The final Grand Tour of the cycling season gets underway this Friday, August 19th, and Bahrain Victorious head to the ‘Gran Partida’ with a strong team & high hopes for both the GC and stage victories.
Leading the line-up, and riding on home roads, is Mikel Landa, who starts the race for a 6th time. Landa finished on the podium at this year’s Giro d’Italia and was a stage winner at La Vuelta in 2015.
The 32-year-old will have some stiff competition for the red jersey in Madrid on September 11th, including Primoz Roglic (aiming for a record-equalling 4th victory) and recent Grand Tour champions Richard Carapaz, Simon Yates, Jai Hindley & Tao Geoghegan-Hart.
Co-leading the team is Swiss sensation Gino Mäder, winner of the Youth Classification & 5th overall last year, as well as a stage winner at the Giro. The 25-year-old already has a stage-race podium this season, finishing 2nd at the Tour de Romandie in May.
The 77th edition of Spain’s Grand Tour starts in Utrecht, making the Dutch city the first to have hosted the opening stage of all three GTs (following Le Tour in 2015 & The Giro in 2017). Friday’s 23.3km Team Time Trial provides the very real possibility of time gaps ahead of two flat days.
Lead Sports Director Franco Pellizotti – himself a veteran of 13 Grand Tours, believes the opportunity is there for the team to perform well again after taking one stage, one jersey, and the Team Classification in 2021.
“For the GC, we have Mikel. Let’s see how his condition is. With Gino Mäder as co-leader, we have a strong squad for all terrains. We’re looking to do a good TTT, and have 3 good stages in Holland, so we arrive in Spain without time gaps.”
As usual La Vuelta has multiple uphill finishes, with three coming early, on stages 6, 8 & 9 in Asturias and the Basque Country. Whilst the overall winner is unlikely to be decided at this stage, it will be a phase of the race which could easily have a significant impact on the final standings. Pellizotti is convinced that we can make a difference on those stages too, with in-form riders Santiago Buitrago & Fred Wright.
“When we get to Spain, the ‘real’ Vuelta begins, with the 1st week in the Basque Country, and the stages are demanding straight away. We’ll hope to have some fun on the breakaway days with Santiago, who’s in great shape, and with Fred on the stages that suit him.”
Buitrago has won stages this season at the Saudi Tour, the Giro (where he finished 2nd in the Youth Classification), and most recently, the Vuelta a Burgos, and Wright impressed at the Tour de France before winning a medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Week 2 begins with a 30km individual Time Trial and includes three days in the mountains, most notably Stage 15. The 152.6kms between Martos and Sierra Nevada includes over 4000m of ascent and ends atop a Hors Categorie summit at 2501m.
Protecting our leaders on the flatter sections of the race will be Italian youngster Edoardo Zambanini, making his La Vuelta debut, and Jasha Sütterlin. And completing our team in Spain will be this year’s winner of the Vuelta a Andalucia, Wout Poels, and 2014 Vuelta King of the Mountains, the experienced Spaniard Luis León Sánchez.
The last phase of this year’s race is a mixture of chances for sprinters, breakaway specialists, and climbers. The penultimate stage comprises 5 categorised climbs and a 9th mountaintop finale before the traditional ceremonial ride around Madrid.
The Vuelta a España is always a fascinating, exciting, and brutal end to the Grand Tour season, and this year’s route promises more of the same. For Team Bahrain Victorious, it could provide a positive start to the closing period of the racing calendar. Pellizotti concludes:
“I think we have a great team for this parcours, and I’m convinced we can get a good result on GC. And in individual stages, we have lots of cards to play.”
The 2022 Vuelta a España starts in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on Friday 19th August at 1830 CET.
