After UCI president Brian Cookson spoke about reducing the length of the Vuelta a Espana from there to two weeks long, race director Javier Guillen has hit out, saying this will not happen.

“We absolutely rule out that possibility,” Guillen said of trimming the Vuelta to two weeks in an interview with Cyclo21. “And it would be a big mistake, because the Vuelta is the race on the international calendar that’s truly grown over the past few years.”

“We are not in agreement with those declarations,” Guillén said. “The right of the dates of the Vuelta is a historic right going back 80 years, and, of course, the decision would lie with the owners of the race, which is ASO.”