The 2013 Spanish Cycling Tour (La Vuelta) starts next Saturday, August 24th, with a 27Km team time trial and ends next September 20th.

This year’s La Vuelta (3,359 Km) comprises other 20 stages, most of them (13) mountain stages, an individual time trial (38Km) and 6 flat stages. You can check all stages details and regulations (‘Route Book in PDF’) in the link below.

http://www.lavuelta.com/indexen.html

Defending winner (Red Jersey) Alberto Contador will be out of this year’s La Vuelta. Main contenders to take the Red Jersey into Madrid’s last stage will be: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Alberto Betancur (AG2R), Vicenzo Niballi (Astana), Daniel Moreno and Joaquin Rodriguez (both Katusha’s riders), Roman Kreuziger (Saxo) and Sergio Henao (Sky).

The full list of participants can be seen below on:

http://www.cyclingfever.com/editie.html?&_ap=startlijst&editie_idd=MjM2ODU=&taal_id=23

The Prize Money for La Vuelta 2013 exceeds just over 1 million Euros, divided as follows:

General overall classification…………………………298.300 €

Stage individual classification………………………..606.060 €

Stage Team classification………………………………..14.700 €

Overall team classification………………………………37.300 €

Mountain climbs……………………………………………17.360 €

Mountain General Classification……………………….23.100 €

Sprints intermediaries…………………………………………790 €

Overall points classification…………………………….18.000 €

Overall combined classification……………………….18.000 €

Daily leader income…………………………………………8.760 €

Cima Alberto Fernández…………………………………..1.520 €

Most combative bib………………………………………..4.000 €

Overall most combative bib……………………………. 3.000 €

TOTAL PRIZES————————————–1.057.890 € 

And prize money for the individual general overall classification will be:

1º 112.000 €

2º 57.000 €

3º 30.000 €

4º 15.000 €

5º 12.500 €

6º 9.000 €

7º 9.000 €

8º 6.000 €

9º 6.000 €

10º al 20º (3.800 x 11) 41.800 €

TOTAL 298.300 €

La Vuelta also awards points for the UCI World Rank which is currently led by Chris Froome, the Tour de France Winner.

New UCI Ranking After Tour de France 100th – Froome 1st, Sagan 2nd and Rodriguez 3rd

1st, 2nd, and 3rd places grant, respectively, 170, 130, and 100 UCI points. These are the same of the Giro D’Italia.

The full points scale of the UCI World Ranking was set in 2009 and is available on:

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/BUILTIN/getObject.asp?MenuId=&ObjTypeCode=FILE&type=FILE&id=NDk5MDY&LangId=1

The current UCI World Ranking Standings can be checked on:

 http://www.uciprotour.com/Modules/BUILTIN/getObject.asp?MenuId=&ObjTypeCode=FILE&type=FILE&id=ODQxMzc&LangId=1