[Press release] The UCI mountain bike calendar is being expanded in Spain. It does it in Huelva, with ‘The Legend of Tartessos’, a test that brings together all the ingredients to consolidate itself in the coming years, while recalling one of the first civilizations. Variety of surfaces: sections for speed, effort and technical skill, spectacular surroundings and landscapes and good accommodation and communication infrastructures. And, is that, although the base center will be located in the coastal, and paradisiacal, nucleus of El Rompido, in the municipality of Cartaya, the four tests that make up this new appointment will cover a good part of the Huelva province.
There will be three stages online and, to close, in case the classification had not yet been decided, an individual time trial. The first of them, starting from the vicinity of the Fuerte El Rompido hotel, will lead, along 55 km and 700 meters of unevenness, to the port of El Terrón. On the way, hills, pine forests, bridges and a touchdown that will have little of relaxed.
The second day enters the Andévalo region, with a look at Portugal. With a circular route, it takes place in Huerto Ramírez, a small town in the municipality of El Almendro. Intensity will be the predominant note from the beginning of the route that will go through such emblematic places as Sanlúcar de Guadiana or Puerto de la Laja, on the banks of the Guadiana. Something more than 50 km and 1500 meters of unevenness for warriors ‘of character’.
The queen stage is a ‘legendary’ journey through places with high levels of history. It begins at the Muelle de las Carabelas, in the place of La Rábida, located in the municipality of Palos de la Frontera. Dolmenic areas, hard climbs and a final, in Valverde del Camino, in a mining landscape that can only be described as spectacular. Almost 100 km and 2,000 m of unevenness that will make a real ‘escabechina’ in the classification.
In case there is still something to be decided, on the last day, 25 km against the clock will make up the general. In a deceptive start along the beach of El Rompido, pine forests, trails and tracks will make the runners fly that will have a difference of 500m.
The test is organized by the Good Monday! Agency, together with Javier Macías, a professional rider and a good connoisseur of MTB and the province of Huelva, who provides technical advice.
With all this, the 600 runners who are expected will have to strive to become “legends of Tartessos”, an appointment that aims high from the beginning.
