Madrid (AFP)
The director of the Tour of Spain Javier Guillén on Tuesday expressed his "satisfaction" after the announcement of the new Vuelta dates, from October 20 to November 8, confident of being able to benefit from "an exceptional participation" despite the brief overlap with the Giro.
The Vuelta, which would normally start on August 14 from Utrecht in the Netherlands and end on September 6 in Madrid, has seen its calendar and its organization, like the whole cycling season, turned upside down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Spanish Tour will therefore have six days in common with the Italian Giro, which will take place from October 3 to 25, according to the new cycling calendar published this Tuesday by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
"We must try to make good fortune against bad fortune and take advantage of the opportunities that this new paradigm offers us", said Javier Guillén, quoted in a press release from the organizers of the Vuelta.
"We have an excellent place on the calendar and we hope to have an exceptional participation," added the director of the cycle race.
La Vuelta, which will start this year the latest in the season, was forced to shorten its route and in particular cancel its first three stages, which were originally scheduled to take place in the Netherlands.
The race will therefore start from Irún (Basque Country, northern Spain), originally its fourth stage, and will have 18 stages instead of 21 for the first time since 1985, where a 19-stage Tour had been organized.
The postponement of the Tour de France, which will take place from August 29 to September 20, forced us to revise the entire calendar of the road cycling season in order to be able to accommodate the rest of the events of the season, even if some of between them had to be canceled.
In Spain, this is particularly the case for the Tour of Catalonia, the Tour of the Basque country and the Clasica San Sebastian.
© 2020 AFP