Women's cycling may face it's hardest climb ever - La Vuelta Femenina strongly rumoured to have Alto de l'Angliru finale

Over the past few years women's cycling has seen tremendous development including the return of the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix Femmes and the introduction of increasingly harder races. Perhaps the toughest of them all this season may be La Vuelta Femenina as it may feature the mighty Angliru.

This is reported by Le Puncheur who argue that, after finishing at the very difficult Lagos de Covadonga ascent, the 2024 edition will likely end with a mountain stage that will have it's finish at the summit of the Alto de l'Angliru.

After climbs such as Lagos de Covadonga and Col du Tourmalet have been introduced as summit finishes in recent years, more steps will likely be taken. The Asturian climb is rated as one of the absolute hardest in pro cycling and has been made famous by it's presences at the Vuelta a España - most famously last summer, where Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard dropped teammate and race leader Sepp Kuss on it's slopes.

The climb is 12.4 kilometers at 10.3% average gradient but those numbers tell only half the story. The ascent in fact features 6 kilometers that average over 13% and ramps up to 23% in the midst of it. A brutal climb by anyone's standards, and the women's peloton may face it's hardest challenge to date.