The women's Volta a Catalunya is getting ready for a historic debut with a stellar participation
June 6 th 2024 - 13:00 [GMT + 2]
The best women's cycling in the world will gather in Catalonia on June 7, 8 and 9 for the first women's edition of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. The historic Catalan cycling organization premieres a stage race of international category UCI 2.1 with world cycling stars such as the legendary Marianne Vos, Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Riejanne Markus or Évita Muzic will compete in three attractive and varied stages from Manresa to Barcelona.
The first edition of the women's stage race of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will take place between Friday, June 7 and Sunday, June 9, with the presence of 20 teams, seven of which are UCI Women's WorldTour, the world's top category. A peloton of more than 130 cyclists will cross the Catalan territory in three stages with venues in Manresa, La Seu d'Urgell, La Molina, Molins de Rei and Barcelona that will gather a luxury participation with an important number of stars of the international women's peloton. An undoubtedly historic milestone that comes after four editions of the reVolta as a one-day race and that will mark a before and after in the trajectory of the Catalan cycling organization.
A stellar participation to make history
This spectacular line-up will be headed by triple world champion Marianne Vos, considered one of the best cyclists in history with more than 250 professional victories, leading a Team Visma-Lease a Bike team that will also have in the Volta Riejanne Markus, second classified in the last edition of La Vuelta Femenina. Opposing them will be other top teams like the French FDJ-SUEZ, which will line up all its potential with the charismatic Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig, a climber of reference as the stage winner in La Vuelta Femenina Évita Muzic and the Australian Grace Brown, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, or the AG Insurance-Soudal Team, led by South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who will be accompanied by Catalan Mireia Benito and other world-class climbers like Australian Sarah Gigante, winner of this year's Tour Down Under.
So, at the start of this 1st Volta Ciclista a Catalunya there will be stage winners in the Tour de France as Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team), badges as the Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer (Roland), and promises as Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling), best young rider of the last Tour de France, among other important names. The first two winners of the reVolta, American Lauren Stephens (Cynisca Cycling, 2018) and Denmark's Katrine Aalerud (Movistar Team, 2021), will showcase the legacy of the Volta a Catalunya's commitment to women's cycling in one that will feature up to 14 Catalan riders: Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal Team), Ariana Gilabert (Eneicat-CM Team), Mireia Trias, Paula Blasi, Laia Bosch, Marta Romance, Ingrid Ruiz (from the Catalan Massi-Baix Ter team), Iris Gómez, Maria Banlles, Helena Moragas, Andrea Soldevila, Estefanía Jiménez, Laura Martí and Emma Ortiz, the latter representing the Catalan national team.
Three stages with all terrains, with finish in altitude
The Volta a Catalunya will start this Friday with a medium mountain stage of 100.6 kilometers starting and finishing from Manresa, European City of Sport 2024. It will be a first stage of 100.6 kilometers through the regions of Bages, Anoia and Solsonès that will reach 1,500 meters of accumulated altitude difference. The scoring ports of Coll de Pinós and Coll de Cal Pallarès (3rd category), along with a totally leg-breaking terrain in the central part of the route, will begin to define the cyclists with more options to play the race. Keeping intact the identity of the Volta a Catalunya, the women's race will have a real high mountain challenge that is expected to be decisive for the resolution of the general classification in stage 2, to be held on Saturday. Starting in another historic venue of the race as La Seu d'Urgell, the stage will have 95.7 kilometers of route and two 1st category passes such as the exhausting Collada de Toses and the high-altitude arrival of La Molina, which will host the finish line.
A demanding route ideal to see the best climbers of the international peloton fighting for victory in the mountain station of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, which has hosted stages of the men's Volta eight times in recent years. For its part, the city of Barcelona could not be missing as a great protagonist of the Volta a Catalunya and will host the arrival of a final stage starting from Molins de Rei and will be 86.6 kilometers long. The interior of the Baix Llobregat and the Penedès will be the protagonist in the route of this final day, which with the difficulties of the Alt dels Casots (2nd category) and the Alt de Begues (3rd category), expects a nervous and demanding development before the arrival in the capital of Catalonia, which will put the icing on the cake to crown the champion of the first women's Volta a Catalunya.
A first-class television broadcast
This 1st Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will have an important television coverage, with the same logistic resources as the men's race and an hour and a half of broadcasting of the stage. It can be followed nationally through several channels and worldwide through the streaming of the different broadcasters. In Catalonia, the first stage can be followed on Esport3 (Friday from 16:30h), while the second (Saturday from 12:30h) and the third stage (Sunday from 12:15h) will be broadcasted on TV3. The live national coverage will be broadcast by RTVE Play at the same times, while Teledeporte will offer the images in deferred. A historic leap forward for the Volta femenina, which has had the important impulse of the General Secretariat of Sport and Physical Activity of the Generalitat de Catalunya through the program “Among all, everything”, as well as of the different Diputacions and towns involved.
