Of the three Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia may nearly always be the toughest physically and the Tour de France the most demanding in terms of mental pressure. But summer after summer, when it comes to richly unpredictable race action from start to finish, the Vuelta a España remains in a class of its own.
In last year’s Vuelta, for example, who could have expected that Sepp Kuss, well-known as a top support climber but never previously a GC contender, would fight against all the odds - and even his own teammates at times - to capture North America’s first Grand Tour in a decade? Or that Remco Evenepoel, so confident a conqueror of the Vuelta in 2022, would collapse so spectacularly in the first major Pyrenean stage? Or that less than 12 months after Juan Ayuso had become the second youngest Grand Tour podium finisher ever in the Vuelta, up-and-coming French climbing talent Lenny Martínez would push the bar even higher and become the 79-year-old Vuelta’s youngest-ever leader?
If Kuss’ tenacious fight for a landmark Grand Tour win wasn’t exciting enough, the battle for supremacy in cycling’s third and final Grand Tour of 2024 could be even more wide-open than in 2023 - and equally fascinating to watch as a result. In stark comparison to a Giro d’Italia and a Tour de France dominated from start to finish by Tadej Pogačar, every one of the Vuelta’s trademark ultra-steep summit finishes, every set-piece battle in the mountains of Sierra Nevada, Asturias and the Basque Country and every metre of the first and last time trial of the Vuelta a España on the streets of Lisbon and Madrid could yet become the point where the 2024 overall is won or lost. And like Kuss in 2023 and so many riders before him in Spain’s Grand Tour, that win could be a key foundation stone for breakthrough triumphs and even loftier goals in the years to come.
To hazard a guess who will emerge the winner in such a fraught, constantly challenging, and brutally competitive event as the Vuelta a Espana 2024 is all but impossible. And in the blink-and-you-missed-it kaleidoscope of such rapidly changing race scenarios, the need to stay closely and reliably informed could hardly be greater. To fulfil all those requirements with up-to-date analysis, insightful interviews, and in-depth previews, though, you need to look no further than Cyclingnews. Now in its fourth decade of on-the-ground reporting from Spain’s Grand Tour and once again more than ready to furnish everything you need to stay on top of your own Vuelta game, all the way from Lisbon through to Madrid.
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Alasdair Fotheringham and Barry Ryan will be on the ground for Cyclingnews, providing the latest news, exclusive interviews, and analysis of key race moments as they follow the Vuelta a España from Lisbon to Madrid via several mountain summits and picture-postcard coastal destinations.
They’ll be supported by the Cyclingnews team in Europe, North America and Australia, with live updates from every stage ensuring you don’t miss any of the action, detailed stage previews to whet your appetite for the racing to come, as well as breathtaking image galleries and in-depth features to dig deeper into La Vuelta's rich culture.
Philippa York will share unique insight and context into the Grand Tour's storylines, helping you understand the dynamics behind the general classification and key jersey battles.
Meanwhile, our senior tech writer Will Jones will be in and amongst the team buses to capture the bikes and equipment on show for the first time at the year's final Grand Tour.
You can enjoy unlimited access to all of our journalism and content by subscribing to Cyclingnews.
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A subscription to Cyclingnews allows you to read every word and see every photograph we publish. Your subscription also helps support our journalism, and especially our presence at races across the season, when we bring you the big stories and inside news that nobody else has.
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Visit our Vuelta a España hub page for more information on the final Grand Tour of the 2024 season.
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