Tour of the Alps 'has all it takes' to move to WorldTour by 2026

Along with the route announcement of the 2024 Tour of the Alps on Tuesday, hints were dropped that the spring ProSeries stage race, used as a Grand Tour tune-up, could move to the WorldTour calendar in two years.

Host cities of next year’s five-day stage race, April 15-19, 2024, and the 10 classified climbs along the route were unveiled in Milan, attended by 1982 race winner Giuseppe Saronni, two-time Giro d’Italia stage winner Davide Cassani and recently-retired pro rider Daniel Oss. 

Comments from the president of the European Cycling Union (UEC), who is also the vice president of the UCI, lauded the efforts to bring together multiple regions and deliver a strong future with new organisers, Infront Italia. 

“The Tour of the Alps is a special race. We see it as a cycling ‘laboratory’ and event that is not afraid to innovate, combining two territories," said Enrico Della Casa, UEC’s president. 

"This is another reason why I hope that the Tour of the Alps will be included in the World Tour calendar from 2026, when there will be a complete calendar reform. This race has all it takes."

Infront Italia signed a five-year agreement to oversee the growth of the race, from marketing to technical aspects, with 2024 their first year.

“We really believe in the team we have put together, starting with the technical area that takes care of the course and the safety aspect in detail, which is fundamental for us: we want TotA to be an unforgettable experience for the entire caravan. Having final circuits makes the stage venues and the local people happy,” said Maurizio Evangelista, the race general manager. 

The challenging route, now in its seventh year as the Tour of the Alps, will cover 709.3 kilometres over the five days of racing across Austria and northern Italy. Though 42km shorter than last year, there will be more than 13,000 metres of elevation gain packed into the contest. In 2023 Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) won the overall  classification.

“The Tour of the Alps is a special race that knows how to overcome walls and borders. I really like the fact that three of the five stages include a circuit: it's an opportunity for the public to experience more parts of the race, something that brings people together,” said Davide Cassani, who retired from the pro peloton in 1996 and now works as a cycling broadcaster in Italy. 

“The 2024 route is balanced, hilly with short and challenging climbs on three stages, then a big queen stage on day four and a still challenging fifth stage. It's the ideal mix to celebrate a top-class winner, like Geoghegan Hart was."

After a team presentation event on Sunday, April 14, the ProSeries race begins on April 15 with 133.3km from Neumarkt to the finish in Trentino. 

Stage 2 is the longest at 189.1km, linking Salurn to Stans with a climb of the Brenner Pass mid-way through. Schwaz serves as the start and finish for stage 3 for an all-Tirolean day in the heart of the Alps for 127km. 

Stage 4 takes in 141.3km from Leifers to Borgo Valsugana with 3,830 metres of elevation gain as the queen stage. After the climbs of the San Lugano, Redebus and Compet passes, organisers touted the ascent of the “unprecedented side” of the Vetriolo Pass (9.4km at 8.7%), known as ‘Strada dei Baiti’. 

The final stage starts and ends in Levico Terme with 118.6km on the schedule, which includes circuits and a double ascent of Palü del Fersina (12.5km at 6.2%).

The event was first held in 1962 and 1963 as a one-day race, Giro del Trentino, and then morphed into the stage race in 1979, becoming the Tour of the Alps in 2017 with multiple days across three mountainous regions. 

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