Thursday, December 19, 2024, 7:35 p.m.
Bilbao reaffirms its commitment to cycling with a stage of the Vuelta a España in 2025. It will be on Wednesday, September 3, when the eleventh stage of the round that will start in Turin-Piedmont (Italy) stops in the Biscayan capital, which will feature absolute as it is the start and finish of the 167 kilometer route. In this way, since the Spanish round returned to Biscayan lands in 2011 to close a 33-year absence and celebrate Igor Antón’s tremendous victory on the Gran Vía, it will be the fifth time that fans will be able to see the Vuelta peloton in the streets of Bilbao, in addition to that historic Grand Depart of the 2023 Tour and the three presences of Itzulia, on two occasions as the start of the race (2015 and 2021).
The presentation this afternoon of the 2025 route, a very special edition as it is the 90th anniversary of the race, was held at the IFEMA Municipal Palace in Madrid and revealed the return of the Vuelta to Bilbao and Bizkaia, in an event at the that the Town Council of the town and the Provincial Council have been present, promoting once again that a benchmark sporting event will take place in 2025 in the capital of Biscay within that determined institutional commitment to major sporting events. «With this stage, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia demonstrates, once again, its commitment to top-level sporting events such as the Soccer World Cup, the Women’s Champions League, the rugby finals or the Tour from a couple of years ago. Events that give us a very important international positioning and that endorse our work to make Bizkaia a more open and attractive territory,” summarized Ainara Basurko, Deputy for Economic Promotion, regarding the main events held in Bilbao and those that will be added in 2025 by the final of the Europa League football in May and this stage of the Vuelta in September.
For her part, Kontxi Claver, Councilor for Economic Development, Commerce, Tourism and Employment of the Bilbao City Council, admitted that “the success of the Tour continues to put us in the focus of events in the world of sport” and valued the importance to have the Vuelta because “we have an outstanding fan base that always goes out of their way and shows their affection, something that is highly appreciated by the cyclists themselves and that is part of the images that have been projected around the world.”
In this way, Bilbao will once again be part of a Vuelta a España route. It will be on September 3, 2025, after the 10th stage that will take the peloton from the Sendaviva park in Navarre to the finish in Larra-Belagua. And it will do so with a route that is very reminiscent of that first stage of the 2023 Tour – where Adam Yates was crowned with victory and the yellow jersey ahead of his brother Simon –, with the ascent to Pike Bidea as the hot spot of the day, although shorter and with a novelty, a double pass through El Vivero.
The participants will leave Bilbao towards Laukiz and Mungia, to access Bakio and through San Pelayo, arriving at Bermeo and from there to Gernika. From the provincial town you ascend the Balcón de Bizkaia to descend to Muxika and head towards the Morga hill. Through Larrebetzu, the runners will go to Galdakao to face a loop that will take them to El Vivero, passing through Bilbao and returning to Galdakao for the second ascent. This time, the descent will be like in the Tour in 2023, a descent where Richard Carapaz fell and broke his kneecap and where Enric Mas also went to the ground. Once in Lezama, the peloton will travel through the Txorierri to face the climb to Pike from Sondika. Then through Enekuri, descent to Bilbao and arrival on the Gran Vía after 167 kilometers without respite, with seven second and third category climbs and an ideal route for adventurers. The next day, the 12th stage will take place entirely in Cantabria, starting in Laredo and arriving in Los Corrales de Buelna.
Bizkaia and Bilbao will be the center of attention of a complete stage, with a start and finish, something that has not happened in the Vuelta a España since the second sector of the eleventh day of the 1971 edition, with victory for José Antonio González Linares. In the last appearances of the race in Bilbao, the format had been the end of the stage and the beginning of the next. This was the case in 2011, when after Antón’s mass bath with the Euskaltel jersey on the 19th day, the peloton started from Bilbao on the 20th towards Vitoria. In 2016, the Belgian Keukeleire won the sprint on the Gran Vía on the 12th day, which had started from Los Corrales. And the next day Valerio Corti won the Bilbao-Urdax stage. In 2019, the Belgian Gilbert was first in the Circuit de Navarra-Bilbao stage, while the next day, starting in the capital of Biscay and arriving in Los Machucos, the best was Tadej Pogacar. The last time the Vuelta was in Bilbao was in 2022, where Marc Soler won the fifth stage, while the sixth finished on Pico Jano.
