Big names battle it out in and around Valencia
THE 70TH edition of the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana (tour of Valencia) stage race runs from Wednesday, February 6 to Sunday, February 10.
This annual early-season race always attracts some of the cycling world’s top stars, and in recent editions has been won by the likes of Team Sky’s Wout Poels (2016) and Movistar’s Nairo Quintana (2017) and Alejandro Valverde (2018).
The starting line-up for this year’s event once again boasts a fist-full of big hitters, including the likes of previous winners Wout Poels and Alejandro Valverde, the winner of last year’s Vuelta a España Simon Yates, the former World Road Race champion Greg Van Avermaet, Luis León Sánchez, Danny van Poppel, and Bernie Eisel, to name but a few.
The race gets underway on Wednesday with a 10.2km individual time trial starting and finishing in Orihuela.
The second stage is a 166km ride from Alicante and passing through the surrounding area, that features two category two and one category three climbs, before finishing in Avenida de La Estación, Alicante.
Stage three takes the peloton on a 194.3km ride from Cuart de Poblet (on the outskirts of Valencia city) to Chera. The stage contains a total of six category three climbs.
Stage four on Saturday, February 9 is a challenging 188km ride from Villareal to Alcalà-Alcossebre that takes in one category one, two category two, and a nasty looking short 3.2km but steep category three slog including ramps of up to 20% to the finish line. This stage should be the one to decide who will win the overall general classification.
The final stage is a flat 88.5km ride from Paterna to Valencia city.
Full details are available from the race website at vueltacv.com