"Surreal situation" in Ruta del Sol for women: African country registers 6... men

This Wednesday in southern Spain, the next edition of the Ruta del Sol for women is set to start, but there were some hurdles along the way. The organization was surprised by an entry from the Federation of Guinea-Bissau, which turned out to consist of six men. Eventually, no one showed up, leaving the organizers of the Ruta del Sol with a mess on their hands.

Originally, the Ruta del Sol was supposed to start with twenty teams, but this ended up being only eighteen. The Mexican BMC Patobike team did not get their visas sorted out in time, while the national team of Guinea-Bissau seemed to have completely disappeared from the face of the earth. It marked the end of a rather bizarre registration phase for the stage race in Spain.

Spanish sports newspaper Marca: "Surreal situation"

Marca reported on a "surreal situation" that had arisen. The Federation of Guinea-Bissau contacted the organization to ask if they could participate, which they agreed to, and hotels and such were reserved. However, leading up to the race, there was no contact with the Federation, and at the team managers' meeting, it was revealed that six men had been registered instead of women.

EFE received a reaction from the organization. "The worst part is that they showed no sign of life after their invitation was confirmed, in addition to registering male riders," it was stated. Deporinter, the organizer of the race, plans to seek compensation if they can somehow get in touch with representatives of the West African country's federation.

The race, won last year by Katerine Aalerud (Movistar), will of course still start. The big Dutch WorldTour teams are not participating, but with Anouska Koster (Uno-X), Floortje Mackaij (Movistar), Sylvie Swinkels (Roland), Marit Raaijmakers (Human Powered Health), Quinty Ton and Silke Smulders (Jayco AlUla), there are still several women from WorldTour level participating in the race in Andalusia.