The reVolta presents a 4th edition to consolidate in the international calendar
April 18 th 2023 - 15:31 [GMT + 2]
The 4th edition of the reVolta, the women's race of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, will make an important step in quality at a sporting level in its 2023 edition, which has been presented this morning at the Sant Cugat Town Hall. The Catalan cycling race, which will be held in the city of Sant Cugat for the third consecutive year on Saturday, April 29, jumps into the UCI international calendar in category 1.1, and with it it improves its level of participation, the demanding route and repercussion, since the race will have live television on TV3, the Catalan national television channel.
The official presentation of the 4th edition of the reVolta has served to announce all the details of the race that will be held on 29 April in Sant Cugat del Vallès, which continues to take steps forward to consolidate its place on the international women's cycling calendar. In addition to its jump to the UCI 1.1 category and an important level of participation, the race, which has a new website (www.la-revolta.cat), will also make a steap ahead in its media repercussion thanks to the live broadcast on television.
The presentation of the reVolta at the Sant Cugat Town Hall was attended by Mireia Ingla, Mayoress of Sant Cugat del Vallès, the Secretary General for Sport of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Anna Caula, the President of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Associació Esportiva, Rubèn Peri, the sports manager of the reVolta, Patrícia Ortega, the president of the Catalan Cycling Federation, Joaquim Vilaplana, as well as the cyclists Elisabet Escursell (Massi-Tactic) and Helena Moragas, who will compete with the Catalan national team.
"The reVolta takes a step forward, with a leap in quality in the participation of the race and in its media projection. We continue to make steps forward to make the event grow and take women's cycling to the place we believe it deserves", explained Rubèn Peris, president of the Volta a Catalunya. For her part, the sports manager of the event Patrícia Ortega has assured that "women's cycling is growing by leaps and bounds. If I had been told two years ago that this year the reVolta would have a helicopter to broadcast the race I would not have believed it. And now we are already thinking and looking for ways to make it grow even more". On the sporting side, she explained that "the route is demanding from kilometre 0 and we will have to wait and see how the teams play their cards, as we will have a peloton with very interesting riders".
The mayoress of Sant Cugat, Mireia Ingla, said that "we are very proud that Sant Cugat will once again host the reVolta, the women's race of the Volta a Catalunya. We want this pairing to last for many years and for our city to continue to be one of the benchmarks when it comes to raising the profile of women's sport".
For her part, the Secretary General for Sport and Physical Activity, Anna Caula, stressed that the presentation of the reVolta was filled with "emotion and pride" because "we are consolidating a great event at a time of change in terms of the growth of women's sport in Catalonia". Anna Caula added that the event is "the result of networking" and "an example of circular sport to generate references among young people and new imaginaries. We have helped to ensure that the event is broadcast live on TV3, and this is one more step to promote women's cycling and the Catalan territory", she concluded.
The reVolta also takes an important step forward in its international participation, which will be led by two UCI WorldTeams, Movistar Team and Israel Premier Tech Roland, which are part of the select group of the fifteen best teams in the world. Eleven UCI Women's Continental Teams will also take part in the 4th reVolta, among them the Catalan teams Massi-Tactic and Zaaf Cycling Team, together with the Galician Farto-BTC and the Basque Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi, the French teams Cofidis Women Team, Stade Rochelais Charente Maritime and Team Groupe Abadie, the German Canyon/SRAM Generation, the Norwegian Team Coop-Hitec Products and the Slovenian BTC City Ljubljana. The Catalan and Cypriot national teams will complete the participation, as well as the Portuguese team Maiatos Women's Cycling Team, reference team of the Taça de Portugal.
Thus, more than 100 international cyclists are expected to participate, with the presence of important names such as the defending champion, the German Clara Koppenburg (Cofidis Women Team), increasingly consolidated as one of the great climbers of the international peloton, who will defend her number 1. The WorldTour potential of the Movistar Team cyclists or the Israel Premier Tech Roland, which has planned the participation of the Olympic champion in Tokyo 2021 Anna Kiesenhofer or the British veteran Claire Steels, will be in front of them.
The continental teams will be looking to face as usual with the presence of the Catalan team Massi-Tactic, which has been on the podium in the last two editions of the reVolta, as well as a Zaaf Cycling team that has achieved good results in this beginning of 2023 with names like the Canadian champion Maggie Coles-Lyster, the Australian Danielle De Francesco or the Czech Nikola Noskova, close to victory in international races such as the Scheldeprijs, Cadel Evans Road Race or the Clásica CV Fèmines, respectively.
Other riders to follow will be the Slovenian veteran Urska Pintar (BTC City Ljubljana Scott), a cyclist with long experience at WorldTour level, the last U23 Spanish champions Iurani Blanco and Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), fifth classified at the reVolta 2021, the potential of Team Coop-Hitec Products, which this year will be at the start of LeTour Femmes and which will take to the reVolta the young British Josie Nelson (Team Coop-Hitec Products), fourth this year in a WorldTour race such as Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, as well as Anti Christoforou, winner last year of La Classique Morbihan and cyclist of the UCI WorldTeam Human Powered Health, who will lead the Cyprus team.
In addition, the race organised by the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will be tougher this year 2023. The race will have three mountain passes on a 126.9 kilometre route that will have a total of almost 2,000 metres of positive elevation gain. Starting and finishing in Sant Cugat del Vallès, it will be marked by the Coll de Castellbisball (2nd category) and the first category passes of Port d'Ullastrell and Alt de la Creu d'Aragall, the latter of which is 29.5 kilometres from the finish line and is expected to be decisive in the outcome of the race. There will also be two intermediate sprints, located in Piera (km 63.1) and in Corbera de Llobregat (km 104.2).
The start of the race will be at 9.50am on Avinguda Pla del Vinyet, while the finish is scheduled for around 1.30pm. The reVolta can be followed live from 12h on TV3, as well as on the social networks of the Volta a Catalunya.