The Vuelta has never been the first goal of a big, not even the Spanish ones. It was quite often a sort of make-up exam for those who failed in the season. So much so that even a great of Iberian cycling like Miguel Indurain has almost always snubbed her, as she was committed to winning her five Tours. Contador was only forced to put her at the top of his programs in 2012, when he won shoulders the dark period of disqualification for doping. Since it was then placed between August and September, the Vuelta has also become for many - especially for long distance riders and sprinters - the ideal training to prepare for the world championship, most often abandoned mid-race so as not to tire the legs beyond and muscles. With these premises, despite the efforts of the organizers good at finding an increasingly intriguing route between Sierre and the Pyrenees, the Vuelta has never managed to shake off the inferiority complex compared to the Tour and the Giro. But as happens in astrophysical events, with rare and exceptional phenomena such as the big moon this August, also the Vuelta which starts on Saturday from Jerez de la Frontera with a 12,5 km team time trial, has all the premises to be memorable because , except for Nibali who is still enjoying his Tour triumph at home, for all the other cycling champions of today it was the last round to save an unfortunate and disappointing season so far.
The list of starters is truly a parterre de roi: there are Chris Froome and Alberto Contador, the two great bad guys of the Tour forced to retire by dint of falls, one with bad wrists, the other with a micro-fracture in the tibia from which he recovered in record time; there is Nairo Quintana, the Colombian winner of the Giro, the strongest grimpeur around, who dreams of the one-two for the pink and red jerseys which in this millennium has only been achieved by Contador in 2008; there is Joaquim Rodriguez, always looking for a victory in a great stage race, who this year after retiring from the Giro which saw him as the favorite with Quintana, has even transformed the Tour – quite unusual thing – into a running-in to be at its best at the Vuelta. A four of aces that all tour organizers would like to have at the starting line, from which the winner of this year's Vuelta should emerge. At the top of the bookmakers' favourite, Quintana is super favorite for the many climbs that dot the 3.240km of this year's Vuelta. The Andes condor is given a 2,10. Follows him at 2,75 Froome, who after the amazing 2013, has really collected little this season, if not a Tour of Oman and a Tour of Romande Switzerland. The Briton, known as the white Kenyan due to his African origins, bad luck aside, at the last Tour seemed to be in the grip of a fall syndrome reminiscent of the one that paralyzed Bradley Wiggins in the Giro won by Nibali last year. Since then Wiggins has been on the fringes of big cycling. Froome at the Vuelta presents himself full of revenge intentions, already making an appointment at the 2015 Tour to return to the Martian he was in 2013. Contador, given at 9, is the favorite no. 3: he too, like Froome, aimed to win the Tour after a lightning-fast start to the season as in the best years. It went very badly for him in France, otherwise the Pistolero, like Froome, would not have raced the Vuelta at all costs, even with a condition that remains to be verified after the bad injury.
Four names that would be enough to ignite the race. But that's not enough. This year's Vuelta, which will finish after 21 stages in Santiago de Compostela breaking the tradition of the final catwalk in the heart of Madrid, also presents at the start a pool of characters, old and new, who could break the eggs of the big favorites, such as old Chris Horner said last year, beating to everyone's amazement a Nibali who seemed to already have the red jersey in his pocket. Already winner in 2009, among the great old men, Alejandro Valverde never fails, irreducible third force of Spanish cycling, a palmarés richer in placings than in victories, who at the Vuelta will be an important shoulder of Quintana in the Movistar strategy, but always ready to take his chance. There is also Cadel Evans who returns to great cycling after a disappointing Giro d'Italia which had seen him protagonist only in the first part of the pink race.
On the youth front, there is no shortage of athletes to keep an eye on. Among these is Fabio Aru who, after his splendid third place in the Giro d'Italia, is expected at the Vuelta for a confirmation: without Nibali he will be the captain of Astana and the standard-bearer of Italy's hope of victory. In addition to Quintana, the Sardinian will also find the other Colombian who preceded him in the Giro in Spain, that Rigoberto Uran who, unlike Aru, experienced second place in the Giro with a touch of bitterness and disappointment having hoped after the Barolo time trial to bring the pink jersey to Trieste. Aru and Uran are listed at 25, much better than Valverde himself given at 40. For both, given the competition, it wouldn't hurt to achieve the goal of the top five which Kelderman, the best product in Dutch cycling today, could also aim for. the French Thibaut Pinot, third in the recent Tour, the Canadian Hesjedal, always looking for a sharp note after his triumph in the 2013 Giro.
As can be seen, only Nibali is missing, an absence more than ever justified, in this super Vuelta which, in addition to many men in the standings, has attracted – also thanks to the world championship that will be held on September 28 in Ponteferrada, also in Spain – many beautiful names between long distance riders, sprinters and finisseurs: from Cancellara to Peter Sagan (who next year will race for Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo), from Philippe Gilbert to Tony and Daniel Martin, from Nacer Bouhanni to John Degenkolb. Mark Cavendish would have liked to be there too, but the physical conditions of the British champion, who crashed in the first stage of the Tour with a broken collarbone, suggested an alternative program after the painful rentrée at the Tour de l'Ain. For Cannonball, who had given up on the Giro for the Tour, it is the first year since 2007 that he has failed to complete at least one of the three most important stage races.
