The route of the Vuelta, which starts today with the 8 km time trial in Malaga, is once again designed to dream of exploits and ambushes. Grim mountains scattered everywhere, with the climax in the triptych of Asturias with the terrible final slopes of the Camperona and in the deadly penultimate mini-stage with the arrival at the top of the 2015-metre Collada de la Gallina, less than 100 km with six hills to climb for a overall difference in altitude of over 4 meters: an ideal terrain for epic battles but never as this year is it difficult to make an identikit of a possible master and winner of the Spanish race. The two winners of the Giro and the Tour are missing, namely Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, not even Tom Dumoulin, second in the Giro and the Tour, who is riding the new Tour of Germany like Thomas. Mikal Landa also had to forfeit after his fall at the San Sebastian Classic, but there are four winners of past editions of the Vuelta on the startlist: Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. However, the big four are at the start with a season behind them complicated by injuries or bad debacles.
Nibali, if he hadn't returned from the mini-fracture of a vertebra suffered in the unfortunate stage of Alpe d'Huez, would be the main favorite of this Vuelta which the Sicilian wants to tackle above all as a running-in in view of the Innsbruck world championship. Aru has a great desire to cancel the terrible days of the Giro, always detached and haywire on all the climbs, but the Sardinian after his success in the 2015 Vuelta was more disappointed than convinced. He will be one of the most watched big names but another flop would be fatal for the continuation of his career. If the two Italians have their problems, even the two captains of Movistar, Quintana and Valverde, are not entirely convincing, especially the Colombian who comes from two rather shady vintages, with a disturbing involution especially in the mountain stages where the The ex Condoir has lost continuity, with increasingly rare high notes and many opaque performances. In the end, the one who appears healthiest is the old Valverde but the Murciano, a career full of records and successes, is a champion who puts on a show but who after his triumph in the 2009 Vuelta collected many podiums but never again a victory in the big turns. Said of the four big names already victorious in Spain, all with a personal Saturn against to be defeated, it is right to add the names of Miguel Angel Lopez, Richie Porte and Thibaut Pinot among the possible protagonists of a Vuelta that presents itself as open as ever in the forecasts on the eve . Predictions that instead all focus on Rohan Dennis, as the probable winner of the first time trial stage and therefore the first red jersey of the race.
