Pain faces on the Angliru - Close-up look at how the likes of Vingegaard, Almeida, Pidcock and more have tackled cycling's hardest climb

For many, the Alto de l'Angliru is considered the hardest climb in pro cycling. Alongside the Monte Zoncolan, these are the two climbs that are most often featured in the professional side of the sport at the highest level that feature such incredibly high gradients, both on average and maximum. Here is how the Vuelta a Espana's top climbers looked like when going up it.

The climb is 12.4 kilometers long at 9.8%, a one-way road up a steep cliff that leads to a wilderness area in the middle of the Spanish Asturias. The final 6 kilometers of the ascent average 15% - it is noteworthy that the climbs' total average gradient includes the downhill finish and also a small flat section in it's early kilometers. This is a climb also often featured in the Vuelta, the queen of all 'goat tracks' - the incredibly steep and narrow roads the race organizers often use for spectacular finishes.

Hence, due to the ascent's brutality, in which not even small gears of great climbing legs will prevent the pro riders from suffering up it quite a lot, the fans were spoiled with the riders coming by almost individually and at very slow speeds. It also provided for spectacular pictures where alongside the passionate fans, the riders had their pain faces on.

We've assembled a gallery including the top riders at the Vuelta and how they were able to handle the climb, including stage winner João Almeida, race leader Jonas Vingegaard, all the podium contenders including Tom Pidcock, Jai Hindley and Felix Gall, and more... The climb was ridden at pace fully by UAE Team Emirates - XRG, who had Jay Vine and Felix Grossschartner launch Almeida into a stage win that truly lights up the fight for the overall win. But not even the very best in the world could hid etheir struggles up the 23% gradients of La Cueña les Cabres.