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The route of the 2024 Vuelta a España is as usually climb-heavy as any of the latest editions of Spain’s Grand Tour, however it would additionally conclude with a last particular person time trial by the streets of the capital metropolis, Madrid, for the primary time since 2002.
Neither the Angliru nor the Pyrenees, two key mountain options of the 2023 route, will kind a part of the 2024 route, which was revealed on Tuesday night in Madrid.
Nevertheless, 9 summit finishes, together with the ascents of the ultra-hard Cuitu Negru and legendary Lagos de Covadonga within the second and third weeks, will be sure that one other high mountain specialist will definitely be within the operating to succeed American climber Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) as the general winner.
Then, after what’s arguably the hardest climbing day of all to the dauntingly tough ascent of Picón Blanco within the northern province of Burgos on stage 20, 24 hours later, the 2024 Vuelta concludes on September 8 with a quick, flat 22-kilometre particular person time trial in Madrid.
The total route in particulars
The 2024 Vuelta a España route kicks off for the fifth time in Vuelta’s historical past with a international begin, this time in Lisbon, the capital of neighbouring Portugal, with a brief, simple particular person time trial that may determine the race’s first chief.
Two extra hilly phases take the Vuelta again in 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 rather 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).
Quite 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 possible 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, a protracted, grinding ascent of the Manzaneda cat.1 climb on stage 13 will possible see the general favourites again in motion.
Stage 14’s rather more difficult last 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 finished in my life. At one level, I attempted trying upwards to see the place the end was, and it was at such a steep angle, although the end was shut, I practically obtained a crick in my neck.”
Will the ultimate race towards the clock spark a GC upset?
After the little-known Cuitu Negru brings down the curtain on the second week, one of many Vuelta’s most traditional ascents, the Lagos de Covadonga, opens up the interminable listing of summit finishes on stage 16.
Tackled 22 occasions within the race because it was first used within the mid-Nineteen Eighties and well-known as residence 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 may very well 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 contains 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 likelihood for the climbers to affect 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 size of the 2002 Vuelta, the final time a last 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 doable.
However as Alejandro Valverde, a visitor of honour on this yr’s Vuelta presentation and teammate of Gonzalez in that yr’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 definitely be sure that the 2024 Vuelta a España ends on a really totally different observe to its conventional bunch dash stage as nicely.
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