As if riding the 3,261 kilometres of the 2024 Vuelta a España as his last race was not enough, Spanish veteran Luis Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) is celebrating his retirement by riding the 600 kilometres from the Vuelta finish in Madrid to his home in Marbella in the south of Spain.

Maté started his three-day return on Monday morning “without getting up too early” and will stay overnight in Puertollano, a town some 250 kilometres south of the Spanish capital.

He will then pedal on to Lucena, roughly 220 kilometres further south, before reaching his home in Marbella on the Andalusian coast after a shorter leg some time late on Wednesday afternoon.

Maté completed his twelfth and last ever Vuelta in 61st place overall, during a final season in which he also celebrated a final win, a stage in the Volta a Portugal.

“It’s partly to get used to the idea of leaving my pro career behind, but I’m going on being a bike rider, and this is like a transition, riding home from being a pro to riding a bike ‘for real’, " the 40-year-old told Cyclingnews.

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