According to Biciciclismo, the normally five day Vuelta a le Region Murcia will be shaved down from its traditional five days to three in 2011. The Spanish news source notes that the economic downturn, which has been felt particularly acutely in Murcia, caused the organization to slim down the race.
This could be one time where the shortening of a race makes it into something better though. The three day format apparently has organizers looking to arguably the most famous three stage race of them all, the Criterium International.
With the traditional 20 kilometer time trial still in place, the organizers hope to put together a flat stage and a mountainous one to make for a difficult and appealing early season stage race.
HTC-Highroad's Frantisek Rabon won the 2010 edition of the race by way of a crushing time trial, which left a group of some of the world's best time trialists in his wake, including: Denis Menchov, Bradley Wiggins, Andreas Klöden, Lance Armstrong, and David Zabriskie. Rabon put 33 seconds into Denis Menchov in 20 kilometers.
The other four stages all finished in bunch sprints with Robbie Hunter taking the first two days before departing on the third day during the stage to be with his wife for the birth of their child. Luke Roberts picked up where Hunter left off with victory in a whittled down bunch sprint. The crucial time trial followed, and then the five day event was rounded out with another bunch sprint, this one won by Theo Bos.
Rabon will not get a chance to duplicate his win from 2011, as his HTC-Highroad team is not part of the selected teams for the event. Eleven teams have been confirmed for the race so far: Movistar, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Rabobank, and Vacansoleil will be the sole ProTeam representatives, with Geox-TMC, Andalucia-Caja Granada, Skil-Shimano, UnitedHealthcare, Endura Racing, and the Russian national team making up the rest of the confirmed team. The final selection should include one to two more teams.
The race was originally scheduled for March 2nd through March 5th, but it's expected that the change in the race will be announced in the coming week.