BARCELONA, 4 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The 103rd edition of the Volta a Catalunya, which will be held from March 18 to 24, 2024, will once again have three high finishes for the second consecutive year, in Vallter, Port Ainé and Queralt, and will discover unprecedented venues in its history such as from the Queralt and Viladecans sanctuary itself, which will host stage arrivals, and Altafulla, which will be the protagonist with a stage start.
With all the stage departures and arrivals defined, the Volta will have returns such as those in Berga, which will be the stage departure after six decades of the last visit, Lleida, which returns through the front door with a stage arrival eleven years later , or the departures from Sort and Sant Joan de les Abadesses.
Together with well-known venues such as the official start from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the iconic final stage in Barcelona and a stage start from Mataró, the route of the test is completed for another year. As in the last edition, three high finishes will make the Volta one of the toughest stage events on the calendar of the world cycling elite.
For the third consecutive year, Sant Feliu de Guíxols will be the city that will host the grand start of the race, being the starting and finishing point of the first stage, apart from hosting all the preparations prior to the race. Last season, Primoz Roglic concluded with victory in Sant Feliu in the first chapter of his particular duel with Remco Evenepoel that led him to the final victory.
Mataró will start the stage for the eighth time in the last decade, on a second day that will take the cyclists to the top of the Vallter station, which will be the first of the three high-altitude finishes of this edition. It will be the eighth final of the Volta stage in the cycling arena of Catalonia, which in the last edition saw the Italian Giulio Ciccone win in an exciting final against Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel.
The second mountain stage will not be long in coming and will be on the third day, which will link Sant Joan de les Abadesses, which returns to the route fifty years after its last and only presence, with the Pallaresa mountain station of Port Ainé, which was protagonist on the race route for the last time in 2021, with the victory of the Colombian Esteban Chaves.
The fourth stage will leave Sort, the capital of Pallars Sobirà, a town where there was a stage arrival in 1976, to finish in the city of Lleida, a long-awaited return to one of the historic headquarters of the Volta a Catalunya, present since the first edition and which had not hosted a stage since 2013.
The fifth day will unite two unprecedented venues in the history of the event: it will start from the Tarragona town of Altafulla and end in Viladecans, a municipality linked to the Volta in the last edition with an intermediate sprint in the seventh stage.
One of the great novelties will be experienced on Saturday, thanks to a stage that is expected to be full of strong emotions with full prominence in the Berguedà region. The stage will start from the capital, Berga, which has not been on the Volta route since 1959, and will end in the third high-altitude arrival of this edition in Queralt, which will debut in the Catalan race. A true mountain day that promises a great sports, landscape and hobby spectacle to become one of the key stages of the race, which will close on Sunday with the traditional stage starting and finishing in the city of Barcelona.
The capital of Catalonia will once again decide a race that will once again bring together the best cyclists in the world for a week on the Catalan roads, seeking to replace the last winner, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, one of the best cyclists of the last decade. All the details about the route, such as the mileage, gradient or mountain passes of the stages will be explained in the official presentation of the race.
— 2024 TOUR BACK TO CATALONIA.
Stage 1: Sant Feliu de Guíxols – Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
Stage 2: Mataró – Vallter/Setcases.
Stage 3: Sant Joan de les Abadesses – Port Ainé.
Stage 4: Sort – Lleida.
Stage 5: Altafulla – Viladecans.
Stage 6: Berga – Queralt.
Stage 7: Barcelona – Barcelona.