Wednesday 19 December 2018 22:00, UK
La Vuelta a Espana will present riders with another mountainous challenge in 2019 after the route was revealed.
La Vuelta will begin in the town of Las Salinas de Torrevieja, a Natural Park in the south of the province of Alicante, on August 24 and finish in Madrid on September 15, with 3,272-kilometres of racing in between.
Riders will have to negotiate 59 climbs,13 more than in this year's race, which was won by Britain's Simon Yates.
It was Yates' first Grand Tour victory, with Spain's Enric Mas finishing second and Colombia's Miguel Angel Lopez in third.
The event next year will also start with a team time-trial on a flat 18km opening stage.
A mountainous second stage then follows from Benidorm to Calpe, before the fifth stage heads to Teruel and the climb of Pico del Buitre, featuring an 11.8km ascent.
An individual time-trial will commence through France at stage 10, while stage 16 will also favour the sprinters, a flat 155km stretch between Pravia and Alto de la Cubilla. The race culminates on September 15 with a 105.6km 21st stage between Fuenlabrada and Madrid.
Organisers also confirmed the Tour of Spain will begin in Utrecht in 2020, a first return to Holland since 2009, when its route began in Assen. Utrecht will become the first city to have hosted all three major races, having formed part of the Tour de France in 2015 and the Giro d'Italia in 2010.
It will be only the fourth time the event has started outside Spain, following Lisbon in 1997, Assen in 2009 and Nimes last year.
