The Galician orography, a high-level commitment to prolong the team’s good collective momentum
19º Volta a Galicia
From 16 to 19 September
They have been living some intense days, as far as bicycles are concerned, in Galician territory. The end of the Vuelta 2021 in the Plaza del Obradoiro in Santiago de Compostela is still fresh after three days on Galician soil. The recently baked media echoes of the organisational project that works to recover a Vuelta a Galicia for the professionalism between 24 and 27 February 2022 are still hot. The last races of the Copa de España in the elite and U23 categories are not so far away. And in these same categories, Galicia will once again host its stage race between Thursday 16 and Sunday 19. Yes, a new edition of the Volta a Galicia is coming.
Four stages, an initial stage against the clock and three subsequent stages with a demanding regional terrain, especially the last stage, will be the stage where the best of the national amateur peloton will compete. On behalf of the Fundación Contador, a team of seven cyclists who are well prepared for the broken terrain will be travelling. Arnau Gilabert, Álex Martín, Italian Andrea Montoli, Edu Pérez-Landaluce, Javi Serrano, Yago Segovia and Fernando Tercero will be the men in blue for the race.
Perhaps the last stage will be the most demanding from an orographic point of view due to the presence of the Garita de Herbeira. It is not high in terms of altitude (it is crowned at less than 600 metres), but it is a deceptive factor because the sea level is close, the mountains of the Sierra de la Capelada emerge very close and overlook the ocean by means of large cliffs, among the highest in Europe. In terms of cycling, the difference in altitude to be overcome ends up being significant.
The Garita de Herbeira viewpoint, a defensive observation point opened by the military engineers at the beginning of the 19th century, is a longer pass on this side, that of Cedeira. It has a downhill section, but also two very tough kilometres. And the descent also has its points of difficulty, even more so because of the proximity of the last finish line, in Cariño, barely ten kilometres from the top.
The stages.
16 September: Ponteareas – Ponteareas (6 km CRI).
17th September: Ponteareas – Ponteareas (143.3 km).
18th September: Muras – Muras (149 km).
19th September: Cariño – Cariño (125 km).
