Madrid, Dec 20 (IANS): The route for the 2024 Vuelta a Espana was officially presented to the press and public here.

The race starts in Portugal's capital Lisbon on August 17 with a 12-kilometer time trial, and there will be two more stages in Portugal before the race arrives in Spain, reports Xinhua.

It will be the fifth time in 79 editions that the race has started outside of Spain, to start 3,261 kilometers over 21 days of racing, which contains leg-breaking 13 mountain and "half-mountain" stages, with nine mountain top finishes and six days which have been designed to finish in a bunch sprint.

Meanwhile, there are two time-trials: the first day in Lisbon and the last in Madrid, which is a 21-kilometer stage that could decide the overall winner.

Finishing the race with a time trial means that the Vuelta a Espana will have a similar finish to the 2024 Tour de France, which will also finish with a time-trial between Monaco and Nice, rather than the traditional bunch sprint in Paris.