Vuelta Femenina 2024 path to sort out Pyrenees and end in Sierras of Madrid

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The 2024 Vuelta Femenina race route will function an unprecedented stage within the Pyrenees, three mountaintop summit finishes and a showdown within the Sierras of Madrid.

The much-toughened route, prolonged to eight phases for the primary time in its nine-year historical past and visiting eight completely different Spanish provinces, will as soon as once more begin with a staff time trial, this time within the easterly metropolis of Valencia, on April 28.

However it then runs northwards into the Pyrenees, with one summit end on the Rapatan Fort within the mountain city of Jaca on stage 5 earlier than a second, a lot tougher, summit end additional west on the Laguna Negra in Vinuesa, Soria on stage 6.

Essentially the most troublesome mountain of all of the phases, although, would be the final on Might fifth, with an ascent of La Morcuera, a cat. 1 climb, previous the summit end at Valdesquí.

At this 12 months’s Vuelta Femenina route presentation on Friday in Valencia, the organisers additionally introduced the 21 groups collaborating, with 13 WorldTour groups and eight Continental squads invited.

The 2024 Vuelta Femenina Route

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La Vuelta Femenina 2024 route profiles — The route profile of stage 1: Valencia – Valencia TTT(Picture credit score: Unipublic)

At 16 kilometres, stage 1’s opening staff time trial in Valencia is barely longer than in 2023’s equal first 14.5km TTT stage within the close by city of Torrevieja. However the flat route by means of the broad, flat boulevards of the area’s capital metropolis will as soon as once more largely serve to ascertain a gap hierarchy, somewhat than being a serious GC day.

Stage 2’s 118 kilometre run from Buñol to Moncafar will probably finish in a bunch dash, and stage 3 from Llucena to Teruel, while very hilly in elements, has solely categorized climbs, so will probably finish in a big group going clear, somewhat than being a clearcut GC day.

Stage 4 from Molina de Aragon to Zaragoza, the longest of the race at 142 kilometres, is an intriguing one. Whereas flat, roads are so uncovered that – as occurred on an early, seemingly inoffensive, stage in final 12 months’s Vuelta Femenina – even the slightest gust of wind might see echelons forming and the race cut up aside.

Stage 5 is a really completely different story, concluding with a cat.2 climb to the Rapatan Fort within the Pyrenean city of Jaca, a city which has seen finishes of each the lads’s Tour de France and Vuelta a España. A second, much more demanding end at Lago de Vinuesa within the distant sierras of Soria, then follows 24 hours later, which means that with two phases to go, a transparent GC chief may have emerged.

Stage 7, ending within the province of Guadalajara at Soria, ends with a punchy uphill finale within the medieval metropolis of Sigüenza, however the principle problem of the 2024 Vuelta Femenina is but to return.

Simply 86 kilometres lengthy however by far the hardest, stage 8 kicks off within the Distrito Telefonica in Madrid, earlier than tackling the daunting, seven-kilometre-long Col de la Morcuera west of the capital, previous to the even tougher, 13-kilometre ascent of Valdesquí.

Final 12 months’s winner, Annemiek van Vleuten has now retired, which means that 9 years after its first version as a one-day race, the Ceratizit Problem by La Vuelta, the 2024 Vuelta Femenina may have a brand new champion celebrating victory on the night of Might 5.