Monaco becomes the first place to have started all three Grand Tours
Saturday's 9.4km time trial around the Principality completes a set Monaco began with the Giro in 1966 and the Tour de France in 2009.
The Vuelta a España begins on Saturday afternoon in a country two square kilometres in size. Stage one is a 9.4km individual time trial held entirely inside Monaco, setting off in front of the Monte-Carlo casino and finishing on Boulevard Albert 1er — the same line the Formula 1 field crosses at the Monaco Grand Prix. The first rider leaves at 4pm and the last is due in by 7.30pm.
It completes a set no other host has. Monaco started the Giro d'Italia in 1966 and the Tour de France in 2009, and with Saturday's time trial it becomes, in the organisers' own words, the first venue to have hosted the opening stage of all three Grand Tours.
A Grand DĂ©part that fits inside a principality
Selling the start of a Grand Tour abroad has become a standard piece of the sport's business. The host gets several hours of live pictures carried worldwide, the race gets a paying partner and a novel opening, and the arrangement has taken recent Grands DĂ©parts to Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and the Basque Country.
Monaco is the extreme version of the format. The entire opening stage fits within the borders — no road closures to negotiate with neighbouring councils, no transfer between start and finish, and a circuit already built, barriered and rehearsed for motor racing. What the Principality cannot do is stay put: stage two leaves from the Place du Palais Princier at noon on Sunday and is across the French border within minutes, heading for Manosque.
The programme is stretched to match. The teams were presented to the public on Thursday evening in the Place du Casino, two days before anyone raced, so that a stage lasting a little over three hours becomes a four-day residency for the Principality.
What follows the seafront
From Monaco the race turns south and does not stop climbing. Organisers put the total elevation gain at more than 58,000 metres, which would make this one of the most mountainous editions ever run, and it finishes on 13 September at the Alhambra in Granada.
Among the riders starting on Saturday is Tadej PogaÄŤar, who lives in Monaco and would become only the ninth rider in the race's history to have won all three Grand Tours. For once, the opening stage of a Grand Tour is a commute.
