La Vuelta hits the road

46 categorised climbs with nine summit finishes

THE THIRD and final grand tour of the 2018 season, La Vuelta a España gets underway with an individual time trial in Málaga on Saturday, August 25 – and 21 stages and three weeks later, finishes in Madrid on Sunday, September 16.

La Vuelta is characterised by Team Sky as being ‘known for barren landscapes and tough, steep climbs - this lateseason test is often the closest and most entertaining of the Grand Tours’.

The race covers a total of 3,255 kilometres and takes in a total of 46 categorised climbs, shared between six low mountain stages, and five mountain stages, of which nine are summit finishes.

Also included in the race are two individual time trials totalling 40.7km.

Innovation is the name of the game for this year’s clockwise jaunt around the country, with the route taking in 10 new start points and nine new finishes. Included in the new start and finish points are that of stage six, which leaves from Huercal-Overa in Almería and after a couple of category three climbs finishes in San Javier 155.7km later.

This is the closest that the 2018 edition of La Vuelta gets to the Costa Blanca, but after the two previous years of great coverage, who can complain.

So who is set to participate in this year’s race? We have the usual World Tour teams including Team Sky, AG2R La Mon- diale, Astana Pro Team, BMC Racing, Bora-Hansgrohe, Team EF Education First-Drapac, Team Dimension Data, Groupama-FDJ, Katusha Alpecin, Lotto Soudal, Movistar, Mitchelton-Scott, Quick-Step Floors, Sumweb, Bahrain-Merida, Trek-Segafredo, LottoJumbo and UAE Team Emirates, who will be ably backed up by the wildcard entries of Euskadi Basque Country-Murias, Caja Rural Seguros, Cofidis Solutions and Burgos BH.

The same 10, 6, 4 second bonuses will be awarded to the first three over the line in each stage, with 3, 2, 1 seconds being awarded to the first three in each intermediate sprint.

At this stage of what has been a tough, in and out of the saddle, season some of the most eagerly-awaited riders will not be present. However, every fit rider who did not make their expected grade in Il Giro or Le Tour will be chomping at the bit to make their mark in La Vuelta. In a way, this season-long attrition only goes to strengthen the starting line-up.

Already confirmed are the likes of the charismatic sprinter Peter Sagan (BoraHansgrohe), general classification contender Richie Porte (BMC Racing), another GC contender, if he finds sustainable form Nairo Qunitana (Movistar), 2018 Tour de France fifth on GC Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto-Jumbo), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), the 2014 Vuelta GC winner Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ), Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis Solutions), Rigoberto Uran (Team EF Education First-Drapac), and Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates).

From a Team Sky point of view it is highly unlikely that the 2017 red jersey winner Chris Froome or the Le Tour winner Geraint Thomas will be present in Málaga. The expectation of seeing the team’s new, young Colombian super-domestique Egan Bernal were dashed when it was revealed that he would still be recovering from a crash in the San Sebastián classic which required him to have surgery. As a result of this though, it means that the 23year-old promise Tao Geoghegan Hart will get the first grand tour start of his career.

There are still many more names to be announced, in amongst them should be some more stars of the sport.