The Spanish cycling championship, ‘Vuelta a España’ (Around Spain), is one of the biggest European cycling events, along with its French and Italian counterparts. This year, for the first time in 33 years, the route will pass through the Basque Country, where cycling enjoys a huge following. Due to security problems the race hadn’t entered the region since 1978, when protesters blocked the course, but the Basque Government have fought hard to bring the race back into the region and this year sees the return.
Vuelta a España in Zeijen 2009
The race sets off on the 20th August, with a night-time trial starting out from the city of Benidorm on the Costa Blanca and, as is tradition, ends in Spain’s capital Madrid on 11th September, with the cyclists covering 3,295kms. This year avoids the region of Catalonia and the Pyrenees, but returns to Valdepeñas de Jaen, Sierra Nevada in Granada and the infamous Angliru climb in the Basque region, considered to be one of the toughest climbs in professional road racing.
Triumph for a cyclist at the summit of Angliru
This year’s race is an especially tough one, with 21 stages, including: 9 flat stages, 10 mountain stages, 1 team time-trial, 1 individual time-trial and 6 summit finishes. Carlos Sastre, the winner of the 2008 Tour de France, commented, “the race will be hard, with explosive finishes.” “But we can be happy when there’s a route like this that favours climbers”.
Last year’s Vuelta a España winner, Italian defending champion Vincenzo Nibali, said. “It is a very hard Vuelta”. Say no more!
Who are the favourites to win this year’s race? Well there are several favourites, including last year’s winner Vincenzo Nibali, the young Basque cyclist Igor Anton, and two of the race veterans Denis Menchov and Andreas Kloden.
Visit the official Vuelta a España 2011 website for more information.
Image credits @FlickR: The Wolf / Mikelo
