The Vuelta has dressed in the uniform of the Tour, although it has changed the typical yellow jersey that distinguishes the first classified in the general classification for red, the color that for days has taken over the city of Utrecht from where the back, in a few Netherlands dedicated to the magic of sport, cycling and also Spanish culture; a Netherlands that has put to the test the same label with which it received and treated the French round in 2015.
It has been many years since the Vuelta has ceased to be a race that circulated around dark roads, condemned to disappear, almost underground, with deficits in its accounts and often going so unnoticed that not even the inhabitants of the towns through which the test circulated were aware of its passage. Were the black years of this sporthit by doping and with many sponsors looking the other way and other specialties when advertising their brand.
Utrecht, and by the way the rest of the Dutch cities that will host the race until Sunday, are evidence of the success that the race has enjoyed, with benefits in their savings accounts, with sponsors and above all with figures who come to compete in the race, getting rid of the thorn of the past when only the stars who had fallen or failed in the Tour came to the Vuelta. That is, those who failed in July were examined in September.
The spanish culture
This Friday, at the premiere of the Spanish round, Utrecht awaits 600,000 people in the streets to applaud the passing of the runners in the inaugural urban time trial of the race, which on Monday moves to Victory so as not to leave the peninsula until the end of the competition, in Madrid, on September 11. The Dutch local committee has invested 16.4 million at the Vuelta visit. But the commitment has not been only for the three stages, but they have spent years promoting Spanish culture, sports, gastronomy, language and customs through Dutch lands, as he explains to this newspaper Pilar Tenadirector of the Cervantes Institute in Utrecht.
The covid prevented the Vuelta from starting in the Netherlands in 2020, with the same program as now. But far from giving up the event, he insisted on the candidacy to make Utrecht the first city in the world through which the Tour, the Giro and the Vueltaaccording to the wishes of Johan Remkestoday Mayor of The Hague.
In 1964 won Zuilenees Michel Stolker de Vuelta-etappe naar Pamplona. Jos Peeters vereeuwigde het op de St. Josephlaan, in Michels wijkie. Want een beetje trots zijn mag best. Zoals we dat ook zijn op onze fietsstad, die morgen als eerste ooit de 3e grote wielerronde ontvangt.❤? pic.twitter.com/pwV2vvFAQF
— Gemeente Utrecht (@GemeenteUtrecht) August 17, 2022
“The Cervantes Institute threw itself into the project. And they asked me, ‘What is this body doing promoting cycling?’ Well, very simple, sport is culture and the Vuelta was a magnificent opportunity to promote the image of Spain throughout the Netherlands, with its culture, gastronomy and customs. An anecdote: last Saturday there was a massive spinning session in Utrecht while flamenco was sung. And practically all this promotion, which started in 2019, has been sponsored with local money,” he says. Pilar Tena.
Asso’s hand
And in this framework of internationalization of the Vuelta, ASO gains special weight, which began to manage the career in 2009 to end up buying Unipublic and incorporate the Spanish event within the framework of the races and events that it manages, mainly the Tour and the Dakar.
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“From the beginning, ASO told us ‘you have to work from within and create a good product to sell it. It’s not about being the Tour because there’s already a Tour’. For this reason, a Vuelta model was created with mountain stages, ascents shorts; the race of passion, the party, the sun, the heat, the sea and the ascents. The Tour reaches 210 countries through television. We approached with 190, “he explains Javier Guillenrace director.
For this reason, the Vuelta has become internationalized and has sought an outlet from abroad, as do the Tour and the Giro, which coincidentally in 2022 have also departed far from their borders, the French event left Copenhagen and the Italian did so from budapest. And this Friday Utrecht will collapse.