It will start tomorrow with the team time trial of Valencia the eight-stage journey of the Vuelta Femenina. The hunt for the Santini red jersey which belonged to Annemiek van Vleuten last year will start from the platform adjacent to the Science Museum: from there the participating teams will launch, three minutes apart from each other, to cover sixteen kilometers in program at the end of which we will know who will be the first leader of the Spanish race.
On Monday the group will cycle from Buñol, in the province of Valencia, to Moncófar, in the province of Castellón. There will be 118 kilometers to cover and the first part of the second stage will be characterized by continuous ups and downs up to Náquera, where the climb towards Puerto de l’Oronet (3rd category) will begin. After reaching the top of the hill, a dozen kilometers between descent and plain will take the runners to the Flying Finish Line of Alfara de la Baronia; the last 27 kilometers of the race will be covered at high speed until reaching the finish line where the sprinters should be fighting for the victory.
The third stage of the race will start from Lucena and end in Teruel. The only classified GPM of the day is Alto Fuente De Rubielos, the summit of which the cyclists will arrive 69 kilometers after the start and having faced 6 uphill; the Flying Finish line will be held in Mora de Rubielos when there are 43 kilometers left to the end of a stage, not easy to interpret, which offers 130 in total.
Wednesday May 1st Molina de Aragón / Zaragoza on paper, it is a stage dedicated to sprinters: 142 kilometers without any finish line for climbers, an intermediate sprint 12 kilometers from the finish line and an altitude profile that in the final kilometers encourages you to keep up a fast pace.
A diametrically opposite situation in the next fraction, the fifth, in which we will certainly see the climbers battle. The organizers have foreseen the starting from 506 meters above sea level in Huesca but arriving at 1103 meters above sea level in Jaca at the end of a hairpin climb of about three kilometers, in the middle also the climb to 1202 meters above sea level of Alto del Monasterio de San Juan de la Pera.
The caravan will continue to ascend on Friday 3 May. The departure is scheduled in Tarazona but what promises to be a spectacle, and perhaps even a little scary, is what it is the ascent and arrival at La Laguna Negra. The only categorized climb of the sixth stage will begin 6 kilometers from the finish line and will have a maximum gradient of 14%.
The penultimate day the athletes will cycle 138 kilometers from San Esteban de Gormaz in Sigüenza. Certainly simpler than those of the previous days, the seventh stage of the Spanish race is however characterized by a slightly ascending finish.
The last stage will be anything but a catwalk. Departure from Madrid, 90 kilometers with a Flying Finish line but above all two challenging first category GPMs: Puerto della Morcuera, with the top 33 kilometers from the end and the last, decisive climb to Valdesquí where the goal line will be placed. At that moment we will know who will be the queen of the Vuelta Femenina 2024.
FAVOURITES. Different ones pretenders to the crown of Spain. Demi Volleringsecond last year behind van Vleuten, will be looking for her first victory of the season in the Vuelta after having scored four podiums in the eight days of competition held so far. To try to achieve the goal, the SD Worx captain will be supported by the European champion Mischa Bredewold but also from Elena Cecchini and Barbara Guarischi.
He was also on the podium at the Covadonga lakes last year Gaia Realini: the young girl from Pescara, who in Spain this season finished second in the Vuelta Extremadura and fifth in the Setmana Valenciana, will drive the Lidl Trek together with Elisa Longo Borghini.
At Visma Lease a Bike the “attack tandem” is made up of Marianne Vos – which we will find again in the race after the victory in the Amstel Gold Race and the seventh place in Liège – e Riejanne Markuswhich remained at the foot of the podium in the 2023 Vuelta.
After winning the challenge with Demi Vollering in the Fleccia Wallone 2024, Katarzyna Niewiadoma will he duel with the Dutchman again? Only the passing of the days will tell us, what is certain is that Canyon//SRAM Racing will also be able to count on Ricarda Bauernfeindfifth in the general classification last season and fresh from the top10 of Liège/Bastogne/Liège.
Last year, Évita Muzic ranked behind the German and we will find her again this year at the helm of a FDJ Suez with a “trident” Italian composed of Marta Cavalli, Alessia Vigilia and Vittoria Guazzini.
Eleonora Ciabocco will be at the side of Juliette Labous (seventh last year) that dsm-firmenich PostNL should have chosen as the ranking woman; for the sprints the Dutch team will instead rely on the pair Kool – Barbers.
The sprint arrivals could see other Italians as protagonists Silvia Zanardi, in Human Powered Health knit, e Valentina Basilicowhich in 2024 has already given a poker of victories to Eneicat – CMTeam.
Having written yesterday about the poker of Italians lined up by Laboral Kutxa, we are pleased to highlight the presence of the very young ones Casagranda, Oro and Pozzobon in the formation of Bepink – Bongioanni directed by Walter Zini and we close the roundup of possible protagonists of this edition of the Vuelta España Femenina with the national champion of Spain Mavi García will be the captain of Liv AlUla Jayco.
THE ROUTE (altitudes in the Gallery)
Etapa 1 – 28/04 – Valencia – Valencia 16 km (team time trial)
Stage 2 – 29/04 – Buñol/Bunyol – Moncofa 118.3 km
Stage 3 – 30/04 – Lucena/Llucena – Teruel 130.2 km
Stage 4 – 01/05 Molina de Aragón – Zaragoza 142.3 km
Stage 5 – 02/05 – Huesca – Jaca 113.9 km
Etapa 6 – 03/05 – Tarazona – La Laguna Negra. Vinuesa 132.1 km
Stage 7 – 04/05 – San Esteban de Gormaz – Sigüenza 138.6 km
Stage 8 – 05/05 – Distrito Telefónica – Valdesquí. Community of Madrid 89.5 km
