Campeonato de los andes 2026

[NBeullens]

I saw that nobody had started the works for the campeonato, last year TAKA was already done with it the 23th, so if needed i would design the tour (as long as i can still send my december tour i made last year), if there are any requests you now have time to say them.
Also what are the rules for it, what is considered too hard or too easy? (i have read the rules for intermediates and such)

[Tukhtahuaev]

I started working on it!

I could also try to design it as well.

would like to see takas design.

OK, let's go for TAKA design 2025 and ECS can be one of the candidates for 2026.

ECS already volunteered for this year. Doesn't mean that he has to do it or even still wants to do so of course

[ECS Cycling]

I started working on it!

I could also try to design it as well.

would like to see takas design.

OK, let's go for TAKA design 2025 and ECS can be one of the candidates for 2026.

ECS already volunteered for this year. Doesn't mean that he has to do it or even still wants to do so of course

Don't think I will have the time this year, so I won't design

[NBeullens]

I started working on it!

I could also try to design it as well.

would like to see takas design.

OK, let's go for TAKA design 2025 and ECS can be one of the candidates for 2026.

ECS already volunteered for this year. Doesn't mean that he has to do it or even still wants to do so of course

Don't think I will have the time this year, so I won't design

No problem in that case i'll already start a bit unless there are some complaints, tips or wishes are still welcome


Now at 22:31 18/09 i'm done with the first 4 stages of this andes

[Berlin Marks]

[NBeullens]

Time to show what i think is the 2nd hardest Andes since 2019:
2852km (longest ever)
70 660m elevation (most ever)
24,7756 hm/km (2nd most)
237km cobbles (3rd most)



Stage 1: Simon Bolivar airport - Caracas (TTT) / 44km, 1440hm

We start this tour with a quite hard team time trial, depending on what alk or gip say about how the code works for team time trial it could turn out way different, i made it with the 5 man needed rule in mind. Should already set quite the tone for this tour.


Stage 2: Simon Bolivar airport - Valencia (hilly) / 208km, 4640hm

The first real mountain is one of the hardest in South America and could make sure some helpers won't see the front of the race anymore. With the final 80km being flat this should probably go to some attackers on the flat section.


Stage 3: Barquisimeto - Sabaneta (Flat) / 241km, 2270hm

The first flat stage has a very hard start with some very steep cobbled climbs but with about 160km of nothing at the end teams who did get dropped should be able to close the gap, or teams who dropped people could try and keep them behind but might not do that with stage 4 in mind. The winner is probably once again an attacker.


Stage 4: Barinas - Pico Campanario (Mountain) / 205km, 6410hm

Only 2 mountains, but 2 mountains is all you need to make it a very hard stage.The alto de santo domingo is your pretty standard long relatively steep South American climb whilst the Pico Campanario with it gravels makes it a very hard climb and the first real test for the climbers.


Stage 5: El Vigia - El Guayabo (Flat) / 157km, 50hm

The flattest Andes stage ever, there is not a lot to be said about it.


Stage 6: Cucuta - Cerro el Picacho (Mountain) / 185km, 5670hm

A pretty standard mountain stage. Even though it has some good mountains the final could best be described as hilly and probably won't make the biggest GC gaps. Potentially even a Classic that wins it.


Stage 7: The Cerro Picacho circuit (Hilly) / 126km, 4320hm

The last stage before the restday is a 6 lap race with the Cerro Picacho, we are right outside of Medellin where the riders will see who the best one is on a very steep but short hill. With a 15% 15% 21% sequence in this only 6km long hill, should show some quite decent gaps if someone loses track of their opponents.


Rest Day


Stage 8: Bucay - Chimborazo (Mountain) / 228km, 8680hm

Whilst the first part of this Tour is relatively easy this stage isn't, the first stage in Ecuador should wake up everyone. It has some insanely hard climbs most noteably El Torneado. With the stage finishing at about 4700m high it will be an all out effort the entire stage to finish on the beautifull mountain that is Chimborazo.


