The 2024 Vuelta a España route kicks off for the fifth time in Vuelta’s historical past with a overseas begin, this time in Lisbon, the capital of neighbouring Portugal, with a brief, simple particular person time trial that may resolve the race’s first chief.
Two extra hilly phases take the Vuelta again in the direction of the Spanish frontier, with the race marking its return to Spain on stage 4 with a primary summit end on the rugged ascent of Pico de Villuercas, final tackled in 2021 with a win for France’s Romain Bardet.
The primary main mountain stage will come on way more acquainted terrain on stage 9 when the Vuelta tackles two ultra-difficult cat.1 climbs within the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain vary – the Purchil and a double ascent of the Alto de Hazallanas.
Each climbs featured within the hardest day’s racing of the 2022 Vuelta a España, on a stage the place Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) launched a searing late assault on the summit in a troubling setback for total winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
Slightly than conclude in Sierra Nevada’s ski station like in 2022, subsequent August, the Vuelta will descend again to the town of Granada for its end, besides, with a lot climbing, stage 9 will seemingly be the primary time the GC contenders come to the fore within the 2024 race.
A protracted switch to Spain’s far northwest then follows, and after two rugged treks by the distant, hilly area of Galicia to open up week two of the Vuelta, an extended, grinding ascent of the Manzaneda cat.1 climb on stage 13 will seemingly see the general favourites again in motion.
Stage 14’s way more difficult closing climb of Ancares – the scene of a spectacular duel between Alberto Contador and Chris Froome in 2014 and with some notoriously tough street surfaces – will as soon as once more take a look at the GC favourites previous to one more hefty switch, this time into the guts of the neighbouring Picos de Europa mountain vary.
The Vuelta route presentation in Madrid on Thursday included a pre-recorded interview with Dario Cataldo as the one earlier winner on the ski slopes of Cuitu Neru, the ultimate climb on stage 15. Concluding with gradients of 24% and a frightening 19 kilometres lengthy, the Italian allrounder recollected that it was “the steepest climb I’ve ever accomplished in my life. At one level, I attempted wanting upwards to see the place the end was, and it was at such a steep angle, despite the fact that the end was shut, I almost bought a crick in my neck.”
After the little-known Cuitu Negru brings down the curtain on the second week, one of many Vuelta’s most basic ascents, the Lagos de Covadonga, opens up the interminable record of summit finishes on stage 16.
Tackled 22 instances within the race because it was first used within the mid-Eighties and well-known as dwelling to among the final wolves in western Europe, Covadonga has usually determined the Vuelta’s total classification, because it did in 2021 when Roglič all however wrapped up his third successive GC title.
This time, although, its function might be totally different, given stage 19 then encompasses a return to the Alto de Moncalvillo, the place Roglič and Richard Carapaz virtually fought one another to a standstill within the 2020 Vuelta, and stage 20 includes one of many hardest mountains phases of the whole 2024 route.
Ending on the slopes of Picon Blanco, an ascent usually used within the Vuelta a Burgos, stage 20 would be the final probability for the climbers to influence within the 2024 Vuelta a España, previous to a switch south to the ultimate time trial in Madrid.
It stays to be seen if the ultimate race towards the clock in 2024 will spark an upset of the dimensions of the 2002 Vuelta, the final time a closing day TT was held in Madrid. That day, Aitor ‘Terminator’ Gonzalez managed to oust climber Roberto Heras from the general lead on the final day attainable.
However as Alejandro Valverde, a visitor of honour on this 12 months’s Vuelta presentation and teammate of Gonzalez in that 12 months’s Vuelta, put it, “that point trial goes to maintain the riders on their toes proper as much as the final metre of the ultimate stage.” And it’ll actually make sure that the 2024 Vuelta a España ends on a really totally different observe to its conventional bunch dash stage as properly.
Stage 1: Lisbon – Oeiras (ITT), 12km
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Stage 2: Cascais – Ourém, 191km
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Stage 3: Lousã – Castelo Branco, 182km
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Stage 4: Plasencia – Pico Villuercas, 167km
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Stage 5: Fuente del Maestre – Sevilla, 170km
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Stage 6: Jerez de la Frontera – Yunquera, 181km
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Stage 7: Archidona – Cordoba, 179km
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Stage 8: Úbeda – Cazorla, 159km
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Stage 9: Motril – Granada, 178km
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Stage 10: Ponteareas – Baiona, 160km
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Stage 11: Campus Tecnológico Cortizo Padron – Campus Tecnológico Cortizo Padron, 164km
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Stage 12: Ourense Termal – Estacion de Montana de Manzaneda, 137km
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Stage 13: Lugo – Puerto de Ancares, 171km
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Stage 14: Villafranco del Bierzo – Villablino, 199km
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Stage 15: Infiesto – Valgrande-Pajares Cuitu Negru, 142km
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Stage 16: Luanco – Lagos de Covadonga, 181km
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Stage 17: Arnuero – Santander, 143km
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Stage 18: Vitoria-Gasteiz – Maestu-Parque Pure de Izki, 175km
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Stage 19: Logroño – Alto de Moncalvillo, 168km
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Stage 20: Villarcayo – Picón Blanco, 188km
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Stage 21: Madrid – Madrid (ITT), 22km
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