MADRID, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The 77th edition of Vuelta a Espana cycle race begins on Friday with a team time-trial in the Dutch city of Utrecht, with the riders facing three long weeks of racing before the race finally ends in Madrid on September 11.
As always, the third of the Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, promises to be a race for climbers, with four hilly stages, seven mountain stages and just six flat stages.
The first three of those flat stages will be in the opening three days that the race spends in the Netherlands before moving back to Spain on Monday.
The pre-race favorite is Primoz Roglic, who, with the support of his powerful Jumbo-Visma team, is looking for his fourth consecutive win in the race. Roglic's all-around ability and his team make him a favorite, but there are slight doubts over the Slovenian's fitness after a back injury forced him to withdraw halfway through the Tour de France.
Roglic's main rivals are likely Giro de Italia winner Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Richard Carapaz (Team Ineos), who will also have a powerful team to support his bid after disappointing slightly in the Giro.
2018 winner Simon Yates (BikeExchange) has improved his time trialing and is able to perform well in the punchy stages, such as those in the Basque Region early in the race, while Team UAE's Joao Almeida comes into the race on the back of winning the Tour of Burgos and is a consistent top-10 finisher.
There is also huge anticipation over how Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) will perform: a powerful one-day racer as he showed in the recent San Sebastian Classic, the 22-year-old has yet to prove he can mix it with the best in the very high mountains. However, he and his teammate, reigning world champion Julian Alaphilippe, can both be expected to light up the race with their aggressive and attacking style of racing.
Spanish hopes rest on Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) after he got onto the podium in this year's Giro, but although an excellent climber on his good days, Landa always seems to have a bad day in every major race.
The same could also be said for Enric Mas, who needs to improve on a disappointing Tour (which he eventually abandoned with COVID-19) for his Movistar Team, who needs points in the UCI classifications.
Finally, this will be the last major tour for 42-year-old Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who retires at the end of the season. Although the general classification may be beyond him, expect Valverde to go for broke in stages 12 and 17, which look designed for his ability to finish strongly on a short climb. ■
