When Vuelta a España director Javier Guillén recently made a public plea to UAE Team Emirates to include young contender Juan Ayuso in their line-up for the 2024 race, it unintentionally cast a spotlight on a broader leading question: who is most likely to make the running in the last Grand Tour of this season and who will be completely missing from the equation?
In some ways, with or without Ayuso, it’s the absences that define the broader outline of the 2024 Vuelta a España. First and foremost, after crushing the opposition first in the Giro d’Italia and then in the Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar’s longstanding decision not to go for a ‘Grand Slam’ means the current dominator of the Grand Tours will not be present in La Vuelta.
