Together with the route announcement of the 2024 Tour of the Alps on Tuesday, hints have been dropped that the spring ProSeries stage race, used as a Grand Tour tune-up, may transfer to the WorldTour calendar in two years.
Host cities of subsequent yr’s five-day stage race, April 15-19, 2024, and the ten categorized climbs alongside the route have been unveiled in Milan, attended by 1982 race winner Giuseppe Saronni, two-time Giro d’Italia stage winner Davide Cassani and recently-retired professional rider Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies), who’s from the northern area of Alto Adige/Südtirol the place the opening stage will end subsequent yr.
Feedback from the president of the European Biking Union (UEC), who can be the vp of the UCI, lauded the efforts to carry collectively a number of areas and ship a powerful future with new organisers, Infront Italia.
“The Tour of the Alps is a particular race. We see [Tour of the Alps] as a biking ‘laboratory’ and occasion that isn’t afraid to innovate, combining two territories. That is another excuse why I hope that the Tour of the Alps will probably be included within the World Tour calendar from 2026, when there will probably be a whole calendar reform. This race has all it takes,” stated Enrico Della Casa, UEC’s president.
Infront Italia signed a five-year settlement to supervise the expansion of the race, from advertising and marketing to technical features, with 2024 their first yr.
“We actually imagine within the staff we now have put collectively, beginning with the technical space that takes care of the course and the security side intimately, which is prime for us: we wish TotA to be an unforgettable expertise for your entire caravan. Having closing circuits makes the stage venues and the native individuals joyful,” stated Maurizio Evangelista, the race basic supervisor.
The difficult route, now in its seventh yr because the Tour of the Alps, will cowl 709.3 kilometres over the 5 days of racing throughout Austria and northern Italy. Although 42km shorter than final yr, there will probably be greater than 13,000 metres of elevation acquire packed into the competition. In 2023 Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) gained the GC title.
“The Tour of the Alps is a particular race that is aware of find out how to overcome partitions and borders. I actually like the truth that three of the 5 phases embrace a circuit: it is a chance for the general public to expertise extra elements of the race, one thing that brings individuals collectively,” stated Cassani, who retired from the professional peloton in 1996 and now works as a biking broadcaster in Italy.
“The 2024 route is balanced, hilly with quick and difficult climbs on three phases, then a giant queen stage on day 4 and a nonetheless difficult fifth stage. It is the perfect combine to rejoice a top-class winner, like Geoghegan Hart was.”
After a staff presentation occasion on Sunday, April 14, the ProSeries occasion begins April 15 with 133.3km from Neumarkt to the end in Trentino. Stage 2 is the longest at 189.1km, linking Salurn to Stans with a climb of the Brenner Go mid-way via. Schwaz serves as the beginning and end for stage 3 for an all-Tirolean day within the coronary heart of the Alps for 127km.
Stage 4 takes in 141.3km from Leifers to Borgo Valsugana with 3,830 metres of elevation acquire because the queen stage. After the climbs of the San Lugano, Redebus and Compet passes, organisers touted the ascent of the “unprecedented aspect” of the Vetriolo Go (9.4km at 8.7%), generally known as ‘Strada dei Baiti’.
The ultimate stage begins and ends in Levico Terme with 118.6km on the schedule, which incorporates circuits and a double ascent of Palü del Fersina (12.5km at 6.2%).
The occasion was first held in 1962 and 1963 as a one-day race, Giro del Trentino, after which morphed into the stage race in 1979, changing into the Tour of the Alps in 2017 with a number of days throughout three mountainous areas.
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