Former winners and new contenders gear up for strongest Vuelta in years

A shadow was cast over the Vuelta a España by Thursday’s withdrawal of Nairo Quintana as the Colombian prepared his appeal against a positive test for the painkiller tramadol during the Tour de France, but even without the 2016 race winner, the final Grand Tour of 2022 is set to be contested by the race’s strongest field in recent years.

The unexpected return of the triple winner Primoz Roglic after his crash in the Tour de France means there will still be five previous winners in the field when the race begins in Utrecht on Friday – Alejandro Valverde (2009), Chris Froome (2011, 2017), Vincenzo Nibali (2010) and Lancashire’s Simon Yates (2018) being the others – along with three recent winners of the Giro d’Italia: the Londoner Tao Geoghegan Hart, his Ecuadorian Ineos teammate Richard Carapaz and the Australian Jai Hindley.

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When the Vuelta was relocated to its present late-season slot 27 years ago, the intention was that it would complete the year’s stage racing narrative by providing an opportunity for revenge or redemption for those who had missed the Tour or had fallen short. The world champion, Julian Alaphilippe, forced out of the Tour by injury, and his fellow Frenchman Thibaut Pinot – whose Tour was good but not great – fall into that category, as does the Irish sprinter Sam Bennett, who has looked increasingly marginalised at Bora-Hansgrohe this season.

As the most talented riders appear in the World Tour at a younger age, the Vuelta is also seen as the best place for the big teams to blood new prospects, as was the case with Tom Pidcock in 2021. The precocious Belgian Remco Evenepoel is not