Male Team 01 - 05 Feb
V. Comunitat Valenciana
786 Kilometers 5 Stages
The final section of all five stages will be broadcast live on Eurosport and GCN.
There will be 10-6-4″ at every finish, plus 3-2-1″ at the intermediate sprints.
The Movistar Team has won the GC of this event five times: Gorospe did in 1993, then Colom in 2006, Quintana in 2017 and Alejandro Valverde in 2007 and 2018.
Not your typical Valenciana at all! A bunch sprint isn’t certain at any of the five stages in the 74th edition of the Vuelta CV, and while there’s not brutal, decisive mountain-top finish, all of them have important difficulties and could end up playing a crucial factor for the GC result.
The race will go from south to north of this eastern Spanish region. Wednesday 1st February, the riders will climb the well-known Rates (Cat-2) -through its ‘easier’, more irregular side of Tárbena- and Bernia (Cat-2) towards the finish in Altea. Without leaving the Alicante province, on Thursday 2nd, stage two will feature six rated climbs -some traditional ones in the interior early on, with the brutal Cumbres del Sol (Cat-1) about 30km from the end- and an uphill finish in the Alto de Pinos (Benissa).
Friday 3rd, the race will reach Sagunto after climbing the Oronet (Cat-2) -first of two times in the week- and most importantly the tough slopes of the Garbí (Cat-1). Saturday 4th will bring the race into Castellón for an endless, 181km series of ups and downs between Burriana and the Alto Santa Cova in Altura. And to end things on Sunday 5th, a very tricky one: a second ascent of Oronet (Cat-2) and, with 40km to go, the tough Frontera (Cat-1), also tackled by the morning’s women’s race.