Vuelta going to Portugal, Morocco and Canary Islands

[Max Rockatansky]

There is a bigger feature in today's AS about the plans for the upcoming editions for La Vuelta. According to the article, the dear friend of all race designers Javier "_____/" Guillén is working together with the former cyclists Fernando Escartín and Kiko García to bring the Vuelta to the Canary Islands.

Until the year 2020 they want to include Portugal into the course again. They are looking for Ceuta and Melilla and they want to link them with a stage through Morocco.

But the main perspective are the Canaries. What they are looking for are two stages on Teneriffe and two stages on Gran Canaria. Maybe closing the race with climbing Teide. They assume that the transfer of the whole equipment by boat would take 26 hours. Riders would fly. The calculated costs only for this transfer would be around two million Euros.

http://ciclismo.as.com/ciclismo/2017/04/26/vuelta_espana/1493243862_486845.html

 

[Red Rick]

I like it.

 

[roundabout]

It seems like there is talk about the Vuelta going to Canary Islands almost every other year since about 2011.

In short, I'll believe it when it happens. It doesn't seem like there is anything to suggest that Guillen is any closer to executing this now than he was when the idea of a return was first proposed in about 2011.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I can't see the Moroccan government ever agreeing to a stage linking Ceuta and Melilla. Any more than the Spanish government would facilitate a stage of the Tour of Britain around the Southern tip of Spain and finishing in Gibraltar.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also notwithstanding that Ceuta and Melilla are more than 350km apart by road. You'd have to have two stages, probably stopping in El-Hoceima on the way.

I'd love to see a Vuelta start in Morocco (I did design one such Grand Départ in the Race Design Thread) and the country does have some promising cyclists who are getting a chance to show at a better level now (guys with development time left like Soufiane Haddi, Anass Ait el Abdia, Mehdi El Chokri, Amine Ahmed Galdoune, Salah Eddine Mraouni, Abderrahim Zahiri), and the 1997 nationals in Melilla were great, but if the Vuelta did do some time in Morocco, it would have to be with Ceuta and Melilla off the menu; if they did go to Ceuta, Melilla or both, then Morocco won't be a possibility for several years afterward.

 

[ferryman]

If you want to see serious echelons, take it to Lanzarote!!

 

[ice&fire]

Same old wishful thinking of every year to create buzz without substance.

 

[Velolover2]

It definitely make more sense to race it in the bodering countries.