Featured image courtesy of Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
After just one month since he withdrew from the Tour de France, it’s a case of here we go again for Primož Roglič as he attempts to win a fourth Vuelta a España in a row.
With the Giro d’Italia and the Tour now complete, only the Vuelta remains as the third and final three-week grand tour. If you’ve had a terrific 2022 to date then this final rendezvous could cement your status as the ultimate champion, but if you’ve hardly had anything good to shout about this year then La Vuelta is the final roll of the dice.
La Vuelta is the race where riders try to make up for past defeats. Above anything, the three-week Tour of Spain over Europe’s most-mountainous country will see some teams desperate to deliver. With the added shadow of UCI points lingering over World Tour teams to avoid relegation, some teams will need to take any opportunities that arise.
As ever, elite climbers are in abundance to tackle the leg-sapping ascents Spain throw up and there are sprinters keen to take as many wins on the few and far between flat stages, most especially the Gran Salida (Grand Start) in the Netherlands this year.
Giro done, Jonas Vingegaard winning the Tour de France – who knows what will happen next at the 77th Vuelta. Below is the route map as the 2022 Vuelta starts in the Netherlands this year. The Dutch were meant to host the Gran Salida last year if it wasn’t for the pandemic.
A quick note on the route because across the 21 stages the terrain will feature some debut climbs. The 77th edition of the race will start in the Dutch city of Utrecht and the finale will return to Madrid after concluding with a time trial at Santiago de Compostela last year.
After an opening team time trial to sort out the first red jersey and two flat stages, the Vuelta will resume in the Basque Country but we’ll have to wait for the first summit finish on Stage 6 atop the Pico Jano in the Cantabria region. Two brutal climbs await on Stage 7, as the Vuelta heads into Asturias but for the first time, the new Colláu Fancuaya will be climbed on Stage 8.
The second week sees the race start in the south with an individual time trial of over 30 km between Elche and Alicante. After that comes a brief visit to retiring Alejandro Valverde’s home region of Murcia, as the peloton heads to Andalusia and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, for some punishing climbs including the Sierra Nevada summit itself and mountains above 2,000 metres at Peñas Blancas and La Pandera.
The final week includes climbing in the Extramadura, with two more high-altitude summit finishes on Stages 17 and 20 at the Tentudía Monastry and then five intermediate ascents to finish at the Navacerrada Pass in the Sierra de Guadarrama north of Madrid.
La Vuelta returns to Madrid for the usual laps around the city and then the final battle royale between the remaining sprinters. The overall red jersey will be crowned and grand tour season will finally be over.
Route looked at, who are the main contenders to pull on the red jersey come Madrid?
Defending three-times champion Primož Roglič starts the race and with a course that has fewer steep climbs, an opening team time trial and another flat TT, who would bet against the Slovenian winning a fourth Vuelta.
Jumbo-Visma have a strong team to support Roglič but his prospects do depend on how he has recovered from a fractured vertebrae at the Tour, It is his Vuelta to lose and it will be a huge leap into the dark on how he will do across the 21 stages.
With none of the usual legendary Vuelta summits such as Angliru, Lagos de Covadonga or Los Machucos, a lack of serious leg-sapping climbing could be to the defending champion’s benefit, Only once at Sierra Nevada does the race go over 2,000 metres so don’t write off Primož Roglič to become the first-ever rider to win four consecutive Vuelta’s.
While less altitude is a benefit to Roglič it won’t be for Richard Carapaz, riding another Vuelta for the INEOS Grenadiers. The Ecuadorian has supreme talent and that is backed-up by his 2019 Giro d’Italia overall win, the moment when Carapaz’s career took lift off fully. But since winning the maglia rosa three years ago, nothing has quite gone his way. Finishing in second place at the 2020 Vuelta, when Roglič won by just 24 seconds, third at the 2021 Tour de France and runner-up in this year’s Giro.
Losing out to Jai Hindley on the final mountain stage in Italy was a bitter pill to swallow but now comes the opportunity to put things right. Just like Primož Roglič in 2019 when the Slovenian failed to win the Giro and then went on to claim a first grand tour at La Vuelta, can Richard Carapaz do the same?
It was Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley who beat Carapaz to become the first Australian to win the Giro in May but like his Ecuadorian rival he has only seven race days in his legs since. It’ll also be an unusual thing for Hindley to be doing this Vuelta because for the first time at 26-years-of-age, he’ll be starting more than one grand tour.
Movistar’s Enric Mas always seems to do better at La Vuelta instead of the Tour. The Spanish ‘home’ favourite might relish the opportunity in Spain, especially after the setbacks he suffered in France when he had to leave the race because of COVID. Another Spaniard to look out for is Mikel Landa for Bahrain-Victorious who came third overall at the Giro.
One rider to seriously put into the red jersey picture is Portugal’s João Almeida riding for UAE Team Emirates. This Vuelta will be his first grand tour outside the Giro and will do so off the back of some good form recently at the Vuelta a Burgos and winning the Portuguese road race back in June.
Since pulling out of the Giro with COVID, Britain’s Simon Yates has picked up three wins – although he enters the race without the strongest TeamBike Exchange domestiques around him. Winner of the Vuelta in 2018, can Yates claim a second?
Elsewhere, Dutchman Wilco Kelderman has finished in the top ten in his last three La Vuelta appearances so he should be a good Plan B for Bora-Hansgrohe should teammate Hindley fall out of contention. A safe Plan B for INEOS will be Pavel Sivakov, the Frenchman riding his first Vuelta and comes into it with form after winning the Vuelta a Burgos recently and coming runner-up last month in the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa.
One final name to mention is Remco Evenepoel. Too much pressure is on this young man’s shoulders and it’s important to remember that the Belgian has yet to finish a grand tour. Unproven at races that go the full three-week length, he does have a knack for blowing up on climbs but don’t discount Evenepoel – of all Vuelta routes in this could be the one where the 22-year-old flies.
