The Vuelta is the third grand tour and the one with the most summit finishes — short, steep, often concrete-surfaced climbs like the Angliru and the Lagos de Covadonga, raced in late-summer heat. Its late-August start makes it the proving ground for riders building towards the world championships, and the leader wears red.
Watching is free and no attendance figure exists for a three-thousand-kilometre route.
The race has started outside Spain in several recent editions — the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy — which is the detail most likely to catch out anyone planning around the opening days.
The route is announced the previous winter, and the mountain stages in Asturias, Cantabria and the Sierra Nevada are where the roadside crowds and the campervans concentrate.
PlanningA three-week window from late August into September; the route is announced the previous winter.