The official presentation of the route of La Vuelta 23 was held today at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. The 78th edition of the Spanish Grand Tour will start from Barcelona for the second time in history on Saturday 26 August with a city time trial and will end as usual in Madrid on 17 September. The 21 scheduled stages will include 12 starts and eight unprecedented finishes, all crossing nine autonomous communities and three countries: Spain, Andorra and France. The cyclists will face ten high-altitude finals, five of which are new for the Vuelta, two time trials, seven mountain stages, six medium-mountain stages, four flat and two flat with uphill finishes. After the first two finishes in Barcelona, the peloton will head to Andorra da Suria to experience the first mountain stage of the race. The Principality will host the first unprecedented high-altitude final of La Vuelta 23 with the ascent of Arinsal. The runners will sleep in Andorra before heading south to Tarragona to conclude the race's initial journey to Catalonia and Andorra.
The Autonomous Community of Valencia will be the star of the next stage of the Vuelta. The riders will cross the province of Castellon in a mid-mountain stage between Morella and Burriana. The next day, the final climb up to the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre as the main attraction. The first flat stage will take place on the 7th day, with a finish in Oliva for the sprinters. The group will then say goodbye to the Autonomous Community of Valencia with a finish along the Costa Blanca, on a peak already well known to the runners: Xorret de Catí. As a final challenge to wrap up the week before the rest day, the Region of Murcia will test the riders with a stage that will start from the coast, in Cartagena, heading inland towards the finish in Caravaca de la Cruz. The second week of racing will begin in the province of Valladolid with an individual time trial of 25 kilometres. The group will then continue its route to the west of Castilla y Leon, to visit the Laguna Negra in Vinuesa.
Zaragoza will offer the sprinters one last chance before heading to the Pyrenees for two challenging mountain stages: Aubisque and Tourmalet first and then Issarbe, Larrau and Larra-Belagua, two stages that will play a decisive role in the fate of the amarillo jersey. Pamplona and Lekunberri will host the stage before the second and final rest day. Efforts also ensured in the last week since, after the unprecedented high-altitude finale of Bejes, it will be the turn of the mythical peak of the Vuelta: Angliru. The Principality of Asturias will once again be the judge of the race with its unprecedented uphill finish in Cruz de Linares, as happened in 2022 with the Collau Fancuaya. The Castilian wind could play an important role on the road to Iscar, giving the surviving sprinters a chance before arriving in Madrid. The penultimate stage will take place in the Guadarrama basin in a "classic" format, with 10 third-category climbs that will determine the overall winner of the Vuelta before the traditional Madrid carousel .
(Unioneonline)