Stage 9: San Pedro de Alausi - Angas (ITT) / 59km, 1300hm

The ITT, always a classic in the Campeonato and that's why this one is so long (not the longest ever though), it is relatively flat for being a Campeonato ITT but with its length it should give the good time trialist a lot of potential to gain some major time if they lost it before, also important for the next stages.


Stage 10: Canar - El Garrido (Flat) / 277km, 2750hm

The longest stage in an Andes tour ever. Even with it being so long the long downhill after the not even that hard first part should make it more a fight of energy management than a lot of gaps early, but with the final 25km having gravel it should give the teams who can bring their climber safe to the line that can call themselves the winner of the stage.


Stage 11: Buenavista - Las Chinchas (Mountain) / 186km, 5580hm

A very standard mountain stage, a big chance for riders who lost some time yesterday to get some well needed time back on their competitors.


Stage 12: Catamayo - Macaro (Mountain) / 228km, 5410hm

A flat sprint finish. But that one climb, the 'Albuscho', that climb will be so important with it both being steep and having gravel, a climb of attrition, a climb where standing on the pedals could kill you. The riders will hope that it doesn't rain or it could be a very slow climb and a quite dangerous descend.


Stage 13: Suyo - Tambillo (Hilly) / 229km, 5150hm

Once again a quite basic mountain stage but it has some gravel halfway. The big reason this is hilly is that the final is almost perfect for strong Classics and they should be able to beat the climbers if they want to. I don't expect the biggest gaps in the world on this stage.


Stage 14: Puerto Chinchipe - Yangana (Mountain) / 211km, 7030hm

A stage through the mountains to get from Peru back to Ecuador. The middle part has quite some gravel and it would have been way more if donwhill kilometres were allowed, at least the gravel is of good quality. Finishing is on the hard gravel hill that you get to if you take a right turn in the small town of Yangana. This stage has a bit of everything and is the appetizer for the last stage.


Stage 15: Sarayunga - Bermejos (Mountain) / 268km, 9760hm

Did i go too far? Most likely; Will this kill all riders? Yeah probably; Does that sound like a problem for my riders and not me? You betcha.
This stage can only be described as potential murder, it has everything: An insane HC climb (Paso Pucara), Long gravel sections + climbs (yes, at least it is only 1 star so still doable), the length and the elevation.
The rider that wins this stage can say that he might have won the hardest stage ever, this is pure dedication, a mental warfare, only the strongest survive and only 1 can crown himself the master (well 1 for every edition)



Recap and reasoning
Did i make it a bit too hard, i don't know maybe a little bit yes, i still think it is easier than 2023 though. I put everything i find important in an Campeonato De Los Andes winner. You have the obvious ones, Mountain and regeneration. But i think that TT is ofcourse also important but for me the big thing that is the difference between the Campeonato and a real life Grand Tour. The cobbles, whilst i think the 400km of cobbles in 2023 (compared to 242 in mine, and on average a lower grade of gravel) was a bit overboard, a good Andes winner should at least be capable to ride on the cobbles. If you don't have those 4 strengths i don't consider you worthy to be considered the winner of the hardest tour this game has to offer each year.

I hope you guys like it , i hope you guys fear it

Your favorite psychopath, masochist, and everything in between. Beullenscycling

[drei.zehn]

Andes
GesendetCOLON Di Sep 29, 2026 1:24 pm
VonCOLON drei.zehn
AnCOLON NBeullens

All bullshit aside…

I think your Andes version is even for that race a bit too extrem.
Is it 2 ITT? Or a TTT?

10/15 stages with cobble parts is too much
Also too much cobble climbing. There is 0 „normal“ mountain finish
268 & 277 km is just too much in such a tour imo

Stages 5-7, 11, 13 are fine

Last 6 stages have an average of 233,17 km. Thats too much


Just an early, honest feedback to give you time to think about it

Already gave you my opinion, too lazy to do it new

[Hoefs Cycling Team]

Hey Beullens, that rest day isn't necessary You’ve clearly given this some thought and put a lot of time into it! It’s not for me to judge, but I appreciate your effort. I don't have the right riders for this Tour at all, but I’ll be following this topic with interest—and I might just sign up my team too!

