Originally Posted by DavidRangde

Alright so, I've noticed that mountain stages in the Vuelta always seem a lot more daunting than those in the Tour de France and the Giro. Looking at the final climb of stage 13 in this year's Vuelta, Los Machucos, there are several parts of the climb +15%, some maxing out at 25(!!)%. Longer climbs are less steep (below 7%), but shorter climbs are usually nearing 8-9%.

In this years TdF, everyone was going on and on about La Planche des Belles Filles and how tough the climb was, but it never surpassed 14% on the steepest parts. Long climbs were generally below 7% as far as I remember. (please correct me if I'm wrong though)

The Giro is somewhere in between. You've got some short parts above 12%, combined with long climbs averaging more than 7%.