The route for the 2023 Vuelta a España was announced Tuesday, with speculation that it will feature an ultra-difficult third week, eight summit finishes, and a return to Spain's toughest angliru.

The outline for the 2023 Vuelta, the last of the Grand Tours to announce its route each year, will finally be unveiled Tuesday evening at a special presentation inside Barcelona's Palau de la Musica.

Such a long preparation period has allowed enough time for rumors to gather about the Tourmalet climb, multiple stages in the Picos de Europa in northern Spain, and a final showdown in the Guadarrama mountains an hour's drive northwest of Madrid.

So far, however, the only stages that have been confirmed are a team time trial in Barcelona on Saturday, August 26, a stage ending with a short climb in the Catalan capital's Parc Montjuïc the following day, and a mountain stage in Andorra on the first Monday. It has also been decided that the 2023 Vuelta will finish in Madrid on Sunday, September 17.

After a brief visit to Andorra, the first leg of the Vuelta heads south to the less difficult mountains of the Valencia region. While not strictly a summit finish, stage 8 over the steep and narrow "Wall of Kati" in the province of Alicante and the short descent that follows will probably be one of the main challenges of the first week.

However, rumors of a challenge to the area's Miserato, an unprecedented and extremely difficult summit finish, have not yet been confirmed, and other sources say that instead of the Miserato, a much easier stage may take place in Murcia on Sunday to close out the first week.

Week 2 is almost certain to open with a medium-distance individual time trial in Valladolid in northern Spain and then head east, with three summit finishes expected, the first being the decisive stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, the 12th Laguna Negra. The second stage, Tourmalet, France, is already widely known as one of cycling's most famous monster climbs.

Hard to imagine, but all of these climbing challenges may be overshadowed by the sheer scale that the Vuelta peloton may face in the third week of 2023. In a much harder finale than in 2022, the Vuelta is expected to return to the undecided but difficult summit finish in Asturias, followed immediately by the dreaded Angril climb of the Picos de Europa The Angril, last visited in the 2020 Vuelta, is often the decisive climb of the entire race It was one of the few points in the 2020 edition where eventual winner Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) had a near-miss.

As if this was not enough for the peloton, the Vuelta is expected to return to Madrid for a stage through the Guadarrama mountains similar to the final day of the 2022 edition.

Of note will be stages that do not take place in Spain's largest provinces, Andalusia in the south or Extremadura in the west. Another region frequented by the Vuelta is Galicia, which hosted much of the final week of the race, but is also expected to be completely absent for the second year in a row.

Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, the 2023 Vuelta looks set to offer a hefty transfer fee, perhaps none more difficult than the final day of the 2023 Giro d'Italia from Trieste to Rome. But there is likely to be a long haul across half of Spain at the end of the first week, and a long haul back to the capital on the last day of the second week. In any case, late Tuesday night it will finally be clear what awaits the riders and race followers of the Vuelta a España.