[Alkworld]

The design is certainly insane, but designer's choice I guess not many players would join, also because of the long duration of the stages, races might be boring because of the insane energy consumption here, but that's in the end up to the players.

[Nomorelulz]

Never rode Andes, and probably it's supposed to be extreme: but the length of the stages are too much in my opinion (time wise and energy levels). I think you might expect this to create lot of action and strategy, but I think this will lead to passiveness and boredom.

I do like the mix of pave, climb, flat parts etc!

[Yamaka Corse]

Only thing I would say is that maybe moving 1 easy stage between the last 5 could really help the fun allowing a 50 - 100 km leader attack (already told you so nothing new and already know your idea is to have the last days as "killers")


Watching everything togheder make me think that in some kind of field a 70 mountain could also win the whole tour, expect to see 25 minutes between escapers and climbers, Pierdavide is Very Sad but with his wage and low mountain skill he will not be part of the tour, considering to buy a climber from market to play the tour but maybe my team is too young for help an 85+ mountain :/

[Bugatti]

I’d really like to sign up for Anden, but it looks pretty tough to manage

Racing for over 2 hours every day is hard to fit into my schedule. Maybe cutting a few stages to bring some of them down to around 90 minutes would help attract more managers.
Is there no morning edition planned, or are the time slots at 14:00, 19:00 and 22:00 not fixed yet?

Maybe you could cut stage 2 (50 km flat) and stage 3 (70–100 km flat)?
What about starting stage 8 at the top of the climb to Achin?
And starting stage 10 somewhere around Cuenca?

[Tukhtahuaev]

Definitely going to be difficult to fit this into any schedule. Stages are so incredibly long.
Also worried about the high amount of cobbles here. We already get several key climbs with difficult cobbles, but in addition to that there are also key sections of cobbles on flat stages. With how extreme this is in general, this could still work out to be a decent balance, but I have a few doubts.

I'll try to ride this anyway, if I find the time, but I fear low participation numbers

[Nomorelulz]

If low participation is expected we need to be conservative about editions. Who wants 5 tours, where everyone makes shitload of money + points in offseason where there are not many other races with high categories. This disturbs division rankings for 2 months..

[NBeullens]

Small Profile change:

The cobbles in stage 2 will be paved




About time:

Whilst there are 2 very long stages in my andes the actual time for other stages are kinda normal compared to other Andes tours. Craziest is that if you count up all minutes played for the entire tour it is the 3rd shortest ever only longer than 2024 and 2025 (2025 had 1 stage less)

[NBeullens]

Discussion TTT:

Which type of TTT should it be? I designed thinking it would be the 5man rule but in theory it could be perfect for the Tour de France rules trying to launch the leaders to the steepest parts of the hill.

[Hoefs Cycling Team]

As I understand it, special rules apply only to the three Grand Tours. I believe that a team time trial outside of the three Grand Tours should always use the old-school five-rider rule.

[NBeullens]

As I understand it, special rules apply only to the three Grand Tours. I believe that a team time trial outside of the three Grand Tours should always use the old-school five-rider rule.

In that case we keep it as i originally intended

[Yamaka Corse]

untill Gip doesn't find the bug all TTT gonna be played with TDF rules, let's hope he find it

[drei.zehn]

Discussion TTT:

Which type of TTT should it be? I designed thinking it would be the 5man rule but in theory it could be perfect for the Tour de France rules trying to launch the leaders to the steepest parts of the hill.

Here the new rules would actually make sense imo

[Yamaka Corse]

Discussion TTT:

Which type of TTT should it be? I designed thinking it would be the 5man rule but in theory it could be perfect for the Tour de France rules trying to launch the leaders to the steepest parts of the hill.

Can we know/test what kind of TTT this will be? I mean is set as standard but standard are still buggy?
Should we have a test and discover what it will be? Afterall there are 0 TTT this month having this one for a test would be not bad (for me at least)