Transgrancanaria Bike will be a UCI race in 2023

The seventh edition of the Gran Canaria race, which will be held next May, has been extended to four stages and the top 25 finishers will earn UCI points.

The Fred. Olsen Express Transgrancanaria Bike will be a UCI event in 2023 (Union Cycliste Internationale). The mountain bike race, organised by Arista Eventos and which will take place between the 18th and 21st of May, will have as its main innovation, the number of stages, which has been increased to four. The entry in the calendar within the S2 category, destined for competition over several days, will mean that the first 25 classified will obtain UCI points that give access to the main competitions of world cycling.

The UCI’s decision makes Transgrancanaria Bike the only stage race of the Archipelago registered in the international calendar, which will attract the main cyclists of the peloton, by allowing them to obtain points with which to gain access to other professional competitions such as world championships. Thus, the first classified in the elite women’s and men’s categories will obtain a total of 80 UCI points, the second 70 and the third 60, and so on up to the 25th, who will add 1 point. 

The Transgrancanaria Bike also increases the number of days of competition from three to four, with the inclusion of a stage of more than 60 kilometres in length. The route will be mostly through the south and centre of the island, with a changing landscape that will allow cyclists to discover the most unusual corners of this miniature continent. The operational centre will remain in the Parque Sur de Maspalomas.

Fernando González, CEO of Arista, points out that “in the company we are very happy to bring to the Canary Islands the only UCI race in our category in the Canary Islands in 2023. It is something we have been pursuing for a long time”. He also adds that this will be “another incentive to attract international participants, one of the main objectives of the event that we are working on together with the Cabildo de Gran Canaria”.

The race organised by Arista Eventos was created in 2016, and during the seven editions it has welcomed thousands of participants, including some legends of the sport such as José Antonio Hermida, silver medalist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in mountain biking, or Marga Fullana, bronze medalist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games; athletes at their peak such as Francesc Guerra, Natalia Fischer or Manuela Muresan, and other professional cyclists who combine the great road tours with mountain biking such as Luis Ángel Maté or Juanpe López. 

The Transgrancanaria Bike has the main sponsorship of Fred. Olsen Express and the support of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria through the institutions Turismo de Gran Canaria and Gran Canaria Isla Europea del Deporte, Maspalomas Costa Canaria and Ayuntamiento de Artenara. The race also has the collaboration of the companies Ahembo, Emicela, Fuente Umbría, Provital, Chronorace, Gofio La Piña and Inerza.