Vuelta iCal

D-3 to the start of the Vuelta a España. Here’s the calendar of the Vuelta stages for your electronic diary. What started out as a useful tool proves to be a very popular download. It’s also a chance to review the crucial stages.

Scroll down for the calendar but let’s look at the big days coming up:

• Stage 2: even the race website tasked with promoting the event says the the opening team time trial “will make very little difference to the general classification” so it’s Sunday’s stage that starts the spectacular finishes with the climb to the Caminito del Rey mountain walkway. It’s not long nor steep but it’s narrow and selective enough to start the show
• Stage 3: the sprint finishes might not so exciting but the field doesn’t have an obvious pecking order so tune in to see who is looking the sharpest
• Stage 4: there’s a punchy uphill finish that looks like it’s been made for Peter Sagan
• Stage 7: the first major summit finish of the race, 18km at 5% is not much but the final kilometres at Capileira are 6-8%
• Stage 9: the finish atop the Alto de Puig Llorença offers an Iberian Flèche Wallonne style finish

• Stage 11: the saw-tooth profile stage in Andorra, all concentrated in a punchy 138km route
• Stage 14: the novel finish at Fuente del Chivo above the Alto Campoo ski resort, a brute of a climb
• Stage 15: another decisive summit finish at the Alto de Sopres with regular double-digit gradients
• Stage 16: more climbing and more summit finishes. There’s the strong chance of repeat results every day but this is still decisive and compelling
• Stage 17: the Burgos time trial and a chance for some to make up for lost time
• Stage 20: the last mountain stage, the chance to change the race

That’s a lot of stages to keep an eye on but such is the route of the Vuelta that it presents a variety of finishes. If you’re interested in the hour as well as the day, the opening stage finishes at 8.30pm Euro time with all the other stages finishes forecast for 5.40pm.

iCal
An iCal is a calendar file that you can store on your phone or electronic diary like Outlook. There are several ways to get this on to your computer or phone.

Subscribe and get automatic updates: The recommended option is to subscribe by copying the iCal URL:

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/639bdv736bpu21i2eho9c14ed4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

• If you use MacOS/iOS copy the URL to the iCal file then Calendar.app hit cmd+alt+S (or File>New Calendar Subscription…) whilst in Calendar.app, paste in the link and it will update across all your devices and updates will be processed
• iPhone/iPad users should hold their finger here and wait for the pop up message and select copy. Then go to settings > mail/contacts/calendars > then “add account” > “other” > “add subscribed calendar” > paste the copied URL into the server field and follow the instructions. Think about turning off the alarm so you don’t get midnight alerts
• If you use Microsoft Outlook, copy the URL and then go to Tools > Account Settings > Internet Calendars and paste the URL to subscribe. In each case when the calendar is updated with a date change or an event is cancelled your software will upload the new data.

Direct download: You can download the iCal file for your organiser, phone, computer and other devices from here

google.com/calendar/ical/…/basic.ics

Right-click to save the ics / iCal / iCalendar file and you can import it into your electronic diary. If you have trouble with the subscription then this is an easier option but it means you might want to download a new version a few times a year to get the latest version.

Google Calendar: If you use Google Calendar then click on the icon on the bottom-right of the calendar up above. Note this method can work with Android phones when the iCal file might not although you might need the Google Sync calendar app.

Remember you can get the whole season of major men’s and women’s pro races at inrng.com/calendar.