NOW into its seventh stage and a new calendar month, Spain's version of the Tour de France concludes its only incursion into coastal towns on Sunday,
The last of the 'Big Three' international cycling tournaments – after the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia – the Vuelta a España hit the Mediterranean seaboard on Tuesday (August 29), when the fourth stage took it from the principality of Andorra, a different country altogether, down to Tarragona, southern Catalunya.
Stage six, setting off from La Vall d'Uixó (Castellón province). All Vuelta photos by Cxcling Creative Agency from the tournament's official site, Lavuelta.es
Stage five began at the Mediaeval inland town of Morella in northern Castellón province, finalising in the coastal town of Burriana, via Onda, Nules and La Vall d'Uixó.
Australia's Kaden Groves won both these stages, with the first three being won by Italy's Lorenzo Milesi, Denmark's Andreas Kron, and Belgium's Remco Evenepoel, in that order.
Stage one was entirely in Barcelona city, passing by iconic landmarks such as the Sagrada Família cathedral. Work started on Antoni Gaudí's creation in the 1880s, and it's still not finished
Stage six continued through southern inland Castellón province, briefly diverting into that of Teruel in the neighbouring land-locked region of Aragón, covering Segorbe and Montanejos in the former and Mora de Rubielos and Sarrión in the latter, finalising at the astrophysical observatory in Javalambre, Teruel, a ski resort between December and March and a high-altitude (1,966 metres) hikers retreat the rest of the year.
Victory for stage six went to the USA's Sepp Kuss.
Stage seven has now left the western Valencia-province wine-region town of Utiel, and is expected to reach the province's southernmost coastal town, Oliva, at around 17.30 today (Friday, September 1).
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com