As the route of the 2014 Vuelta a Espana has been officially announced in early January, in the natural way the speculations about the details of future editions started to arise in the cycling media.

The main organizer of the Spanish grand tour remained reluctant to share any closer information and has given a rather enigmatic answer to the questions about the place of 2015 Vuelta a Espana depart.

“The start for 2015 is closed, but I can’t announce where,” he said. He did, however, concede that “it will be in Spain.”

However, he has made some suggestions about the possibility of granting the right to host Vuelta’s grand depart to cities outside the Spanish border in 2016 and 2017, particularly in Portugal and France, what happened only two times in the history of the late-summer’s three week event (1997, Lisbon and 2009 Assen)

“Contact with Porto and Nimes has happened,” he explained.

“There is nothing more I can say, there is a real desire to start in Nimes in 2017. We had a meeting and there was a good feeling. With regards to Porto, we are in a phase of study and of contacts, but we really want to make something.”

This year’s race will start in Jerez de la Frontera on August 23, before finishing with a 10km time trial in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.