The present and future of cycling, in depth with the former director of ONCE and UCI, Manolo Saiz, at the EPIC Gran Canaria

 

The award-winning sports director will be one of the luxury guests of this 2024 edition on February 10 and 11, in which the EPIC Gran Canaria embarks on a leap to the international level, as an event on the UCI international cycling calendar, headquarters of the Amateur World Championship Gran Fondo World Tour and bringing together more than 500 cyclists of twenty nationalities.

 

 

Manolo Saiz joins this cycling sports event to contribute his experience and knowledge, and to share and create synergies with cycling fans of all levels on the island, which is establishing itself as a sports destination for this discipline and as a training place. of international stars. 

 

Manolo Saiz began his career in the 80s by taking charge of the ONCE tandem team, which served as a launching pad to create a professional team with riders such as Laurent Jalabert, Alex Zülle, Abraham Olano, Melchor Mauri and Marino Lejarreta. . In 2003 he became the Liberty Seguros team, where he strengthened some strategies that marked a before and after in the world of cycling at the time, such as the 'fans'. His team chained victories in the Vuelta a España for years, always standing out in the team classifications and in the individual and team time trials.

 

The Cantabrian was the soul of the ONCE team, one of the great promoters of the UCI Pro Tour, and one of the driving forces of cycling in Spain, innovative in his work and one of the most relevant figures in the history of international cycling at the time. which the EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts will count on to continue advancing as a quality event and destination differentiator.

 

The EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts will once again make Maspalomas vibrate with an international cycling event that will take more than half a thousand athletes to conquer the midlands and peaks of the island. With two stages of 115 kilometers and two timed sections, and 75 kilometers and a competitive section. On Saturday, February 10 and Sunday, February 11, sport will fill Gran Canaria, a world cycling destination, with excitement, starting with the first stage starting from 'home', the RIU Palace Maspalomas hotel, to face a circuit that runs through Arteara, Fataga, Tirajana and El Pajar to Pasito Blanco.

 

The first timed section of this first stage will be 12,3 kilometers at 470 meters of altitude, with an average inclination of 4,4% and a demanding circuit between Aqualand and Ayagaures, with the finish line at the Pedro González summit. The second time trial will be 45 kilometers and 1.304 meters high, with an average slope of 4,7% between Pasito Blanco on its way up to Ayacata, on a route that runs through Cercados de Espino, Soria, Barranquillo Andrés, the Las dam Girls to Ayacata.

 

The second stage will be frenetic, explosive and fast, with 75 kilometers of circuit and a time trial of 22 kilometers at 1.304 meters of altitude, testing the participants with an average slope of 4,7%. This stage runs through Fataga to Tirajana, to return to the RIU Palace Maspalomas through Santa Lucía, La Era, Vecindario, Doctoral and Bahía Feliz along the GC-65 and GC-500, where the closing will be a great party with show, music live, batucada, collective lunch and various surprises, all at the foot of the natural environment of the Maspalomas Dunes.

 

 

Gran Canaria, sports destination without rival

 

The EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts strengthens its roots by consolidating the objective with which it has been growing since its first edition in 2018, to show Gran Canaria to the world as a quality sports destination, with added and differentiated value thanks to the benefits of the island as a privileged place for cycling, with tourist and sports infrastructure, privileged routes, specialized services, security and a summer climate in the middle of winter.

 

 

The EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts has the support of the Insular Sports Institute of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Maspalomas Costa Canaria, RIU Hotels & Resorts, Turismo Gran Canaria, Hospiten, Free Motion, Nektium, Coca-Cola, Aquabona, and Esenat, among others.