Abraham Olano will be the star guest of this edition, which repeats the tour with this Olympic medalist and champion of the Vuelta a España
The EPIC Gran Canaria Riu Hotels & Resorts returns with a fifth edition full of surprises. From February 11th to 13th , Gran Canaria's most popular cycling event will once again feature a world champion among its participants: Abraham Olano.
Abraham Olano will be the star guest of this edition, which follows the same route as the Olympic medalist and Vuelta a España champion . This event, held just a few months after the previous one due to the mandatory changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, returns to its usual dates in February with a new record number of participants.
Registration is now open, and in the first 24 hours, the 250 runners registered in record time . Year after year, anticipation grows for the EPIC Gran Canaria Riu Hotels & Resorts, which continues to attract participants from 15 different countries. Among them, Finnish champion Matti Helminen aims to defend his title for the third consecutive year and returns to the EPIC Gran Canaria Riu Hotels & Resorts determined to take the trophy home once again.
Abraham Olano, confirmed
Abraham Olano Manzano was born in Guipúzcoa and was one of the great cyclists of the Spanish peloton in the late 90s and until 2002. His legs pedaled alongside Laurent Jalabert, Alex Zülle. Pedro Delgado, Tony Rominger, among others. He even made history alongside Miguel Indurain in Colombia by winning the World Road Championship and the World Time Trial Championship.
Currently retired, Olano turned professional in 1992 with the CHCS team, that same year he raced with the Lotus Festina, and the following year he became part of the Asturian team CLAS-Cajastur. His ambition was to continue advancing and in 1994 he signed with the Mapei team, where he achieved his best world successes, winning the Road Championship in the town of Boyacá in Colombia in 1995, and it was in this same Colombian town where he won the silver medal. that same year. Three years later, in 1998, he once again became world champion in the time trial in the city of Valkenburg in the Netherlands, and winner of the Vuelta a España.
Among his extensive record of triumphs, he stands out for having won a stage of the Tour de France and six stages of the Vuelta a España. In the Giro d'Italia, he reached the podium twice, in 1996 and 2000. He has achieved several triumphs in other UCI tours such as in 1996, the Tour of Romandie, in 2000 the Vuelta de Tirreno-Adriatico, among others. On three occasions he was champion of Spain, winning the gold medal in 1994 on the road and that same year also in the time trial. In 1998 he won a silver medal at the Olympics in Atlanta. He retired from professional cycling in 2002 with Manolo Sáez's ONCE team, after having achieved a track record of success in teams such as CHCS, Lotus Festina, CLAS-Cajastur, Mapei, and Banesto.
Two stages and the same challenge
Between February 11 and 13, the EPIC Gran Canaria Riu Hotels & Resorts will feature a first stage of 115 kilometers with two timed sections and a second stage of 75 kilometers with a time trial climb.
Starting at 8:30 a.m. from the Maspalomas Dunes viewpoint at the RIU Palace Maspalomas, the first stage and star event of the competition will take the cyclists along one of the island's most popular routes. The route, starting at the foot of the Maspalomas Dunes, passes through Arteara, Fataga, Tirajana, and El Pajar before reaching Pasito Blanco. This stage features its first timed section from Aqualand to Ayagaures, finishing at the summit of Pedro González in a 12,3-kilometer climb to an altitude of 470 meters . The cyclists will have to contend with a 460-meter elevation gain and an average gradient of 4,4% . The second timed section will begin at Pasito Blanco and climb to Ayacata, a challenging 45-kilometer ascent to 1.304 meters, with a 1.038-meter elevation gain and an average gradient of 4,7%. This time trial will pass through El Pajar, Cercados de Espino, Soria, Barranquillo Andrés, the Las Niñas dam and culminates at the Ayacata summit.
The second stage, with a single timed section, covers 75 kilometers and includes a 22-kilometer uphill time trial. Starting from the RIU Palace Maspalomas hotel, participants will head towards the competitive section from the Mirador viewpoint, passing through Fataga and ending in Tirajana . This section reaches an altitude of 925 meters, with an elevation gain of 810 meters and average gradients of 4% . After the timed section, the cyclists begin their descent through Santa Lucía, La Era, Vecindario, Doctoral, and Bahía Feliz via the GC-65 and GC-500 roads, before rejoining the group back at the hotel.
Teamwork
For the 24th Edition of the EPIC Gran Canaria, Riu Hotels & Resorts is sponsored by RIU Hotel & Resorts, the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council, the Gran Canaria Cabildo with the Tourist Board and within the framework of the European Sports Island project. , AVIS Canarias, Coca Cola, AquaBona, MaspalomasXNUMXh, La Estrella, Sonocom, Free Motion, Phisiorelax, Esenat, Fund Grube.
