Save the date. Be it a big oyster-farming raft in Galicia or a dug-out facet 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 crowd pleasing 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 supply bins and previous the cashdesks of a large hypermarket in southern Spain.
Longstanding important sponsor of the Vuelta a España Carrefour has opted to have a good time the twelfth anniversary of its backing of the race by opening the doorways of one in all its institutions, positioned 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 best 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 crew time trial. This day trip, the peloton and the lead director’s automotive will weave their method throughout the hypermarket’s important 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 a good time the peloton’s departure from their big hypermarket, which can 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 have been usually held on the Destilería DYC whisky distillery close to Segovia.
In 2013 the riders started the opening crew time trial from a large 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 facet 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 important door somewhat than from its inside, the Vuelta then bounced again in fashion in 2022 by having the peloton stroll with their bikes by way of Breda’s Grote Kerk cathedral over the past 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 partly by way of 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.
