Geographically, you can’t get much further in western Europe from Nice’s Promenade des Anglais than the Roman Empire-era lighthouse in the northwesterly Spanish city of A Coruña. But for Jonas Vingegaard, the path towards a possible third Tour de France victory on the French Riviera next July will start there on Thursday for the O Gran Camiño, in the shadow of the 2,000-year-old guardian of the rugged Galician coastline.
Stage 1’s opening time trial of this year’s O Gran Camiño race will finish at the foot of the ‘Tower of Hercules’, as A Coruña’s lighthouse, the oldest still-functioning model in the world, is known. Vingegaard could hardly find himself thrown under a sharper spotlight, either, given the 12-kilometre individual race against the clock not only marks his debut in the 2024 season, but is also the first point when his currently unbeaten track record in O Gran Camiño could be challenged.
Victorious in all three stages – a fourth was suspended because of poor weather – and, naturally, the overall in the 2023 Gran Camiño, all of which take place in the north-westerly region of Galicia, Vingegaard could not have set the bar higher than last year.
But his task of defending his resounding first victory of 2023 will be rendered even harder by a beefed-up opposition in 2024, featuring headline acts of the calibre of Egan Bernal and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). The shadow cast by the results from the Tower of Hercules time trial and the three very hilly stages through Galicia that follow, then, will likely be a very long one.
2024 Route
Following the opening 12-kilometre time trial, running almost entirely along A Coruña’s seafront, and with a small climb mid-way through to decide the first mountains classification leader, there is an abrupt switch of terrain to hillier inland roads on stage 2.
With over 3,000 metres of climbing, stage 2 takes O Gran Camiño deep inland to the province of Lugo. The double ascent of the category 2 Alto de San Pedro de Lincora, the second time around peaking out just a handful of kilometres away from the finish in Chantada, could make this another major GC day.
Stage 3, while also very hilly, has most of its climbing difficulties early on. Only the third category climb of Alto de Couso, around 15 kilometres to go,…
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