There is a more than a week until the Tour Down Under opens the WorldTour season for 2026, but the first race on the UCI calendar this year is Venezuela’s Vuelta al Táchira, which is still due to take place despite the recent surprise US military action in Caracas.
The strike on January 3 led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moro and his wife, Cilia Flores de Maduro, who are now in New York to face multiple charges related to drug trafficking.
The 61st edition of the UCI 2.2 ranked Vuelta a Táchira takes place from January 9-18, with the teams presentation taking place January 7 at 7:00 p.m. local time in San Cristóbal, where stage 1 will depart for the 214.1km stage 1.
“The Vuelta al Táchira will take place without any modifications, and from Wednesday the first foreign teams will arrive in San Cristóbal,” Josmer Cuadros, vice president of the race’s organizing committee, said in an interview with l’Escalador.
The planned race route covers 1,533 kilometres across south-west Venezuela, starting and ending in San Cristóbal which is near the border of Colombia.
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