With the Tour just over, the focus shifts to La Vuelta, which starts in a month and a day (on August 26 in Barcelona). It is true that, in between, at the beginning of August, there are the Glasgow World Cups, which this year changed the usual course to be held between both races. What could negatively affect the race was practically the opposite. With the confirmation of Jonas Vingegaard in the Spanish round for the second time in his career (he was already in 2020 as Roglic’s gregarious), the double winner of the Tour catapults, even more, the 78th edition. The many Danish journalists present in France knew this well, that now they will have to prepare the suitcase again for Spain, something they did not count on.
In this century, Vingegaard will be the fourth winner in Paris to attend La Vuelta after Óscar Pereiro (2006), Carlos Sastre (2008) and Chris Froome (2017). The latter won both in the same year. Jonas’s presence further boosts a race that already had a stellar poster and that, in terms of vueltamanos, will have the most notable absence in Tadej Pogacar. The Jumbo will have one of the most powerful teams in memory, because only with Vingegaard and Roglic (winner of the Giro this year and triple winner of La Vuelta) are more than enough arguments to postulate themselves as the rivals to beat. The Dutch team pursues the feat of winning the three Grand Tours in the same year. Neither the powerful Sky / Ineos could during the past decade, in which he dominated with an iron hand.
Remco Evenepoel, winner in 2022 and defending champion, as well as current World Champion (to go from rainbow to La Vuelta they would have to revalidate their crown in Glasgow) this year sees his list of rivals increase. He was in the Giro and due to illness he could not finish, a race in which Geraint Thomas also participated, who had previously only been to Spain in 2015. He missed this year’s Giro on the ‘last’ day in favor of Roglic. Carlos Rodríguez will not be in his team, Ineos. He touches rest after an intense debut in the Tour for the Andalusian. The other great young Spanish talent, Juan Ayuso, third in La Vuelta 2022 at just 19 years old, will attend. With 20, this time he won’t have the surprise factor, but he aims to be in the fight.
He wants to go to the Tour “in the near future”, and to go next summer, in a team that also includes Pogacar, he has to complete a great Tour with a view to his candidacy. In the UAE, Ayuso will be accompanied by the Portuguese Joao Almeida, third in the Giro this season. Others will arrive to try to give a boost to their season who, in this case due to falls, could not achieve the desired objectives, as is the case of Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz, with premature withdrawals from the Tour and who are recovering from their injuries to be in Barcelona. “It aims to be an extraordinary Vuelta”, says its director, Javier Guillén. The 21 stages are divided into: four flats and two flats with a high finish; thirteen medium and high mountain (seven of them classified as purely mountain), one team time trial and one individual. Countdown.