ITV4 to screen 2011 Tour of Spain

August 11, 2011   ·   3 Comments

ITV4 will screen the 2011 Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) – the three week cycling contest, one of the three “Grand Tours” of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar.

The Tour will take place from August 20 to September 11 with live stages every afternoon on ITV4. The 66th edition of the Spanish race will have 21 stages with an average length of 175 kilometres.

Starting in Benidorm, the event will consist of six mountain finishes, with thousands of fans gathered along the road to watch the tour pass.

This year’s event will feature the return of the Angliru climb and routes through the northern Spanish Basque Country for the first time in 33 years. The race will start on August 20 with a 16km team time trial in Benidorm. The race will end in Madrid on September 11 after a total of 3295km of riding through the northwestern and southestern regions of Spain.

The 66th edition of the Vuelta will not partake in the usual  Catalunya region or in the Pyrenees, but the course does have six mountain finishes, two of which have never been raced in la Vuelta before. These are to Estacion de Montaña Manzaneda in Galicia on stage 11 and La Farrapona in the Asturias region on stage 14.

The Basque Country will host the final decisive stages before a transfer to Madrid for a 94km circuit finish. Stage 19 from Noja to Bilbao is flat but stage 20 from Bilbao to Vitoria includes four first category climbs.

ITV4 will broadcast around two hours of live coverage from each race day* as well as 30 minute highlights programmes each evening.  ITV Sport’s Ned Boulting presents coverage alongside Matt Rendell. ITV.com will also simulcast live coverage and highlights programmes as well as offering shorter highlights clips.

ITV’s Controller of Sport, Niall Sloane said: “It’s been a terrific year for British cycling with more viewers than ever before watching ITV4’s coverage of the Tour de France earlier this summer. I’m delighted that we’re able to offer viewers free to air coverage of the Vuelta a España.” Viewing to ITV4’s highlights of the 2011 Tour de France was up 33 percent year-on-year.

ITV4′s coverage of Vuelta a Espana starts on Sat 20 August at 4pm with coverage of the teams 13.5km time-trial across Benidorm.  ITV4 will then screen daily live coverage from 2.45pm with highlights at 7pm.

*ITV4 will not offer live coverage of La Vuelta on September 4th due to a pre-existing commitment to British Touring Cars Championship coverage – although live coverage will be available on ITV.com and extended highlights on offer on ITV4 in the evening.

Stage	Type	Date	Start and Finish	Distance
1	Teams time-trial	Saturday 20 August	Benidorm > Benidorm	13,5 km
2	Plain	Sunday 21 August	La Nucía > Playas de Orihuela	174,0 km
3	Plain	Monday 22 August	Petrer > Totana	163,0 km
4	Mountains	Tuesday 23 August	Baza > Sierra Nevada	170,2 km
5	Plain	Wednesday 24 August	Sierra Nevada > Valdepeñas de Jaén	187,0 km
6	Plain	Thursday 25 August	Úbeda > Córdoba	193,4 km
7	Plain	Friday 26 August	Almadén > Talavera de la Reina	182,9 km
8	Mountains	Saturday 27 August	Talavera de la Reina > San Lorenzo de El Escorial	177,3 km
9	Mountains	Sunday 28 August	Villacastín > Sierra de Bejar. La Covatilla	183,0 km
10	Time-trial	Monday 29 August	Salamanca > Salamanca	47,0 km
	Rest Day	Tuesday 30 August
11	Mountains	Wednesday 31 August	Verín > Estación de Esquí Alto de la Manzaneda	167,0 km
12	Plain	Thursday 01 September	Ponteareas > Pontevedra	167,3 km
13	Mountains	Friday 02 September	Sarria > Ponferrada	158,2 km
14	Mountains	Saturday 03 September	Astorga > La Farrapona. Lagos de Somiedo	175,8 km
15	Mountains	Sunday 04 September	Avilés > Anglirú	142,2 km
	Rest Day	Monday 5 September
16	Plain	Tuesday 06 September	Villa Romana La Olmeda (Palencia) > Haro	203,6 km
17	Mountains	Wednesday – 07 September	Faustino V > Peña Cabarga	211,0 km
18	Mountains	Thursday 08 September	Solares > Noja	174,6 km
19	Plain	Friday 09 September	Noja > Bilbao	158,5 km
20	Mountains	Saturday 10 September	Bilbao > Vitoria	185,0 km
21	Plain	Sunday 11 September	Circuito del Jarama > Madrid	95,6 km

Tags: Benidorm, ITV4, La Vuelta Espana, Madrid, Tour of Spain