This Tuesday, the Madrid Marriott Auditorium Hotel hosted the official presentation of the route of La Vuelta 24. The 79th edition of the Spanish tour will take off from Lisbon on the 17th of August and will conclude in Madrid on the 8th of September. Its 21 stages will include 10 unprecedented departures and 6 unprecedented finish-lines, will visit 9 autonomous communities and 2 countries: Portugal and Spain. In sporting terms, the cyclists will face 9 high-altitude arrivals, three of which makes its La Vuelta debut (Yunquera, Cazorla and Puerto de Ancares), 2 individual time trials, 5 mid-mountain stages, 8 mountain stages and 6 flat or undulating stages.
Unipublic presented the route of La Vuelta 24 on Tuesday, the 19th of December. The race will take place between the 17th of August and the 8th of September. It will depart from Portugal, with Lisbon, Oeiras and Cascais hosting the first few stages. It will be the second time in the history of the race that Portugal hosts La Vuelta’s Grand Departure, after the Portuguese capital hosted the race’s first international Grand Departure back in 1997.
La Vuelta 24 will commence with an individual time trial between Lisbon and Oeiras. In Stage 2, the peloton will leave from Cascais and head North, to the city of Ourém. The third stage of La Vuelta 24 through Portuguese territory will take place between the cities of Lousã and Castello Branco.
Following the Grand Departure in Portugal, the peloton will enter Spain through Extremadura. This autonomous community will host a mountain stage in Cáceres, between Plasencia and Villuercas Peak – a finish-line that returns to La Vuelta since making its debut in 2021. The next day, the race will leave from Fuente del Maestre in Badajoz, and head South, with Seville as its first destination.
Following a year’s absence, Andalusia will again be one of La Vuelta’s greatest protagonists with 4 stages held entirely within the autonomous community, crossing 7 of its provinces. Once it arrives in Seville, the race will then continue with a stage between Carrefour Sur in Jerez de la Frontera and Yunquera. Then, there will be another stage with a possible sprint to the finish-line between Archidona and Córdoba. The conclusion of the first week will consist of two stages that could well determine the race’s outcome: first is a mid-mountain stage between Úbeda and Cazorla and, later, a high-mountain stage between Motril and Granada with three Category 1 mountain passes.
Mountains will be the absolute stars of the race’s second week, which will commence in the Province of Pontevedra with a stage between Ponteaereas and Baiona. The Campus Tecnológico Cortizo, in Padrón, will host both the starting line and finish-line for Stage 11 and the Manzaneda Ski Resort, which has already hosted the peloton of the women’s edition, will host Stage 12, after a departure from Ourense. The final leg of the Galician part of the race will conclude with a final mountain stage between Lugo and the Ancares Mountain Pass. Ten years later, this setting, the protagonist of such victories as that of Alberto Contador in 2014 or Purito Rodríguez in 2012, will debut a new slope that has yet to be seen in La Vuelta. Giving the riders no option to recover, the weekend will bring stages held in León, between Villafranca del Bierzo and Villablino, and in Asturias, with a departure from Infiesto and a finish-line in the dreaded Cuitu Negru.
The third week of racing will start in the North, with Asturias and Cantabria as the stars of the show. Following the second rest day, the final week of La Vuelta 24 will depart from Luanco and conclude at Lagos de Covadonga – the most climbed mountain pass in the history of the race. The peloton will continue riding through the Cantabrian Coast with Stage 17 held between Arnuero and Santander.
From then on, the peloton will begin its descent towards Madrid with three stages that will take place between Vitoria-Gasteiz – Maeztu and the Izki Natural Park, Logroño and the Alto de Moncalvillo, and Villarcayo and Picón Blanco. Both the Alto de Moncalvillo and Picón Blanco made their recent La Vuelta debuts with victories by Primoz Roglic (2020) and Rein Taaramäe (2021), respectively.
Yet again, Madrid will host the La Vuelta’s grand finale – this time with a time trial that will start at the Distrito Telefónica and will come to an end at the Gran Vía in Madrid, in front of the Telefónica Building in order to commemorate the company’s 100 years.
MID-MOUNTAIN PROMINENCE
True to its DNA, La Vuelta 24 continues to reflect its innovative character and that toughness that has characterised the race in recent years. Not only will there be 9 high-altitude finales, but also one very demanding mid-mountain stage that will affect the race’s outcome. La Vuelta 24 brings together a combination of mountain passes that are already a part of the race’s history, such as Lagos de Covadonga, that will host a finish-line following a rest day for the very first time, and the recent discoveries of Moncalvillo, Cuitu Negru and the previously unseen slope of the Ancares Mountain Pass.
PORTUGAL, A PIONEER THAT WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY
On the 6th of September 1997, Portugal and La Vuelta made history when the race began on foreign territory for the very first time. On the 17th of August 2024, 27 years later, history will repeat itself as Lisbon becomes the first non-Spanish city to host La Vuelta’s Grand Departure twice.
LA VUELTA 24, AT HOME WITH ROUVY
As in previous years, the stages of La Vuelta can also be completed virtually through ROUVY. Cycling fans can do so using a smart indoor bike trainer, a screen and the ROUVY app. Likewise, until the 14th of January, all app users will find a ‘Best Of La Vuelta 23’, featuring last edition’s most notable stages. ROUVY, which combines sports and technology, is the number 1 indoor cycling app offering a realistic and immersive video experience, featuring a selection of over 1,300 virtual reality routes all over the world to choose from.