More than ever, the 103rd edition of the Volta has tried to reinvent itself to take cyclists and the public to discover new and exciting destinations that fuel the spectacle on the bike. A design with the vocation to once again be one of the great mountain challenges of the UCI World Tour calendar, with three high finishes but with a lot of added toughness in each of the seven days. The culmination, before the traditional stage in Barcelona, will be the unprecedented ascent in Berguedà to the Sanctuary of Queralt (1st category), at 1,200 meters of altitude, which will crown a day as terrible as it is majestic, with four other climbs, the Coll de the Batallola (3rd), the Collet de cal Ros (2nd), the Coll de Pradel (E) and the Collada de Sant Isidre (1st).
The Volta organization revealed the layout of each of the stages of the 2024 edition that will be held between March 18 and 24. The favorites for the final victory, including Tadej Pogacar, Sepp Kuss, Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal and Nairo Quintana, will face seven rounds between Sant Feliu de Guíxols, which for the third time will be the starting point, and Barcelona drawn with the intention of seeking the maximum demand by mixing already mythical places in the Volta with other unpublished ones. Among the well-known are the final in Vallter (2,150 m.), the ceiling of this edition and which will be raised for the eighth time since it debuted in 1986. Tony Rominger (1992), Nairo Quintana (2013), among others, have won there. , Adam Yates (2019 and 2021) or Giulio Ciccone (in the latest edition, 2023). Port Ainé also returns, a colossal 18.5 km pass with an average gradient of 6.8% and maximum slopes of up to 15%, which will complete a day in which the Port de Toses (1st) and the Port de Cantò (E) and which will originate in Sant Joan de les Abadesses.
In addition to the ascent to the lavish Queralt monastery, the test will discover unprecedented venues in its history such as Altafulla, which will be the protagonist with the start of the fifth stage, a mid-mountain stage with two second and final climbs in the debutant Viladecans. There are also highly anticipated returns such as those of Berga, who will be leaving the penultimate stage after six decades of the last visit. Sort will be the origin of the stage that will end in Lleida, which returns with a bang eleven years later after a route through the Pallars-Sobirá with a first-class port, Port d'Anger, as the only mountainous difficulty.
Another of the great novelties of this edition is the creation of the women's Volta, which will be made up of three stages unlike the so-called Revolta, which existed until now as a single stage. The women's Volta in this new format will be held between June 7 and 10 as a UCI 2.1 test and its route consists of a high finish in La Molina and two other mid-mountain stages, one in Manresa and the last between Molins of Rei and Barcelona.
