These Are the Riders To Watch During the 2023 Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España (“Tour of Spain”) is the season’s final grand tour, and as such it’s always a bit of a “last-chance saloon” for riders hoping to redeem themselves for missed opportunities earlier in the year, build form for late-season races, or in some cases, earn a new contract
But it’s an impressive race to win in its own right, and this year’s edition has attracted most of the sport’s best grand tour riders, all of whom are looking to add the Spanish grand tour to their palmares.
Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)
At just 22-years-old, Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel ended his nation’s 44-year grand tour drought by winning last year’s Vuelta. He then set his sights on May’s Giro d’Italia, which serves as a natural next step for a young grand tour contender who hopes to win the Tour de France one day. And he was looking good after the first week, winning two stages and wearing the pink jersey as the overall leader at the end of Stage 9. But he tested positive for COVID-19 later that evening and abandoned the race.
After a break from racing he rebounded to finish third at the Tour de Suisse in June, win the Clasica San Sebastian in July, and take the gold medal at the world time trial championships two weeks ago. Now he heads to the Vuelta looking to defend his title, against the best riders in the world. It will be a fantastic test for the Belgian and his team.
If he wins, he’ll head to next year’s Tour de France as a top favorite. If he loses–and his team is partially to blame–he could push to break his contact with Quick-Step and find a new home within a team that’s better able to support his Tour de France aspirations.
Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma)
After winning the race three years in a row, Slovenia’s Primož Roglič abandoned last year’s Vuelta due to a crash at the end of Stage 16. He was second overall at the time. He rebounded to take a dramatic win at May’s Giro d’Italia, winning a mountain time trial on the Giro’s penultimate stage to take his first victory in the Italian grand tour.
He comes to Spain hoping to win his fourth Vuelta in five years, while making Jumbo-Visma the first team in history to win all three grand tours in one season. As indicated by his relatively easy win in last week’s Vuelta a Burgos, he’s had lots of time to recover from the Giro and prepare for the Vuelta. And he co-leads the best and deepest team in the race alongside Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, who could prove to be his biggest challenger.
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)
A Spaniard hasn’t won the Vuelta since Alberto Contador won the race in 2014, a relatively long drought considering the success home riders have had in their national tour (they’ve won the race 32 times–more than any other nation). So you can imagine the excitement last year when Spain’s Juan Ayuso–just 19-years old at the time–finished third overall. That made him the second-youngest grand tour podium finisher since Henri Cornet won the 1904 Tour de France.
Ayuso started his 2023 season rather late due to an injury that wouldn’t quite heal, but when he returned he looked as if he hadn’t missed a beat, winning a stage at May’s Tour de Romandie and then taking two stages and finishing second overall at June’s Tour de Suisse.
Two of those three stage wins came in individual time trials, which is what makes him such an exciting grand tour contender. A true all-rounder, he has the talent to join the top tier of the sport’s grand tour contenders, and this year’s Vuelta–with its star-studded startlist–will provide the perfect test.
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma)
After winning last year’s Tour de France, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard took a lot of time off, causing some to wonder if would even race again before the end of the year. (He did come back before the end of the season, winning two stages at the CRO Race late in the year.)
But after defending his Tour de France title this past July, the Dane was quick to announce that he would ride the Vuelta to keep his team’s grand tour winning streak alive. If he’s recovered from his Tour-winning effort he’ll be a top contender–especially in such a mountainous race. But if he’s not where he needs to be to challenge for the win, he’ll become one of the best super domestiques the sport has ever seen, riding for Roglič in his bid to win the race for a fourth time.
Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers)
At 37-years-old, Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas is unquestionably the oldest grand tour contender in the sport. As the sport’s champions get younger and younger each year, the 2018 Tour de France champion somehow finds a way to hang with his younger peers: he finished third in last year’s Tour de France and second in May’s Giro d’Italia after coming agonizingly close to winning the Italian grand tour.
After taking a break to rest from his nail-biting effort at the Giro, he returned to racing at the Tour of Poland and now heads to the Vuelta, a race which–on paper at least–doesn’t appear to suit his strengths. But we’ve learned never to doubt the Welshman, and we won’t be surprised if he scores another grand tour podium finish in Spain.
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)
Portugal’s João Almeida has been progressing steadily as a grand tour contender over the past several seasons and finally broke through at the Giro d’Italia in May, winning a stage on his way to securing his first podium finish (third). Now he joins Ayuso in Spain as co-leaders of UAE Team Emirates, a team with an embarrassingly impressive array of grand tour contenders.
The duo managed to co-exist last year, with Almeida finishing fifth overall, two spots behind his younger teammate. And we suspect the team will use either Stage 10’s individual time trial or Stage 13’s summit finish on the Tourmalet as benchmarks to determine which of the two (if either) becomes the team’s most protected rider. After all, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar and Great Britain’s Adam Yates finished second and third at the Tour de France, so the team clearly has a knack for supporting two GC challengers.
Enric Mas (Movistar)
A three-time runner-up, Spain’s Enric Mas is his home tour’s biggest bridesmaid. The 28-year-old was once thought to be a future grand tour champion, but has since failed to really challenge for a win, instead riding his way up the General Classification after more or less falling out of contention. In other words: he’s never seemed to be a rider that other teams take too seriously.
But assuming he manages to avoid bad luck in the opening stages (he crashed out of the Tour de France on Stage 1 this year) it will be interesting to see how he does–especially without having raced the Tour de France to build a base. Against such a stacked field, another podium finish would be a dream, but he might have to settle for a stage win and a top-5 finish instead.
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma)
We’re still waiting for the final start list to be released to know which North Americans are competing in the Vuelta, but we know that American Sepp Kuss will be on the starting line in Barcelona, which means this will be his third grand tour of the season. One of the sport’s best pure climbers, Kuss has made a name for himself by riding alongside his GC captains late into mountain stages, often lasting longer than the GC captains from other teams. That’s what makes Kuss riding a third grand tour so impressive: he hasn’t just ridden these events, he’s raced them–and hard.
But while many other riders would leave for more money and more opportunities to race for themselves, Kuss seems perfectly content with what he’s doing and for whom. And if one of his teammates wins the race and makes history for Jumbo-Visma, he will deservedly get much of the credit.
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