Need a clue as to the Vallter 2000’s location? Say it like a long-pole track and field athlete. Still struggling? You will definitely get there if you’re a fan of the first Spanish WorldTour race of the season. Only don’t call this climb Spanish. Sure, it’s in Spain, but to anyone local the Vallter is categorically in Catalunya. Its name is Catalan for ‘valley’ after all.
Said valley is in fact the – obviously – and as a landscape it is gallery-worthy. But this isn’t the Catalunya of Dalí or Picasso. Set high in the Pyrenees less than a mile from the French frontier, here