertical gain make it one of cycling\u2019s most searing and demanding climbs.<\/p>\n Some doubts lingered that the Angliru might be too extreme for the women\u2019s peloton, but La Vuelta organizers say the peloton\u2019s proven beyond any doubt it can handle cycling\u2019s most demanding climbs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very empowering that the organizers believe we can do such a crazy, brutal climb,\u201d said Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, the 2024 Tour de France Femmes winner, on LaVuelta.com<\/em>. \u201cThe difference will be made by how long you can suffer and ignore the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n La Vuelta Femenina has already routed the peloton onto such iconic climbs such as the Lagos de Covadonga and Lagunas de Neila in recent editions.<\/p>\n With the inclusion this year of the Angliru, the moment is seen as the next step in the evolution of women\u2019s racing and parity across the sport.<\/p>\n La Vuelta is set to change gears Friday, with a sharp, first-category summit finish in Asturias.<\/p>\n After nearly a week of sprints, the legs will sting. Overnight leader Lotte Kopecky knows her time in red is numbered.<\/p>\n SD Worx-Protime will be hoping to pass it along to teammate Anna van der Breggen.<\/p>\n Van der Breggen has had a solid season in her the second year of her comeback after a three-year hiatus, and is poised to move up this weekend.<\/p>\n Last year, she won a stage at La Vuelta, and finished third overall behind Demi Vollering and Marlen Reuser.<\/p>\n Neither one of them are back, so she knows Friday\u2019s summit finale and Saturday\u2019s historic climb up the Angliru will decide everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody\u2019s looking forward to Angliru climb. I know it\u2019s going to be really tough, so hopefully I have a good day on the climb,\u201d Van der Breggen told Velo<\/em>.<\/p>\n Van der Breggen knows about climbing steep walls, most famously the Mur de Huy at La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, which she won a record seven times.<\/p>\n She also knows the Angliru is something else altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t really seen these longer climbs yet. I\u2019ve been on steep climbs like that before, like at the Mur de Huy, but this is a bit longer,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cWe will be using different gearing. I think we will know more [Friday] about who is climbing well.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with Niewiadoma-Phinney and rising Spanish star Paula Blasi, the peloton\u2019s top climbing stars will be pushing for the honor to be the first winner up one of Europe\u2019s most notorious climbs.<\/p>\n And what about the hype surrounding climbing cycling\u2019s most fearsome summit?<\/p>\n Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot was matter of fact about the historic moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not? If the men are doing it, why we should not?\u201d the French star told Velo<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/women-race-angliru-first-time-vuelta-femenina\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ANGLIRhorizontal.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated May 8, 2026 01:22PM The Angliru is renowned for its brutal steeps as one of cycling\u2019s most savage climbs. Riders have called its 20-percent-plus grades cycling\u2019s ultimate test of suffering. On Saturday, for the first time, the women\u2019s peloton will confront its myth and menace during La Vuelta Femenina. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1925524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Colossus of the north<\/h2>\n
![\"Angliru\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/angliru-720x437.jpeg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
\u2018If the men climb it, why not?\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Van](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274261336-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")