Reigning Vuelta a Espana champion Remco Evenepoel will battle Jumbo-Visma’s multiple Grand Tour winning duo Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard for his crown in the 78th edition of the race, starting Saturday.
Belgian rider Evenepoel became the youngest world time trial champion in Glasgow earlier this month but faces extremely strong competition for the red jersey in the last Grand Tour of the men’s road cycling season.
Vingegaard has won back-to-back Tour de France titles, while only injury foiled Roglic last year at the Vuelta, after he had won the previous three editions.
The 3,153.8 kilometre race starts in Barcelona on August 26 and ends in Madrid on September 17 after 21 stages.
This season’s race begins with a team time trial, as the Vuelta always does, with 22 teams featuring 176 riders embarking on one of the season’s most brutal and exciting races.
The first mountain stage kicks in early on just the third day of the race, while France’s Col du Tourmalet in stage 13 and punishing Asturian climb Alto de l’Angliru in stage 17 offer steep challenges.
Stage 20 offers 10 categorised climbs and provides one of the last chances to gain time in the hunt for the overall win, before stage 21’s short sprint finish to Madrid.
Home fans will look out for Movistar’s Enric Mas and UAE Team Emirates’ exciting youngster Juan Ayuso, who are both hoping to become the first Spanish Vuelta winner since Alberto Contador in 2014.
Soudal Quick-Step rider Evenepoel, also the 2022 road race world champion, had to pull out of the Giro d’Italia after testing positive for Covid-19, which he was leading after nine stages.
He will be without team-mate Ilan van Wilder, who has chosen to race in Canada.
The 22-year-old triumphed at the Clasica San Sebastian in July and arrives at la Vuelta as one of the favourites — victory would be another stepping stone reached in his bid to one day win the Tour de France.
Vingegaard, who has won that race in consecutive years, skipped the Vuelta last season but has decided to compete in this edition.
It is the first time the Dane will take on a second three-week stage race in the same season, and if he has not fully recovered from his Tour de France triumph, he will operate as a domestique for co-leader Roglic.
The Slovenian rider crashed near the end of the 16th stage while in second place in last year’s Vuelta, which forced him to abandon the race.
He and Vingegaard are aiming to help Jumbo-Visma become the first team ever to win all three Grand Tours in a single season — and there is a high chance of it.
Roglic won the Giro d’Italia in May for the first time and was triumphant at the Vuelta a Burgos last week, flexing his muscles ahead of la Vuelta’s start.
Geraint Thomas, 37, leads the Ineos Grenadiers after a strong performance at the Giro d’Italia, where the 2018 Tour de France winner was pipped by Roglic.
