Madrid (AFP)
The Cycling Tour of Spain (October 20 - November 8) holds its final route: after the withdrawals from the Portuguese cities, the organizers announced Friday the addition of the Spanish cities of Puebla de Sanabria and Salamanca, which thus complete the route the Vuelta-2020.
"Puebla de Sanabria and Salamanca take over from Porto, Mastosinhos and Viseu (northern Portugal) as stage cities of La Vuelta 20. Puebla de Sanabria will welcome the arrival of the 15th stage which will start from Mos. Salamanca will welcome the start of the 16th stage with an arrival at Ciudad Rodrigo ", announced the organizers via press release.
After the cancellation of the first three stages which were to take place in the Netherlands due to the new coronavirus pandemic, the Portuguese cities had also withdrawn from the route for safety reasons.
Unipublic, the organizing company of the Vuelta, has therefore decided to replace them with two Spanish cities which have already hosted the cycling tour of Spain.
The 15th stage (November 5) will start from the municipality of Mos, in Galicia and will end in Puebla de Sanabria, in the province of Zamora, to replace the final in Porto-Matosinhos. This winding stage, which should encourage breakaways, thus becomes the longest of the Vuelta-2020 (234.6 km).
"Salamanca will host the start of the 16th stage (November 6), replacing the Portuguese city of Viseu, while the finish is maintained in Ciudad Rodrigo," the organizers said in their statement on Friday.
On May 8, the organizers announced the list of 22 teams that will participate in the 75th edition of the Vuelta, without the Arkea-Samsic training of Colombian Nairo Quintana, nor the Alpecin of Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel.
To the 19 teams that make up the WorldTour (1st division), Unipublic added the French team Total DE, qualified by right after its first place in the D2 ranking in 2019, and the two Spanish Burgos and Caja Rural, already present in the peloton de la Vuelta in previous years.
The Vuelta 2020, which was originally scheduled to start on August 14 from Utrecht (Netherlands) and end on September 6 in Madrid, has seen its calendar turned upside down, like the whole cycling season, because of the pandemic.
The race will therefore start on October 20 from Irun in the Basque Country to arrive on November 8 in Madrid and will count six days together with the Italian Giro (October 3 - 25).
© 2020 AFP