2016 Vuelta a España preview: the contenders

As Canadian Cycling Magazine revealed in out route preview, the 71st Vuelta is oriented towards climbers, but also has two time trials, one of which is the team chrono on Saturday’s opening stage. Who are the favourites for the title and contenders for the podium and top 10?

Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky): As soon as Froome threw his helmet in the ring, the three-time Tour de France winner was a co-favourite to wear the red jersey in Madrid on September 11. It would be Froome’s first Vuelta and first Grand Tour victory other than the Tour.

Froome hasn’t targeted the Vuelta like he did the Tour and the Olympic Games, and the Brit won’t be bringing quite as powerful of a team as he had in France. But he says he has unfinished business with the Spanish Grand Tour, having coming runner-up to Alberto Contador in 2014 and second to, er, JJ Cobo in 2011. A foot fracture forced him to abandon last year’s Vuelta.

Both the team and individual time trials will be in his favour.

Alberto Contador (Spain/Tinkoff): Three time Vuelta champion, Contador is on a mission to take his fourth crown, which would tie him with compatriot Roberto Heras for the record. Having put off retirement because he was having such a fine 2016 season, Contador was forced off the bike after early crashes in the Tour, perhaps one of the reasons the Grande Boucle was a bit of a bore.

Contador promptly returned to win the Vuelta a Burgos by one-second in early August with an attack on the final stage.

Does the Grand Tour ace have anything left in those legs? At press time, he was the odds-on favourite.

Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar): If Contador’s disappointment was in climbing off the bike at the Tour, Quintana’s was–oddly–in staying on it and making the podium. Quintana wasn’t a threat to topple Froome and didn’t look likely to make the podium with a handful of stages to go.

Quintana also has unfinished business with the Vuelta, having crashed out while wearing the red jersey in 2014 and not making the podium last year. He would love to have another Grand Tour on his palmares to match his Giro d’Italia victory.

He’s got Alejandro Valverde with him, although who the protected rider is might not be so clear in Spain as it was in France. Valverde has a Giro podium and a sixth in the Tour on his 2016 honours list, while the Vuelta is the only Grand Tour victory in his long, illustrious career.

Jonathan Castroviejo, who just missed out on Olympic time trial bronze, will be in Quintana and Valverde’s corner for the team chrono.

Steve Kruijswijk (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo) and Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Orica-BikeExchange): The Giro was about three times as engaging as the Tour and these two riders made up two-thirds of that action. Kruijswijk, a Grand Tour vet, was having the race of his life and would have surely won the Italian tour if it hadn’t been for a crash on the third to final stage.

Chaves, who rose to prominence in last year’s Vuelta while coming fifth, lost the pink jersey to Vincenzo Nibali on the final day in the mountains, but looked like smashing up until then.

Chaves has the stronger team in Spain, with Canadian Svein Tuft in the mix and looking to drive the team time trial. Like Contador and Quintana, Kruijswijk and Chaves will have to take a lot of time in the mountains before the individual race against the clock on the third to final day. Able to stick with their rivals in the Giro chronos, they won’t with Froome.

Angel Lopez (Colombia/Astana): Another Colombian mountain goat and another Grand Tour threat from Astana, Lopez broke through this season with the Tour de Suisse title. He’s untested in Grand Tours but has Michele Scarponi (Italy) in his corner. Nibali owes Scarponi a lot after the cagey vet’s Giro performance.

Others: Louis Meintjes (South Africa/Lampre) not only had his best Grand Tour in July, but he also finished 7th in the Olympic Games road race. Andrew Talansky (USA/Cannondale-Drapac) is desperate to make an impact in a Grand Tour for Cannondale as was leading the Tour of Utah until the final stage when Jelly Belly’s Lachlan Morton went bonkers. Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) will benefit from the team time trail, and he’ll do better than 29th in the Tour, surely.

Canadian Ryan Anderson will be contesting his first Grand Tour for Direct Energie.