Volta a Catalunya to Air on Universal Sports: Froome to Compete

March 20, 2015

The Volta a Catalunya, a seven-stage pro cycling event taking place in Catalan region of Spain, will be aired on Universal Sports Network starting Monday, March 23.

Chris Froome (far right) of Team Sky will be competing in this year’s Volta a Catalunya.

The UCI Pro cycling race will feature Kenyan Chris Froome who is racing for the British pro Team Sky. Other teams included in this year’s race include Tinkoff-Saxo with Alberto Contador, and last year’s winner Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Katusha.

Froome is reportedly coming back after an illness, so despite the increased competition–he can match Contador’s climbing abilities in the worst conditions–it’s anyone’s guess if he intends to use this race for winning or for practice for the Tour de France.

The seven stages of the Volta a Catalunya.

Notably, since the race’s inception in 1911, out of 92 races, it has been won 46 times or about 50 percent of the time by a Spanish team rider, starting with Sebastian Masdeu in 1911. (There were no races held during WW I and WW II, 1914 to 1919, and 1937 to 1938, as well as in 1921 and 1922.) That means a Spaniard has a better than good chance of winning it in 2015.

Over the years, Miguel Indurain, one of the great racers and climbers of all time has won it three times, a record bested only by Mariano Canardo of Spain who won the stage race through the southern mountain region of Spain seven times. Therefore an overall good rider with climbing legs has a good chance of taking the prized overall win that takes racers through category 1, 2 and 3 climbs, and includes the cities of Girona and Barcelona.

Contador won the 2011 edition but was later disqualified after he was banned for two years after a positive clenbuterol finding in the 2010 Tour de France (he also lost his 2010 Tour de France title after the Court of Arbitration decision.)

Some of the teams that will be participating in this year’s Tour of Catalonia.

Many pro riders use the Catalan tour as a warm up for the Tour de France, which occurs in July. It is the fourth oldest cycling stage race in the world, behind the Tour de France, (1903), the Tour of Belgium (1908), and the Giro d’Italia (1909). Needless to say, Froome will have the backing of strong team members, Vasil Kiryienka, Leopold König, David Lopez, Wout Poels, Richie Porte, Nicolas Roche and Xabier Zandio, according to the team’s website.

Other members of the team will have just completed the classic Milan-San-Remo with Ben Swift targeting for a win, backed by Benrhard Eisel, Andrew Fenn, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Salvatore Puccio, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas.

The Tour of Catalonia will be airing daily at 11 A.M. from March 23 through March 28, and at 9:30 A.M. on March 29, the final day.

The Universal Sports Network is carried on most packages of Verizon fios service, and in parts of the NY/ NJ region is channel 90.

The schedule is as follows:

More teams represented at the Tour de Catalonia in 2015.

Universal Sports has been steadily acquiring cycling sporting events for broadcast. Among it’s top billed events it will be presenting U.S. audiences with the female portion of the Tour de France, La Course on July 26, as well as the Vuelta a Espana starting Aug. 22, the Tour de Suisse, Tour of Belgium, and Tour of Britain as well as the UCI Road Cycling and Mountain Bike World Championships to be held later this year.

See the schedule below or on their website, http://universalsports.com/watch-live/