The 22 cycling teams that will participate in the next edition of the Vuelta will be present on the thermal stage of the Arnoia Health Resort, in Ourense, on the 18th of August at 7:30pm, thus kicking off the official start of the 2016 Vuelta.
Following an outline of the sporting history of the teams that will make up the peloton, it will be time to introduce a new itinerary: the gastronomic one: a cooking show featuring the participation of twelve professionals from the Grupo Nove, nine chefs from the Amigos da Cociña Galega (Friends of Galician Cuisine) and 21 Designations of Origin, Protected Geographical Indications and Differentiated Quality Brands. “We will show the great value of Galician gastronomy; a combination of tradition, innovation and quality of products as well as the great potential and virtue of its chefs, who will unleash their imaginations, turning the show’s presentation and staging into a large-scale spectacle that will delight our five senses”, said Nava Castro, the Director of Galician Tourism. “For the Vuelta, it will be an honour to bring together the best cyclists in the world and the best Galician chefs”, added Javier Guillén, General Director of the race.
The Vuelta will enjoy Galicia
Following last year’s absence, the Autonomous Community of Galicia is once again the star of the Spanish tour in 2016. The peloton’s 198 riders will start from the Laias Health Resort, right in the heart of the Thermal Province of Ourense, next Saturday, the 20th of August, to dispute the first stage, a team time trial, that will take them on a 27.8km journey to the Castrelo de Miño Nautical Park.
The Vuelta will start in Galicia for the second time in the past 4 years – following the departure from the barge at Vilanova de Arousa in 2013 – and for the eighth time in its history. The person responsible for tourism in the Galician Xunta said that “our community will be the protagonist of another historic moment on the 20th of August, just as we were in 2014, when the Vuelta grand finale shared a finish-line with the Walk of Saint James and came to an end in the Plaza de Obradoiro in Santiago de Compostela”. The race will go through all four Galician provinces, before bidding farewell to the autonomous community and crossing Castilla y Leon at the end of the seventh stage, whose finale will be held in Puebla de Sanabria.
