Save the date. Be it a large oyster-farming raft in Galicia or a dug-out aspect of a man-made salt ‘mountain’ in Alicante, the inside of an plane provider in Cadiz or a Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes, a whisky distillery in Segovia or a meat processing manufacturing facility in Murcia, the Vuelta a España has at all times had a longstanding custom of unconventional and attention-grabbing begins.
The most recent frontier within the Vuelta’s predilection for wacky salidas is ready to be crossed this August 22, when the 2024 race peloton will begin what’s going to – presumably – be a neutralised part of stage 6 alongside the meals aisles, around the particular provide bins and previous the cashdesks of a large hypermarket in southern Spain.
Longstanding predominant sponsor of the Vuelta a España Carrefour has opted to rejoice the twelfth anniversary of its backing of the race by opening the doorways of considered one of its institutions, situated on the southerly outskirts of town of Jerez de la Frontera within the area of Cadiz, to the peloton itself.
Jerez de la Frontera is healthier recognized for its horse racing and sherry-making industries, though it did play host to the Grand Départ of the Vuelta a España in 2014 with a staff time trial. This trip, the peloton and the lead director’s automobile will weave their method throughout the hypermarket’s predominant industrial flooring previous to tackling the a lot hillier the rest of a 185-kilometre stage to the city of Yunquera.
With 400 staff working of their Jerez de la Frontera Sur department alone, Carrefour has promised a sequence of daylong fan actions to rejoice the peloton’s departure from their large hypermarket, which will likely be specifically embellished for the event as nicely.
Whereas by no means shunning extra historically spectacular finishes like in Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu soccer stadium for the ultimate TT of the 2002 race, the Vuelta’s predilection for downright uncommon stage begins dates again no less than so far as the Nineteen Nineties, when time trials had been repeatedly held on the Destilería DYC whisky distillery close to Segovia.
In 2013 the riders started the opening staff time trial from a large oyster-breeding raft in western Galicia, in 2015 a stage started from inside an plane provider, the Juan Carlos I, within the metropolis of Cadiz, and in 2019 the opening TTT began on the dug-out aspect of a large man-made salt ‘mountain’ within the city of Torrevieja close to Alicante. Whereas a much-heralded time trial begin inside Burgos Cathedral for the 2021 Vuelta a España really started, considerably disappointingly, outdoors the hallowed constructing’s predominant door moderately than from its inside, the Vuelta then bounced again in model in 2022 by having the peloton stroll with their bikes by Breda’s Grote Kerk cathedral over the last of that yr’s opening three phases in Holland.
If one other memorable, if barely much less glamourous, brace of begins and finishes featured the carpark of a meat-packing plant in Murcia in 2018 and 2022, then stage 1 of the 2017 Vuelta a España hosted an unforgettable TTT that ran partially by the Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes, France.
Rumours that riders within the 2024 Vuelta a España peloton will obtain a reduction on sure items at Carrefour in the event that they current a buyer loyalty card when signing on for stage 6 have but to be confirmed or denied by the organisation.
