Nîmes buzzes with activity for La Vuelta
Race headquarters and the press room for the 72nd La Vuelta opened at the Musée de la Romanité, on the iconic place des Arènes at Nîmes. 1,400 media representatives, 198 riders and 300 team staff members, 250 officials and 200 law enforcement officers are expected to go through the accreditation process. Media center has been inaugurated this Wednesday with Jean-Paul Fournier, Senator-mayor of Nîmes, Julien Plantier, the city deputy head of sports, and Javier Guillén, general director of La Vuelta. The race is about to kick off out of Spain for the third time in its history after Assen (Netherlands) in 2009 and Lisboa (Portugal) in 1997. “We chose a city whose culture resonates with ours for our first start from France”, Javier Guillén explained. “This Grand Depart from the Arena of Nîmes, a city well known for its feria, is set to be astonishing.” “We are proud to welcome this international event, with millions of spectators, in this museum that will open in June 2018”, Jean-Paul Fournier added.
Froome looking for unprecedented success
Four time winner of the Tour de France, Chris Froome (Sky) will be one of the main men to watch at La Vuelta as he tries to conquer the race for the first time, after three places of second. American riders will also try to shine with the likes of the US national champion Larry Warbasse (Aqua Blue Sport), Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Andrew Talansky (Cannondale Drapac). Many other stars will attend the event: Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru, Esteban Chaves, Simon and Adam Yates, Louis Meintjes, Miguel Angel Lopez, Rafal Majka, Ilnur Zakarin, John Degenkolb, Rohan Dennis, Rui Costa, Bob Jungels, Domenico Pozzovivo, David De La Cruz, Steven Kruijswijk, Gianni Moscon, Marc Soler… As for the French public, he’ll have a new opportunity to celebrate Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil, who’ll be the first to speak with the Kids press conference set on Thursday afternoon at the Musée de la Romanité.
Teams presentation Friday, on the eve of the opening team time-trial
The presentation of the 22 teams and 198 riders participating in La Vuelta 2017 is set on Friday August 18th at 7:30 PM at the Jardins de la Fontaine, in the city center of Nîmes. The event will be open to the public and broadcasted live on TVE (in Spain) and Eurosport (international). The race will start the next day with a 13.7km team time-trial (the first team will start at 5:30 PM). In order to attend it from the Arena of Nîmes, free tickets can be collected at the city tourist information center (6 rue Auguste) who also has teams at the Musée de la Romanité, in front of the Arena.
How to follow La Vuelta ?
La Vuelta will be broadcasted, with live coverage or daily 1 hour highlights, in 190 countries: RTVE (Spain), VRT (Belgium), TV2 (Denmark), TV2 (Norway), TVI24 (Portugal), Eurosport (Europe and Southeast Asia), Olympic Channel (USA), Caracol (Colombia), ESPN (Brasil and south of the USA), Supersport (Subsaharan Africa), beIN Sports (Middle-East and Northern Africa), J Sports (Japan), SBS (Australia), Sky Sport (New-Zealand). The race can also be followed on the official channels of La Vuelta: www.lavuelta.com, with live informations also available on the official mobile app La Vuelta 2017, presented by ŠKODA, and on social media. The official hashtag on Twitter (@lavuelta and @radiotour_en), Facebook.com/lavuelta and Instagram.com/lavueltaaespana is #LV2017. La Vuelta is also covered by the main international news agencies, traditional media and outlets dedicated to cycling.
