With so much emotional investment poured into the season already, the Vuelta a España has to try harder than almost any other major race to stoke the fires of fandom. Once again this year the Spanish Grand Tour deserves full marks for effort, having curated a challenging parcours that promises to yield some fantastic racing.
The field, too, comprises some of the best Grand Tours riders in the world, including no less than Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), UAE Team Emirates-XRG dual-threat Juan Ayuso and Joāo Almeida, former Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and last year's runner-up Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla). Also there, British fans will note, is Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 Pro Cycling.
