The 2020 Vuelta a España (opens in new tab) will return to Angliru, Spain's toughest climb, according to the Spanish sports newspaper Marca (opens in new tab).

This 12.6-km climb has several kilometers of climbs above 12% and hairpins that reach 20%. The Angliru stage is preceded and followed by a little-known summit finish in Farrapona, in the Asturias region.

The full 2020 Vuelta route will be announced in Madrid on December 17, but so far few details of the route have been revealed.

The third Grand Tour of 2020 will start in the Netherlands and return to Spain via the Basque Country, possibly climbing the Tourmalet (open in new tab) in the French Pyrenees at the end of the second week, with an uphill time trial in Galicia in the third week.

The 2020 Vuelta a España will open with a 23.7km team time trial in Utrecht on Friday evening, August 14. In Madrid, the final stage will take place on September 6.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) is a strong winner of the 2019 Vuelta. The Slovenian dominated the time trial in Pau to take the red jersey and defend his advantage in the mountains and echelon in the final week, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in second place and fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates ), who completed a hat-trick of mountain stages in his first Grand Tour to finish on the podium.

According to Marca, after final meetings with local community organizers, the Vuelta 2020 will return to Angliru for the eighth time since the race's first appearance on a foggy day in 1999.

The last time the Vuelta took on Angril, in 2017, Alberto Contador took his second stage win and Chris Froome won the overall.

Marca also reports that there will be at least one stage at the end of the first week in the wine-growing region of La Rioja. This stage will pass through the hills of Soria and Aragon, further east in Spain.

The important question is whether Farrapona and Angril will face off at the end of the second week, but theoretically the Tourmalet climb is already scheduled for that weekend.

As the routes of the 2013 and 2017 Vuelta suggest, and as seems logistically likely, the two Asturian mountain stages will be the final stages and the crowning of the overall winner on Sunday before the long trip to Madrid at the end of the third week, when the curtain The stage could be brought down.