Vuelta a Espana 2024: Date, location, history, how to watch & odds

The Vuelta a Espana is third and final grand tour on the UCI World Tour calendar and is raced over three weeks in August and September.

Out of the three grand tours, the Vuelta a Espana is often seen as the least prestigious, but it still attracts some of the world’s greatest cyclists.

As was also the case with the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta a Espana was the brainchild of a daily newspaper.

The director of ‘Informaciones’ Juan Pujol and former cyclist Clemente Lopez Doriga, where the organisers of the first Vuelta a Espana.

The first race was held in 1935, but the Spanish Civil War and World War II meant it had to be put on hold.

Some stability returned in 1955 and the Vuelta a Espana has been raced annually ever since.

Just as with the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, the leader of the Vuelta a Espana will wear a special-coloured jersey, in this case red, otherwise known as the Maillot Rojo.

The aim is to be in possession of the Maillot Rojo when the Vuelta a Espana reaches its climax in Madrid.

There are also jerseys available for points classification, the mountains classification and young rider classification.

Vuelta a Espana date

The 2024 edition of the Vuelta a Espana is due to begin on Saturday 17th August and will run for just over three weeks and conclude on Sunday 8th September.

Vuelta a Espana route

In 2024, the Vuelta a Espana will begin in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, and the peloton will spend the first few days in Portugal before crossing into Spain.

The route will comprise of 21 stages, covering a total distance of 3265 kilometres over the three weeks.

Like the Tour de France, this year’s Vuelta a Espana will finish with a time trial, so there will be no sprint finish in Madrid.

As usual, the Vuelta a Espana will consist of lots of climbing, while the peloton could also be set for some brutal, hot conditions.

The Vuelta a Espana will be made up of one flat stage, five medium mountain stages, eight mountain stages, five hilly stages and two individual time-trial stages.

There will also be two rest days before the Vuelta a Espana ends in Madrid.

Vuelta a Espana how to watch

Australian fans will be able to watch the 2024 Vuelta a Espana via SBS and SBS on Demand.

Vuelta a Espana most wins

Spain’s Roberto Heras holds the record for the most wins in the Vuelta a Espana, with four in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Three cyclists have won the Vuelta a Espana on three occasions. They are Tony Rominger, who dominated in the early 1990s, Alberto Contador and Primoz Roglic.

Roglic won the Vuelta a Espana for three years running in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Vuelta a Espana favourites

After Tadej Pogacar revealed he would not be racing the Vuelta a Espana, fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic was installed as the hot fancy to win the race.

The Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe rider crashed out of the Tour de France and quickly turned his attention to final grand tour of the season.

Roglic, who has already won the race on three occasions, can be backed at 2.50 to win Vuelta a Espana.

UAE Team Emirates may be without Pogacar, but still have three contenders to win the race - Juan Ayuso is 7.00, Adam Yates 8.00 and Joao Almeida 9.00.

Enric Mas of Team Movistar is also 8.00.