The 2021 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya begins this Monday. The seven-stage race will be held on familiar roads for many riders. 

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The race begins with two stages near Girona, a popular base for professional cyclists in Europe. Stage one begins and ends in the coastal town of Calella, offering stretches of scenic seaside roads which will be contrasted with multiple severe climbs that lie just inland. 

Stage two is the only flat stage, an 18.5-kilometer individual time trial in the lakeside town of Banyoles, a popular recovery ride destination for riders based in Girona.

The familiar roads will be welcomed by the numerous North Americans on the startlist, many of whom have chosen Girona as their European home away from home.

Rally Gets A Hard Fought WorldTour Call Up

Rally Cycling is a North American team committed to giving their riders a European program. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, race opportunities for tier-two UCI teams remain rare, and WorldTour race invites for non-European teams were already a struggle in the best of times.

Rally received a hard to come by invitation to Catalunya and will arrive with a full roster of North Americans. Rob Britton and Nickolas Zukowski will represent Canada while Gavin Mannion, Joey Rosskopf, Nate Brown, Keegan Swirbul and Colin Joyce will be the team’s U.S. riders.

Alpecin-Fenix, a tier-two team with automatic entry to every WorldTour event will not be in attendance after multiple staff members tested positive for the coronavirus. 

17 North Americans In Total At Catalunya

Other Americans on the statlist include Sepp Kuss who will lead Jumbo Visma alongside Kiwi George Bennett. Brandon McNulty and Joe Dombrowski will ride for UAE Team Emirates. Chad Haga starts for Team DSM. Tejay Van Garderen will line up for EF Education Nippo and Brent Bookwalter will ride in support of Simon Yates for Team Bike Exchange. Sean Bennett is the final U.S. rider on the startlist, riding for Qhubeka Assos.

Canadians will also be well represented at Catalunya. In addition to the Rally riders, Mike Woods and Alex Cataford will both line up alongside Chris Froome, and Antoine Duchesne takes the start for FDJ