The Vuelta a Espana will return to Leon in 2016 and will be there for two days, with a stage finish on the climb of La Camperona and a start in Cistierna for two stages that will end the first week of the race.

Therefore the 2016 Vuelta will be back in the Spanish province after a one-year absence and it will again offer a unique setting with La Camperona that has ramps of 28%, three three grueling final kilometers of 16.1%, 16.4% and 12.5 % respectively and a length of almost 10km. It will be the finish of the eighth stage which will start in Zamora and be held on Saturday, August 27. The day before, the race will arrive in Puebla de Sanabria.

In 2014, Ryder Hesjedal won on the brutally steep climb when he passed Oliver Zaugg with a late comeback, emerging as the strongest from a breakaway. Chris Froome was the best of the favourites, followed by Joaquim Rodriguez, race leader Alberto Contador, Fabio Aru and Alejandro Valverde.

The novelty will be the start in Cistierna, a town in the eastern mountains of Leon, on Sunday, August 28. The ninth stage will finish with another summit finish on Alto del Naranco in Asturias. "Negotiations for these Leon stages are already well advanced," Spanish newspaper Diario de León reports.

The Spanish race will start in Ourense and the first five stages will be held in Galicia  before passing Castilla y Leon and Asturias in the second part of the first week.