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Shortened into three stages this year, the Spanish race will make a tribute to Xavi Tondo, the last winner of an event where Movistar Team will look for another success in their great season

The 2012 edition of the Vuelta a Castilla y León will be inevitably linked to remembering Xavi Tondo. Winner of the race last year -the first overall success for Movistar Team in ’11-, the late Catalan rider will be honoured by the organisers in Segovia on Sunday, the Aqueduct city being the final point of a course reduced to only three days. The event will start on Friday with a 159-kilometer stage around Segovia with no mountain passes, in contrary to the rides on Saturday in Ávila -four Cat. 2 climbs en route to the cobbles in the Wall- and Sunday, with three Cat. 1 ascents (Navafría, Morcuera and Navacerrada) prior to the double pass through the ‘pavé’ of La Fuencisla in the decisive circuit.

For this special race, Movistar Team, who also took two stage wins with Fran Ventoso to add to Tondo’s triumph, will bring an eight-man squad led by the last winner of the Vuelta a España, Juanjo Cobo, along with David Arroyo, Sergio Pardilla, Javi Moreno, Jonathan Castroviejo, Rubén Plaza, Enrique Sanz and Russian Vladimir Karpets, all of them directed by José Luis Arrieta. The telephone squad will attempt to increase their victory account of 2012, with nine wins after the triple by Rojas (País Vasco), Ventoso (La Sarthe) and Visconti (Amorebieta).