Save the date. Be it a big oyster-farming raft in Galicia or a dug-out aspect of a man-made salt ‘mountain’ in Alicante, the inside of an plane service 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 newest frontier within the Vuelta’s predilection for wacky salidas is about to be crossed this August 22, when the 2024 race peloton will begin what is going to – presumably – be a neutralised part of stage 6 alongside the meals aisles, around the particular provide bins and previous the cashdesks of an enormous hypermarket in southern Spain.
Longstanding foremost sponsor of the Vuelta a España Carrefour has opted to have fun the twelfth anniversary of its backing of the race by opening the doorways of considered one of its institutions, positioned on the southerly outskirts of the town of Jerez de la Frontera within the area of Cadiz, to the peloton itself.
Jerez de la Frontera is healthier identified 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 day out, the peloton and the lead director’s automotive will weave their approach throughout the hypermarket’s foremost industrial flooring previous to tackling the a lot hillier the rest of a 185-kilometre stage to the city of Yunquera.
With 400 workers working of their Jerez de la Frontera Sur department alone, Carrefour has promised a collection of daylong fan actions to have fun the peloton’s departure from their big hypermarket, which can be specifically adorned 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 at the very least so far as the Nineties, when time trials have been usually held on the Destilería DYC whisky distillery close to Segovia.
In 2013 the riders started the opening staff time trial from an enormous oyster-breeding raft in western Galicia, in 2015 a stage started from inside an plane service, the Juan Carlos I, within the metropolis of Cadiz, and in 2019 the opening TTT began on the dug-out aspect of an enormous 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, exterior the hallowed constructing’s foremost door fairly than from its inside, the Vuelta then bounced again in model in 2022 by having the peloton stroll with their bikes via Breda’s Grote Kerk cathedral over the past of that 12 months’s opening three levels 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 partly via 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.
