Pamplona (EFE).- On Sunday, September 10, the Citadel of Pamplona will kick off the fifteenth stage of the Vuelta Ciclista a España that will end in Lekunberri after 156 kilometers of travel.
The day will begin from inside the Ciudadela enclosure through the Puerta del Socorro and will travel a little over eight neutralized kilometers through the city, bordering the three burgos in commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the Privilege of the Union, until the cycling squad leaves Pamplona by the Orkoien roundabout.
The mayor of Pamplona, Enrique Maya, and the general director of the Cycling Tour of Spain, Javier Guillen, have participated this Monday in the presentation ceremony of this cycle tour through the city, which took place in the Hall of Weapons of the Citadel.
La Vuelta, which returns to Pamplona for the fourth time since 2012, will be welcomed with great expectation by all Navarrese two-wheel sport fans.
In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, Pamplona also wanted to remain the start of a stage that concluded in Lekunberri, with a route of similar difficulty to that planned for this 2023 edition, but with a different route.
The mayor highlighted the “excellent news that an event of the relevance of the Cycling Tour of Spain serves as the culmination of the events planned for the 600th anniversary of the Privilege of the Union.” Javier Guillén thanked the collaboration, availability and good reception that Pamplona and Navarra always give to La Vuelta.
The stage between Pamplona and Lekunberri will close the second week of La Vuelta, after the journey through the Pyrenees, and will arrive on the eve of the second rest day before facing the decisive days of the cycling round.
The tour in the city
It is expected that the signature control will be located in the Plaza de la Paz with Yanguas and Miranda and that the Avenida del Ejército will be cut off, since the race will start from inside the Citadel.
The cyclist squad will take their first pedal strokes through the Puerta del Socorro to leave the fortified enclosure in the direction of Pío XII. Through Navas de Tolosa, the Paseo de Sarasate and San Ignacio, cyclists will head down the Labrit slope to the Rochapea neighborhood, to travel through Vergel and Río Arga streets to Cuatrovientos.
They will cross the bridge over the train tracks and turn left onto Paseo de Santa Lucía until the Ofitas roundabout. The race will leave the municipal area of Pamplona through the confluence roundabout of the PA 30 and the NA 700 towards Orkoien.
The stage will then go through towns such as Artazu, Villatuerta or Lacunza and will have three mountain passes, all three of the third category, Lizarraga at kilometer 76 and Zuarrarrate, with two passes, at kilometers 117 and 148, the latter just 8 kilometers to go.
The day before, on Saturday, September 9, La Vuelta will arrive in Navarra, in Larra – Belagua, in a 161 kilometer journey in the Pyrenees, of which about 50 are covered by roads in the Foral Community.
The cyclists will have to face the special category port of Larrau at kilometer 114 in Navarre and the port of Belagua, classified as first category, where the finish line of the 14th stage will be located.