Vuelta organiser RCS looks to be involved in a game of ‘anything you can do, we can do better’ with Tour organiser ASO this year. “Two lumpy stages to start this year’s Tour? Then we’ll hit the mountains on stage three.
“You’re starting in San Sebastián? Well, we’re going to have a stage finish atop the Tourmalet, your most iconic mountain. And as for your finish lines placed at the bottom of descents… Pah! Nine summit finishes for us.”
The race route oneupmanship has produced a tough parcours and attracted one of the strongest GC line-ups in recent memory. Remco Evenepoel is back to defend his title, while the winners of this year’s Tour and Giro are also here. Throw in an Ineos-backed Geraint Thomas and a much fancied Juan Ayuso and you have five genuine contenders for this year’s crown.
This list of Grand Tour grandees sets up a raft of intriguing questions. Can Jumbo-Visma win all three Grand Tours in one year? Can Evenepoel challenge them, and will his team be 100% behind him if he really is on his way out? Is Ayuso good enough to earn joint leadership with Tadej Pogačar at the biggest races in 2023? And can Thomas produce a performance good enough to convince his team that he should, once again, lead them at the Tour next year?
These scenarios and more will play out over the next three weeks as the peloton criss-crosses its way around the top half of Spain. Enjoy.
SATURDAY 26 AUGUST
1 BARCELONA > BARCELONA | 14.8 KM | TEAM TIME TRIAL
Barcelona, the second most-visited city in all of Spain, welcomes back the Vuelta after an absence of 11 years. No stranger to hosting bike races – the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya is held here every year – the Catalan capital kicks things off with a short, dead-flat team time trial.
TTTs have been in decline ever since the UCI put an end to the World Championships race in 2018, but the Vuelta remains a big fan, and this will be the seventh time in the past decade that the race
