The Vuelta a España, which will have its grand start in Lisbon, in the 2024 edition, has long left the feeling that taking part was a way of trying to save the season. “Today it is an objective and not an excuse”, considers its director, Javier Guillén, in an interview at the Valladolid Sports Press Association.
Mountain endings are preferred
“We are a race that knows that people like mountain finishes more than sprints. Although every year, at least a third of the stages can be contested in a sprint, we think that a finish on the rise can give us a longer spectacle, of several kilometers”.
Javier Guillén explained the basis of the organization in particular, to outline the sporting profile of each edition.
“It all starts with where you will start and knowing where you want more intensity, the mountain or the time trial. We work a lot on the weekends and in the last week we are aware that it must be difficult” .
Finais em montanhas são os preferidos
“Somos uma corrida que sabe que as pessoas gostam mais de finais de montanha do que de sprints. Embora todos os anos, pelo menos um terço das etapas possam ser disputadas em sprint, pensamos que uma chegada em ascensão pode dar-nos um espetáculo mais longo, de vários quilômetros”.
Javier Guillén explicou as bases da organização em particular, para delinear o perfil desportivo de cada edição.
“Tudo inicia por onde você começará e sabendo onde quer mais intensidade, a montanha ou o contrarrelógio. Trabalhamos muito nos finais de semana e na última semana temos consciência, de que deve ser difícil”.
Step costs
In this sense, although “La Vuelta” sometimes approaches different municipalities, where it intends to pass, there are many interests, to receive it to be the beginning or the end of a stage.
“The value of the time trial is around 150 thousand euros, the arrival time is around 100 thousand and the departure cost is around 50 thousand. There are two stages that cost much more, the official departure and arrival”, acknowledged the general director of Unipublic.
He further explained that this happens because the start is “an event within an annual promotional event”, the cost of which can exceed millions of euros, and that the existing commitment is for the race to end in Madrid.
Perfect ending
During the interview, the leader made it clear “that his favorite film is that of a foreigner fighting against a Spaniard” for the red shirt, something that did not happen in the last edition, but that Guillén hopes can happen again, with the new generation of cyclists, led by Juan Ayuso or Carlos Rodríguez.