lavuelta.com
On paper, this Vuelta could be the three-way fight between Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador that we didn't get in July, thanks to Contador's crash/illness, Froome's general brilliance and Quintana's... yeah. We'll get to that.
Right off the bat, I'll go on record as saying my pick for the victory is Alberto Contador. He's unbeaten in three appearances at the Vuelta, and should be relatively fresh after his disastrous Tour didn't even reach the first rest day. Plus, there's the added incentive of a certain eccentric Russian, whose team are set to compete in their last Grand Tour before folding. You have to believe Oleg will want to go out on a high, and has named a team with the sole aim of helping Contador achieve their mutual goal.
skysports.com
Speaking of teams arriving at a Grand Tour with one focused goal, Sky are here to win. Chris Froome is back after dominating the Tour and taking bronze in the Olympic time trial. The key question with Froome is whether he's in form, as his Olympic road race was very lacklustre compared to his immensely high standards from the Tour. He's also not successfully raced in two Grand Tours in a season since 2012, when he followed 2nd in the Tour with 4th in the Vuelta. His two previous attempts at the red jersey both ended in DNFs, so bizarrely he comes into this race with a significant point to prove.
The third of those is, of course, Nairo Quintana, who is in danger of becoming the nearly man despite having won a Grand Tour. That sole win came in the reasonably dreadful 2014 Giro, and the major asterisk over Quintana is that he's never beaten Chris Froome in a Grand Tour they've both finished. Ever. His Tour performance was the limpest podium finish I can remember, with him somehow managing not a single successful or even threatening attack.
Movistar will once again send Alejandro Valverde as the backup/joint leader/outright leader/see what happens, and they will need to seriously rethink their tactics if they're going to improve their recent record of podiums, but no victories. For the sake of the race, let's hope at least one of their riders can muster an attack.
eurosport.fr
In my wise, wise opinion, I don't see that being Valverde, at least not for an attack on GC, as he competes in his third Grand Tour of the season, and fifth in a row. He's dominated the points classification in the Vuelta in recent years, and it will be a superb achievement if, at 36, he still has the legs to win the green jersey again after such a packed year of competition.
Of the teams outside that "top 3", LottoNL-Jumbo's Steven Kruijswijk and Orica-BikeExchange's Esteban Chaves will be looking to make the podium after strong showings at the Giro, while Astana will look to have a much more harmonious race without the duelling Aru and Nibali. All the world's top sprinters are focused squarely on the world championships in Dubai, and mercifully have elected not to ride in Spain at all rather than make a token, half-length effort such as we saw at the Giro.
It's intriguing to see question marks over all of the favourites coming into a Grand Tour, especially after the two we've already had this year. After Vincenzo Nibali made a meal of a comparatively weak field in the Giro, and Froome decimated a theoretically strong one in France, what will these next three weeks bring us in Spain? I've laid out my thoughts, comment or tweet us with your own, and keep your eyes here and there for our reactions throughout the Vuelta.
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