Male Team 22 - 28 Mar
Volta a Catalunya
1092 Kilometers 7 Stages
The race will be broadcast live on GCN and Eurosport.
There will be 10-6-4″ at all six road stage finishes, plus 3-2-1″ at the intermediate sprints.
The squads managed by Eusebio Unzué have ten overall victories to their names at the Volta, the last two achieved with Alejandro Valverde in 2017 and 2018.
Never a longer awaited edition of the Volta a Catalunya. After a year’s absence due to the most difficult moments of the pandemic, the 100th Volta, the centennial edition of the third oldest stagerace in the world, will be held over a typical parcours, yet more balanced than in previous years. The reason: an individual time trial, 18.5km in and around Banyoles (Tuesday 23rd), which will set the first real time gaps.
After that TT and a lumpy opening stage around Calella (Monday 22nd), with most ascents on the second half of the route, the race will visit the traditional mountain-top finishes sponsored by the Catalan railways-managed ski stations. First up, Vallter 2000 (Wednesday 24th), end of a long, one-climb day (203.1km) finishing at over 2,100m above sea level. After that, Port Ainé (Thursday 24th), with Toses (Cat-1) near the start and Cantó (HC) before the decisive ascent as previous courses.
The race’s decisive weekend will be all about hilly finishes. Friday 26th will bring another new feature: the Montserrat (Cat-1), just under 30km from Manresa’s finish, with lots of ups and downs in between. Saturday 27th will see the riders take on El Collet (Cat-3) near Mataró, in one of only two clear chances for the sprinters. And finally, on Sunday 28th, six laps of the iconic Montjuïc circuit around Barcelona’s Olympic park.
– We’re also racing the Settimana Coppi e Bartali this week (Tuesday 22nd – Saturday 27th).