[ad_1]
The Vuelta Femenina 2024 route was formally unveiled on Friday on the Palau de Les Comunicacions in its begin metropolis of Valencia.
Offered by title sponsors Carrefour.es, the race organisers ASO and Unipublic have delivered a punchy and mountainous route that can trigger fireworks amongst its many GC contenders.
The primary Grand Tour of the season will run from 28 April – 5 Could 2024 and has expanded to eight phases from seven final yr because the race – and the depth of the ladies’s discipline – goes from power to power.
Venturing 870km by eight Spanish provinces and tackling the Pyrenees for the primary time, this yr’s parcours options three summit finishes, together with one on the essential ultimate day, one actual dash alternative and a crew time trial.
All three of the mountaintop finishes will likely be on climbs beforehand contested on the males’s Vuelta a España, on the Rapitán Fort in Jaca, La Laguna Negra in Vinuesa (which has twice featured within the males’s race) and the ascent to Valdesquí on the ultimate day.
Route profile
Like final yr the race will begin with a crew time trial, which was received in 2023 by Jumbo-Visma (now Visma-Lease a Bike). The primary stage in 2024 will likely be comparable, a 16km straight line out and again to Valencia alongside a flat coastal street.
Stage 2 will see the riders sort out rugged terrain in a 118km route from Buñol to Moncófar in Valencia, which additionally options the race’s first climb, the third class Puerto de l’Oronet at across the 80km mark. After that ascent the elevation shortly falls away, resulting in an opportunity for the sprinters on the flat in Moncófar.
Stage 3 will see the peloton cross into close by Aragón as they journey over 130km of mountains from Lucena del Cid to the end in Teruel. One other class 3 climb, the Alto Fuente de Rubielos, comes at concerning the midway level of a punchy uphill stage which can show a take a look at too far for the sprinters within the bunch.
The quick girls get their day within the solar on the next 142km stage – the longest of the race – which begins at 1200m of elevation in Molina de Aragón and falls away to 200m above sea degree in Zaragoza. Whereas it appears an easy downhill to the end, crosswinds might wreak havoc with the potential for echelons and a way more difficult day within the saddle than at first look.
Stage 5 is the primary correct mountain stage of the race, heading northwards to close the Pyrenees, the place the battle for GC is prone to scorching up. The primary categorised climb is the class 2 ascent up San Juan de la Peña, which has no significantly steep ramps however is an extended slog at 18km. After a quick descent, it’s then again uphill in the direction of the end at Rapitán Fort in Jaca, a 3.5km climb at a gradient of seven.9% the place the legs will actually begin to burn.
There’s no let-up for the GC contenders on stage 6 with a predominantly flat stage mountaineering steeply upwards close to the end. The 132km route begins in Tarazona and after one other day prone to be affected by crosswinds closes with a mountaintop end at La Laguna Negra in Vinuesa.
Stage 7 heads into the guts of Spain on one other flat-ish day with a sophisticated finale. A winding 126km from San Esteban de Gormaz ends with a testing ultimate 500m on the streets of Sigüenza, that includes ramps of between 8-10% which is able to seemingly decimate the sector of sprinters and profit probably the most explosive riders.
The ultimate stage is brief however undoubtedly not candy, with 89km of climbing round Madrid from Distrito Telefónca to the tour’s end line in Valdesquí. The GC is prone to be selected the brutal class 1 climbs, Puerto de la Morcuera and the Cotos Mountain Move, earlier than flattening out within the ultimate kilometres approaching Valdesquí the place the maillot rojo will likely be topped.
Historical past of the Vuelta Femenina
The Vuelta Femenina was first raced in 2015 as a one-day sprinters’ race on a circuit by Madrid, held on the identical day because the conclusion of the lads’s Vuelta. After three years because the Madrid Problem it steadily grew in size and stature, turning into a seven-day race final yr and turning into often known as La Vuelta Femenina. It’s now thought-about some of the prestigious in girls’s biking alongside the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and Giro d’Italia Ladies and has attracted a stacked discipline in recent times.
Contenders
Now-retired nice Annemiek van Vleuten received the final two editions of the race, that means this yr’s will likely be assured a brand new maillot rojo on the end line in Valdesquí. Classics specialist Lotte Kopecky received the factors classification in 2021, however after an unexpectedly robust exhibiting eventually yr’s Tour de France Femmes – ending second to SD Worx-Protime teammate Demi Vollering – may problem for the GC.
Final yr’s Vuelta runner-up Vollering misplaced out by solely 9 seconds to van Vleuten and is the seemingly favorite to go one higher after her dominant exhibiting on the Tour de Frances Femmes (and all stage racing final yr).
Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini and Gaia Realini of Lidl-Trek are prone to be within the combine too for a maiden Grand Tour win – particularly after Realini’s third-place podium final yr.
Vuelta Femenina 2024 phases
Stage 1: Valencia – Valencia | 16 km
Stage 2: Buñol – Moncófar | 118 km
Stage 3: Lucena del Cid – Teruel | 131 km
Stage 4: Molina de Aragón – Zaragoza | 142 km
Stage 5: Huesca – Jaca | 113 km
Stage 6: Tarazona – La Laguna Negra, Vinuesa | 132 km
Stage 7: San Esteban de Gormaz – Sigüenza | 126 km
Stage 8: Distrito Telefónica, Madrid – Valdesquí | 89 km
Groups competing
Solely 13 WorldTour groups will participate, with Ceratizit, Uno-X, Tashkent and Cofidis opting out of the race, and eight Continental groups filling the remaining areas.
WorldTour:
- AG Insurance coverage-Soudal
- Canyon-SRAM Racing
- FDJ-Suez
- Fenix-Deceuninck
- Human Powered Well being
- Lidl-Trek
- Liv AlUla Jayco
- Movistar Ladies
- Roland
- dsm-firmenich PostNL
- SD Worx-Protime
- Visma-Lease a Bike
- UAE Workforce ADQ
UCI Ladies’s Continental:
- Bepink-Bongioanni
- EF Training-Cannondale
- Eneicat-CMTeam
- Laboral Kutxa-Fundacíon Euskadi
- Lotto-Dstny Women
- Workforce Coop-Repsol
- VolkerWessels Ladies’s Professional Biking Workforce
- Winspace
[ad_2]