Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia (2.1)

Les Woodland's book Tour de France: The Inside Story - Making the World's Greatest Bicycle Race is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

The race:

Murcia is a region in southeast Spain, on the Mediterranean coast. The Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia is an early February race that formerly had 5 stages.

For many professionals the Vuelta a Murcia is the season's first race. The Vuelta a Murcia can conflict with the Pro Tour ranked Paris–Nice stage race that is often scheduled at about the same time.

The 2010 edition created a firestorm when the promoter, out of pique over Italy's banning Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde from riding in Italy, refused to allow Italian teams in his race. Race boss Paco Guzman was later forced by the UCI to withdraw his ban. No Italian teams chose to ride the Murcia Tour anyway, making the ruckus moot. Many other high-powered squads chose to ride, including Lance Armstrong and Radio Shack and Denis Menchov with Rabobank.

From 2013 - 2018 the Vuelta de Murcia was run as a single day race. In 2019 & 2020 the race again had two stages.

The 2021 & later editions were again single-day races.