Tour of Spain - Vuelta a España

The 63rd Tour of Spain Bike Race in 2008 is scheduled to start from Granada in the south of Spain on 30th August and to finish in Madrid on 21st September. The Andalucian leg covers five days before the cyclists head up north to the mountainous area of the lower Pyranees, from where the tortuous mountain stages begin.

This will be the ninth time the race has started with a team trial - a 7km flat run in Granada - this will be the starting point of what will be a testing race of 3170km with 40 mountain climbs, five mountain top finishes but only one flat 40km individual time trial.

Granada saw the initial stages of the race for the first time in 2005, but it was also part of the very first race in 1935 when it saw the arrival of cyclists from Murcia in the tenth stage of the race.

The first stages in Andalucia will see the cyclists covering around 700km and then the real hard work and some of the hardest stages and most spectacular scenery of the race.

Itinerary and stages.

August 30 : Granada 7km
August 31 : Granada - Jaén, 167km
September 1: Jaén - Córdoba, 165km
September 2: Córdoba - Puertollano, 153km
September 3: Ciudad Real - Ciudad Real ITT, 40km
September 4: Ciudad Real - Toledo, 162km

September 5 – Rest day

September 6: Barbastro - Andorra (Naturlandia - La Rabassa), 224km
September 6: Barbastro - Andorra (Naturlandia - La Rabassa), 224km
September 7: Andorra (Escaldes - Engordany) - Pla de Beret, 160km
September 8: Viella - Sabiñánigo, 198km
September 9: Sabiñánigo - Zaragoza, 173km
September 10: Calahorra - Burgos, 178km
Steptember 11: Burgos - Suances, 180km

September 12 – Rest day

September 13: San Vicente de la B. - Alto de L'Angliru, 199km
September 14: Oviedo - E. E. Fuentes de Invierno, 158km
September 15: Cudillero - Ponferrada, 198km
September 16: Ponferrada - Zamora, 185km
September 17: Zamora - Valladolid, 160km
September 18: Valladolid - Las Rozas, 179km
September 19: Las Rozas - Segovia, 161km
September 20: La Granja de S. I. - Alto de Navacerrada ITT, 16km
September 21: S. Sebastián de los Reyes - Madrid, 110km

It has been announced that the starting point for the 2009 Tour of Spain will start in Drenthe in the north of the Amsterdam.

More information about the route details can be found here on the Official Tour de Espana website on the English language page.