Save the date. Be it a giant oyster-farming raft in Galicia or a dug-out side of a man-made salt ‘mountain’ in Alicante, the interior of an aircraft carrier in Cadiz or a Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes, a whisky distillery in Segovia or a meat processing factory in Murcia, the Vuelta a España has always had a longstanding tradition of unconventional and eye-catching starts.
The latest frontier in the Vuelta’s predilection for wacky salidas is set to be crossed this August 22, when the 2024 race peloton will start what will – presumably – be a neutralised section of stage 6 along the food aisles, round the special offer bins and past the cashdesks of a giant hypermarket in southern Spain.
Longstanding main sponsor of the Vuelta a España Carrefour has opted to celebrate the twelfth anniversary of its backing of the race by opening the doors of one of its establishments, located on the southerly outskirts of the city of Jerez de la Frontera in the region of Cadiz, to the peloton itself.
Jerez de la Frontera is better known for its horse racing and sherry-making industries, although it did play host to the Grand Départ of the Vuelta a España in 2014 with a team time trial. This time out, the peloton and the lead director’s car will weave their way across the hypermarket’s main commercial floors prior to tackling the much hillier remainder of a 185-kilometre stage to the town of Yunquera.
With 400 employees working in their Jerez de la Frontera Sur branch alone, Carrefour has promised a series of daylong fan activities to celebrate the peloton’s departure from their giant hypermarket, which will be specially decorated for the occasion as well.
While never shunning more traditionally spectacular finishes like in Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu football stadium for the final TT of the 2002 race, the Vuelta’s predilection for downright unusual stage starts dates back at least as far as the 1990s, when time trials were regularly held at the Destilería DYC whisky distillery near Segovia.
In 2013 the riders began the opening team time trial from a giant oyster-breeding raft in western Galicia, in 2015 a stage began from inside an aircraft carrier, the Juan Carlos I, in the city of Cadiz, and in 2019 the opening TTT started on the dug-out side of a giant man-made salt ‘mountain’ in the town of Torrevieja near Alicante. While a much-heralded time trial start inside Burgos Cathedral for the 2021 Vuelta a España actually began, somewhat disappointingly, outside the hallowed building’s main door rather than from its interior, the Vuelta then bounced back in style in 2022 by having the peloton walk with their bikes through Breda’s Grote Kerk cathedral during the last of that year’s opening three stages in Holland.
If another memorable, if slightly less glamourous, brace of starts and finishes featured the carpark of a meat-packing plant in Murcia in 2018 and 2022, then stage 1 of the 2017 Vuelta a España hosted an unforgettable TTT that ran in part through the Roman amphitheatre in Nîmes, France.
Rumours that riders in the 2024 Vuelta a España peloton will receive a discount on certain goods at Carrefour if they present a customer loyalty card when signing on for stage 6 have yet to be confirmed or denied by the organisation.
