MADRID, 1 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya celebrated this Wednesday the official presentation of its 102nd edition at the INEFC headquarters in Barcelona, where the details of its route were announced, with three mountain stages that add an almost unprecedented demand to a race which attracts the best cyclists in the world and which will link Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Barcelona between the next 20 and 26 March.
“It is a privilege to continue offering the best cycling in the world throughout Catalonia for a week, keeping alive the legacy of an organization that, for decades, has worked to achieve, consolidate and maintain the prestige of an event that is the heritage of Catalan sport and world cycling”, pointed out during the presentation the director of the race, Rubèn Peris, who was in charge of revealing the seven stages.
With three top finishes (Vallter, La Molina and Lo Port), a fact that has not been experienced since the 2001 edition, the Volta presented a route with a total of 25 scoring ports that also maintains its explosive finale at the MontjuÏc circuit from Barcelona.
The current world champion, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), heads the list of stars whose intention to take part in this year’s Volta has been revealed, along with other names such as the triple winner of the Tour of Spain Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) or the winner of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers.
Sant Feliu de Guíxols will be the starting point of the Volta for the second year. The city of Empordà will be the start and finish of a first stage of 164.6 kilometers that can bring surprises, with up to four scoring ports (the Alt dels Àngels, in the 2nd category is added) and an explosive finish that in the last two visits of the race (2019 and 2022) has had the Australian Michael Matthews as winner.
The high mountains will arrive soon in the Volta 2023, with a first high altitude finish in the second stage, which will unite Mataró and Vallter on a 165.4-kilometre route. The Coll de Coubet, in the 1st category, will be more demanding before arriving at the ski resort, an entire special category port that has hosted a finish line in the Catalan race six times.
The second mountain stage will not be long in coming and will be on the third day, which will have 180.6 kilometers between Olost, an unprecedented start in the centenary history of the race, and La Molina, a classic from the last decade on whose ramps they have won four final winners of the Volta. Previous climbs at Coll de Coubet (1st category) and Coll de la Creueta (one of the three special category passes on this year’s route) will help make the selection.
The fourth stage will cover 188.2 kilometers between Llívia and Sabadell in the longest day of this edition, one of the most favorable to a sprint finish, despite the fact that the ascent from the start in La Molina (1st category) and the climbs from the Collet de Sant Agustí and the Coll de Lligabosses (3rd category) will add even more wear and tear on the legs of the Volta peloton.
In addition, the fifth stage stands out above the rest, a day of 178.6 kilometers that will show the cycling potential of the four regions of Terres de l’Ebre, starting from Tortosa and a monumental finish at Lo Port. It will be the third high finish of the edition, in a special category port with the necessary hardness to be decisive in the final resolution of the race.
The sixth stage will unite Martorell and Molins de Rei, two towns in Baix Llobregat that return to the Volta route after decades of absence in a 177-kilometre journey that will take cyclists through leg-breaking terrain through the center of Catalonia, reaching the territory from Lleida.
Finally, Barcelona will once again be the judge of the Volta a Catalunya in its seventh stage, starting and finishing in the capital of Catalonia on a 142-kilometre route that this year includes the Alt de Begues (2nd category) before returning to the final circuit in Montjuïc, which always offers a competitive show with a special public to close a week of emotions.
The presentation of the 102nd Volta Ciclista a Catalunya also made public this year’s official poster, the work of the Valencian painter Miguel Soro, and made it possible to experience the live performance of the Sexenni group that presented “Houston”, the official song of the race after win the #iCatVolta contest coordinated with the iCat radio station.
Thus, the Volta a Catalunya, the third oldest stage cycling event in the world after the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, enters its 102nd edition at a great moment, fully consolidated within the UCI World Tour calendar, and with the presence one of the best cycling teams in the world, which will seek to take over in the palmares of the Colombian Sergio Higuita’s race, winner in 2022.