Vuelta a Espana 2024 Route Announced

The third Grand Tour of the season revealed its route for next year’s edition yesterday. I do not get too excited about the least prestigious Grand Tour’s stage profiles eight months before the start, but it is comforting to see that the race should be at least as exciting as recent Vueltas have been.

The main takeaway for me is the utter lack of flat sprint opportunities, which I quite like for viewership interest. This will deter some of the bigger pure sprint monsters and attract the climby/sprinty/punchy guys. Mads Pedersen, for example, announced that he would ride La Vuelta before the route was even known, and he ought to be a very happy boy with the altitude profiles. He realistically could clean up four or five stages, particularly if Jasper Philipsen does not show up. Even if he does, I think the big Dane is a slightly better climber than the Flandrien. Pedersen beat him on the hilly finale of Stage Eight of the Tour de France this year.

The other thing that stands out to me is the lack of gargantuan mountain days, with the exception stage 20. That is not to say the route is easy by any stretch of the imagination. There are many medium mountain and mountain days, and while I am unable to find exact gradients for the climbs, the grind will be almost constant for the GC contenders.

Finally, with just 34 kilometers of flat time trialing, the pure climbers will take an edge.

And speaking of Danes that ride for Lidl-Trek, Mattias Skjelmose will make his first run at a General Classification in a Grand Tour in this Vuelta. The route will also make him pretty happy as an excellent puncheur, but rather untested in huge Alpine wars day after day (of which this Vuelta includes very few). The competition might be a little softer than it has been in recent years, due to the focus on the Tour de France and Olympics from most of the top riders. So Skjelmose could have a chance at a podium if he improves.

The other presumed contenders are Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, Primoz Roglic, Enric Mas, Adam Yates, Joao Almeida, Juan Ayuso, and Tadej Pogacar for the Grand Tour triple. I kid, but this route is so good for him. Then again, most Vuelta routes are. He will probably do the Vuelta in 2025. My pick for the 2024 Vuelta victory, at this point, is Vingegaard.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The calendar has not even turned yet, so it is laughably early to speak in-depth about the Vuelta.