Spain · Iberian Peninsula
Alto de l'Angliru
Widely considered one of the hardest climbs in professional cycling. The monstrous Cueña les Cabres sector hits a terrifying 23.5% gradient.
- Length
- 12.5 km
- Avg gradient
- 10.1%
- Max gradient
- 24%
- Elevation gain
- 1,265 m
- Summit
- 1,573 m
- Hairpins
- 10
Versants
- From La Vega, Riosa — 12.5 km at 10.1% (max 24%)
History
The Angliru didn't exist as a race road until the Vuelta a España wanted one. Organisers were explicitly looking for a climb to rival Alpe d'Huez and Ventoux in the Tour and the Mortirolo in the Giro, and the road up to it — much of it previously a goat track locals called the camino de la cabra — was paved specifically to bring the Vuelta there for the first time in 1999, on stage eight from León. José María Jiménez won that inaugural finish, catching Pavel Tonkov just a kilometre from the line.
The climb is 12.5 km at an average of roughly 9.7%, gaining 1,266 m to a 1,573 m summit — but the average badly undersells it. The Cueña les Cabres ramp, about 3 km from the top, kicks up to around 23.5%, steep enough that professional riders have come to a near standstill on it in the middle of a race.
There's a sign partway up the climb calling the Angliru "the Mount Olympus of Cycling," and it's widely rated the hardest climb featured across all three Grand Tours — a reputation built in a single season rather than a century, and one the road has more than lived up to since.