The 2022 edition of the Vuelta a España will begin in the Dutch city of Utrecht, with the first three stages all being held in the Netherlands before the race returns to Spain. Utrecht had been due to host the opening stage of the race in 2020, but those plans were scrapped as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in Europe. It will now host the opening team time trial on 19 August next year – just the fourth time La Vuelta has started outside Spain. The second and third stages will be flat, running from ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Utrecht and in a circular route that begins and ends in Breda. The 21-stage race will then take in a rest day before heading to the Basque Country and its first mountain stages. The race will also include nine high-altitude finishes in total – five of which have never been used before – seven mountain stages, six flat stages and an individual time trial between Elche and Alicante. The 2022 race will end in Madrid as usual after last year’s race concluded in Santiago de Compostela. Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic has won the last three editions. “We finally return to Utrecht, Breda and Hertogenbosch, without losing even an ounce of our enthusiasm,” Javier Guillen, the race’s general director, said in a statement. “In a special year, when all of the Grand Tours are having official departures abroad, we look forward to what will be an unforgettable official start in an authentic cycling paradise like the Netherlands.” Next year’s Tour de France will begin in Copenhagen while the Giro d’Italia gets going in Budapest. Utrecht will become the first city to host foreign stages of all three Grand Tours when the Vuelta calls there next year. The 2022 Vuelta will also visit all eight provinces of Andalusia for the first time, with the peloton crossing east to west from Almería to Huelva. “Few places are more representative of La Vuelta or of our country than Andalusia,” Guillen said. “We’re also celebrating a historical anniversary: La Vuelta will depart from Sanlúcar de Barrameda 500 years to the day from the moment Sebastián Elcano returned to Spain after completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.”