After Italy, the peloton still passes through France and Andorra and ends in Madrid. The competition will have 10 stages.
A well-known departure from the Italian city of Turin, six high mountain stages, a team time trial and several cult mountains mark the layout of the 90th edition of the Tour of Spain, which was presented on Thursday.
With a separate start in the Piedmont region, in Italy, the Vuelta, on the road between August 23 and September 14 next year, begins, after these three stages, a route through several of the ascents that have marked years and years of the last of the three ‘big tours’ of the year, in a new edition with forays abroad, after, in 2023, having ‘animated’ Portugal.
After Italy, the peloton still passes through Franceto Montgenèvre and Lautaret as the usual mountainous tests in the Tour, on the way to Voiron, before a much criticized ‘transfer’, by air, to the fifth stage, a team time trial on the land of the Salvador Dalí Museum, Figueres.
After this rarity in grand tours in recent years, Andorra will test the favorites in the high mountains, in the fourth country crossed by the caravan, with five stages of this type in total, in addition to another six in medium mountains.
Climbs of Morredero, Cerler and Valdezcaray appear on the route, as well as the ‘feared’ Angliru, in the 13th stage, of 202 kilometers.
Valladolid, which welcomed the arrival of the first stage of the first edition of will have a potentially decisive individual time trial, four days before the end of the 90th edition, which culminates with a mountain stage, to Bola del Mundo, before the final ‘procession’, on September 14, to Madrid.
The challenging route could immediately attract Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates), who won the Tour de France and Tour a Italy in 2024, having been third in his only participation in Spain, in 2019.
‘Pogi’ had promised to wait and see the Giro and Vuelta routes, to decide which of them will accompany the Tour on his calendar, while the champion of the last edition, also Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), chose Italy and France for this next year.
“We still don’t know if Tadej will come to the Vuelta or not, it depends on what we say. Obviously, he will race here one day, that’s guaranteed, but I don’t know if this year or later. He always liked the Tour of Spain, but we still have a lot of speaking before deciding,” team director Josean Matxín told the EFE news agency.
The race director, Javier Guillén, marked the meeting with the history that 2025 will represent, in a presentation with several champions present, from Alberto Contador to Chris Froome, Fabio Aru, Abraham Olano and Roberto Heras, a “gesture towards their champions” .
“Starting from Italy means that we insist on the idea of innovation in the race, discovering new scenarios”, such as the Alps that debut on the route, he declared.
According to Guillén, this year is also about “making a gesture towards History”, by “recovering climbs that have not been entered for a long time, such as Cerler or Morredero”, in addition to “the symbol of the Vuelta, the Angliru”.
“It will be a Vuelta that aims at the sky, and not at the ground. It is especially tough, which will give everyone an opportunity. The aim is for them to be combative stages and offer spectacle and excitement until the end”, he explained.
