Jumbo-Visma's versatile Primoz Roglic will 'fight as hard as possible' to win Vuelta a Espana
What looks on paper to be a wide open Vuelta a España will begin on Saturday with a team time trial around the salt marshes of Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca.
Unlike 12 months ago, when Simon Yates – fresh from his crushing disappointment at the Giro d’Italia, where he went within three days of victory – was about to embark upon a race would ultimately yield his first grand tour victory, there is no clear favourite this year.
Jumbo-Visma have arguably the strongest team – particularly now that Richard Carapaz has pulled out of Movistar’s line-up – and their Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic has been installed as the bookmakers’ favourite.
Roglic, who has never raced the Vuelta before, is talking a good game, insisting he will be going all out for the win, having finished third at the Giro d’Italia in May. "The podium is a nice place, but I've already done that at the Giro,” he said. “I want to fight as hard as possible to win.”
A typical Vuelta route packed with climbs, but also featuring a tough 36.1km time trial just over the border in Pau mid-race, should suit the former ski jumper well. Roglic is one of the few climbers at this year’s Vuelta who is equally comfortable on a time trial bike. The 29 year-old has won three time trials in his career, two of them this year, both at the Giro.
It will be interesting to see how Jumbo-Visma deploy their resources over the coming weeks, with Steven Kruiswijk, fresh from his own podium finish at the Tour de France, also in the Dutch team’s line-up. Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde (both Movistar), Miguel Ángel López (Astana), Rigoberto Urán (EF-Education First) and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) will all hope to muscle in on the action.
"We'll just try to [both] stay up there on GC [general classification] for as long as possible and see how it goes,” Roglic said of the team’s tactics. “For us we try to do what is the best for the team, so we have to try to win the race.”
Jumbo-Visma should get their main men off to a good start on Saturday, having been in dominant form against the clock this year, most recently at the Tour de France team time trial in Brussels, which they won by a whopping 20 seconds from Ineos.
British fans, meanwhile, will follow Tao Geoghegan Hart’s progress with interest. The Londoner heads to Spain as joint leader for Ineos alongside Wout Poels.
It is another show of faith from the team in the 24-year-old, who was co-leader alongside Pavel Sivakov in the Giro before his race came to a premature end on stage 13 following a crash.
Geoghegan Hart is one of three British riders in the Ineos line-up with Welshman Owain Doull racing in his first grand tour and veteran diesel engine Ian Stannard also included.
