Ever since it moved to be the final Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a España has occupied an interesting place in the cycling calendar. It's important, of course – it's a Grand Tour – but it is decidedly third in the hierarchy behind the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia in terms of prestige.
As a result, not all that many top riders will start the season with the Vuelta in mind as their primary Grand Tour target – it is often secondary to other goals – and what that means is that the Vuelta start list is often a kind of wash-up of riders who haven't achieved what they wanted to so far this year.
