Grand Tour specialists heading to the Volta a Catalunya this March are set for some daunting mountain challenges and a number of extraordinarily punchy hilly phases to check their climbing kind.
Publication of the 2022 Volta route this week has confirmed there will probably be no time trial, not like in 2021, with two summit finishes deep within the Pyrenees more likely to resolve the race’s general winner as an alternative.
The strikingly irregular ultimate ascent to La Molina on stage three has change into a well-known function of Volta a Catalunya routes of latest years. Then 24 hours later, one other Pyrenean ski station at Boi Taull is again on the route for the primary time in twenty years and can act as the ultimate and hardest single problem on the 2022 race’s Queen stage.
The general leaders’ greatest impediment afterwards will more than likely be the normal, extraordinarily punchy, stage 7 via Montjuic Park in Barcelona on the ultimate Sunday.
The 2022 Volta kicks off on Monday March 21 with a brand new begin city of San Feliu de Guixols, with stage 1 comprising a hilly out-and-back circuit via the Gavarres sierras, the place the sprinters’ groups may have a significant battle to maintain the breakaways below management.
Then after a equally hilly run into France, with stage 2 ending within the northern Catalan metropolis of Perpignan, stage 3 takes the Volta again in the direction of the Pyrenees and its hardest climbing challenges.
Climate allowing – as the danger of snowfalls altering routes is all the time a priority within the Volta when it heads into the excessive mountains in late March – three first-category climbs on stage 3 will possible spark the Volta’s first main GC battle.
Nonetheless, the Boí Taüll ascent on stage 4 is by far the toughest of all of the Pyrenean climbs, and more likely to see the general favourites make definitive race-winning strikes. At 14 kilometres lengthy, and steepest on the backside earlier than giving method to a largely regular gradient of round 5 to 7 per cent, Boí Taüll featured frequently on the Volta route within the Nineties. Its final look within the Catalan race dates from 2002 when it was the summit of a mountain time trial.
A protracted grind southwards to the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltrú on stage 5, more likely to finish in a bunch dash, and a hilly day for the breakaways on Saturday in southern Catalonia, then observe.
Nonetheless, stage 7’s a number of ascents to Montjuïc citadel on a brief, very technical circuit tackled six occasions virtually invariably see the general chief come below fireplace for one final time and this yr will possible present the same old dramatic and entertaining ultimate showdown for the a hundred and first version of the Volta a Catalunya.
Star names pencilled in to be current for the Volta this yr embrace final yr’s winner Adam Yates and his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Richard Carapaz (Ineos-Grenadiers), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) and, for one final time earlier than his retirement, the three-time Volta champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
2022 Volta a Catalunya phases
- Monday March 21: stage 1, Sant Feliu de Guíxols – Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 172.2 km
- Tuesday March 22: stage 2, L’Escala – Perpignan, 202.4km
- Wednesday March 23: stage 3, Perpignan – La Molina, 161.1km
- Thursday March 24: stage 4, La Seu d’Urgell – Boi Taull, 166.7 km
- Friday March 25: stage 5, La Pobla de Segur – Vilanova i la Geltrú, 206.3 km
- Saturday March 26: stage 6, Salou – Cambrils, 167.6km
- Sunday March 27: stage 7, Barcelona – Barcelona, 138.6 km
