Unipublic reveals revamped La Vuelta Femenina to start along Costa Blanca

La Vuelta Femenina will begin May 1 along Spanish Costa Blanca
La Vuelta Femenina will begin May 1 along Spanish Costa Blanca (Image credit: Liz Hatch)

Organisers Unipublic has announced the revamped La Vuelta Femenina will begin along the Costa Blanca coastline in Spain on May 1.

The 200km-long Mediterranean coastline is a popular tourist destination in the province of Alicante; however, organisers have not revealed the exact location of the opening stage.

Teams have complained about the lack of information about the seven-day race; however, Unipublic has confirmed that the full route will be revealed at a ceremony on February 28.

"The first edition of La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es will start from Costa Blanca.  The full route of the race will be presented on February 28th, also in Costa Blanca, in a ceremony of which more details will be revealed soon," organisers wrote in a press release on Thursday.

Costa Blanca is also a popular cycling location among the professional teams that host annual pre-season training camps in cities such as Denia, Altea and Alicante. In addition, Benidorm recently hosted a round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup.

In a major shake-up for the former Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, organisers changed its name to La Vuelta Feminina, expanded the race to seven stages, and moved it to May 1-7 in 2023. 

The event started as a one-day race in Madrid in 2015 and expanded to two stages in 2018, and a third stage was added in 2020. The race was further expanded in 2021 to four stages and in 2022 to five stages.

Former champions of the event include Shelley Olds (2015), Jolien D'hoore (2016, 2017), Ellen van Dijk (2018), Lisa Brennauer (2019, 2020), and Annemiek van Vleuten won the previous two editions in 2021 and 2022.

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Kirsten Frattini
Deputy Editor

Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.