Tour of Spain: three stages in Portugal, nine arrivals at altitude, nightmare for sprinters... The route for the 2024 edition revealed

With nine arrivals at altitude, the Tour of Spain will once again give pride of place to the mountains in 2024 during a 79th edition which will end, like the Tour de France, with an individual time trial on September 8 to Madrid. The Vuelta, whose route was presented on Tuesday in Madrid, will start on August 17 from Lisbon, which had already hosted the start in 1997, with a 12 km time trial.

After three stages in Portugal, the peloton will be familiar with the sky in Spain from the fourth day, for a total of nine summit finishes and 13 mountain or medium mountain stages out of 21, with a few choice pieces on the menu. “If there is something that defines the 2024 route, it is its hardness,” insists the director of the Vuelta, Javier Guillen, in view of a route comprising “kilometers and kilometers of stages where the road points upwards.

For sprinters, the 2024 edition actually looks like a nightmare. The 9th stage for example between Motril and Granada promises to be very difficult with the ascent of the Alto del Purche and the double climb of the Alto de Hazallanas including passages at 20%.

You will have to wear light socks in the second week too with the 13th stage between Lugo and Puerto de Ancares which the Vuelta rediscovers on a different side, ten years after Alberto Contador's victory. There will be no respite the following days with endless passes, notably the weekend between Villafranca del Bierzo and Villablino, and the arrival at the formidable Cuitu Negru, an Asturian colossus culminating at 1,800 meters with ramps up to 23%.

The last week of competition opens with the climb to the Covadonga Lakes, a great classic of the Vuelta. The penultimate stage, between Villarcayo and Alto de Picon Blanco, could make a final selection with no less than seven difficulties on the program.

But in the end everything could come down to the plate. As in 2021, the third Grand Tour of the year will end with a 22 km individual time trial in the streets of Madrid where the successor to the American Sepp Kuss, winner this year at the head of a Jumbo team, will be crowned. Visma who achieved an unprecedented hat-trick by also placing Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic on the podium.