The route of the 2024 Vuelta a España is as typically climb-heavy as any of the recent editions of Spain’s Grand Tour, but it will also conclude with a final individual time trial through the streets of the capital city, Madrid, for the first time since 2002.
Neither the Angliru nor the Pyrenees, two key mountain features of the 2023 route, will form part of the 2024 route, which was revealed on Tuesday evening in Madrid.
However, nine summit finishes, including the ascents of the ultra-hard Cuitu Negru and mythical Lagos de Covadonga in the second and third weeks, will ensure that another top mountain specialist will certainly be in the running to succeed American climber Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) as the overall winner.
Then, after what is arguably the toughest climbing day of all to the dauntingly difficult ascent of Picón Blanco in the northern province of Burgos on stage 20, 24 hours later, the 2024 Vuelta concludes on September 8 with a fast, flat 22-kilometre individual time trial in Madrid.
The full route in details
The 2024 Vuelta a España route kicks off for the fifth time in Vuelta’s history with a foreign start, this time in Lisbon, the capital of neighbouring Portugal, with a short, straightforward individual time trial that will decide the race’s first leader.
Two more hilly stages take the Vuelta back towards the Spanish frontier, with the race marking its return to Spain on stage 4 with a first summit finish on the rugged ascent of Pico de Villuercas, last tackled in 2021 with a win for France’s Romain Bardet.
The first major mountain stage will come on much more familiar terrain on stage 9 when the Vuelta tackles two ultra-difficult cat.1 climbs in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range – the Purchil and a double ascent of the Alto de Hazallanas.
Both climbs featured in the hardest day’s racing of the 2022 Vuelta a España, on a stage where Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) launched a searing late attack at the summit in a troubling setback for overall winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
Rather than conclude in Sierra Nevada’s ski station like in 2022, next August, the Vuelta will descend back to the city of Granada for its finish, but even so, with so much climbing, stage 9 will likely be the first time the GC contenders come to the fore in the 2024 race.
A long transfer to Spain’s far northwest then follows, and after two rugged treks through the remote, hilly region of Galicia to open up week two of the Vuelta, a…
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