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La Vuelta Ciclista a España is the third three-week race of the year, both because of its position on the calendar, as it is the last to take place, and because of its importance, as clearly, both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia are more prestigious races than La Vuelta. Still, the race remains a very important event, and as usual, it features an interesting start list with riders who, for various reasons, have not managed to shine too much during the year.

Route

The race starts in Portugal, where the first three stages will be held. The first is an 11 km individual time trial starting in Lisbon, and the next two feature hilly profiles with over 2500 meters of elevation each, but both are likely to end in a sprint. On the fourth day, the first of the numerous summit finishes of the race arrives at Pico Villuercas (15.3 km at 6.1%), just before the clearest sprint finish of the entire race on the fifth day in Seville.

From here, the race becomes a succession of summit finishes and medium to high mountain stages. The most decisive stages for the general classification will likely be stage 13, with the finish at Puerto de Ancares (7.5 km at 9%), stage 15, with the finish at Pajares Cuitu Negru (19.7 km at 7%), stage 16, which ends at the Lagos de Covadonga (12.2 km at 7%), stage 18, with the finish at Alto de Moncalvillo (8.5 km at 8.9%), and stage 20, with the traditional finish at Picón Blanco (7.6 km at 9.1%).

Along the way, there are many opportunities for breakaways and only one good chance for sprinters on stage 17, which finishes in Santander. Finally, the race ends with a new ITT, this time 25 kilometers-long, in Madrid.

Favorites

Tadej Pogačar (1200)’s domestiques in the Tour de France, Adam Yates (1200) and João Almeida (1200) are two of the main GC favorites, along with Primož Roglič (1200) and the winner of last year's race, Sepp Kuss (800).

Other contenders for the general classification include Carlos Rodriguez (1000), Enric Mas (1000), Mikel Landa (1000), Mattias Skjelmose (1000), Felix Gall (800), Richard Carapaz (800), Ben O’Connor (800), Giulio Ciccone (1000), Antonio Tiberi (600), Brandon McNulty (800), Thymen Arensman (800), Alexandr Vlasov (1000), David Gaudu (600), Cian Uijtdebroeks (600), Damiano Caruso (600), Patrick Konrad (200), Florian Lipowitz (200), Nairo Quintana (200), Max Poole (200), and Guillaume Martin (600). In addition, all of them are good candidates for stage wins if they fall behind in GC.

For the few sprint finishes, Wout Van Aert (1000), Kaden Groves (1000), Bryan Coquard (1000), Pavel Bittner (200), Corbin Strong (600), Arne Marit (400), Jon Aberasturi (200), and Jonathan Narvaez (400) are some of the fastest cyclists on the start list.

Photo: © La Vuelta Ciclista a España