The 2022 edition of the Vuelta, or round Spain cycle race, will start in Utrecht, the organisers confirmed on Wednesday.

The event was scheduled to start in Utrecht last year, but was cancelled because of coronavirus. ‘Utrecht will be the start of the team presentation, the initial time trial and the finish-line for the second stage, that will begin in Den Bosch,’ the organisers said. The third stage will depart and finish in Breda.

‘To return to the Netherlands, which is the quintessential cycling nation, is something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time,’ race director Javier Guillén said.

The 2022 edition will be the second edition of La Vuelta to take off from the Netherlands, after Assen in 2009, and the fourth to take off from abroad, after Lisbon 1987, Assen 2009 and Nîmes 2017.

The start of the race coincides with celebrations to mark 900 years since Utrecht was founded.