Portuguese cyclist João Almeida (UAE Emirates) is the favorite to win the Tour of Spain, which starts on Saturday, but three-time champion Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and 2023 winner Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) are threats.
After two victories in two grand tours with Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, a ‘phenomenon’ like few others in the history of cycling, all eyes will be on UAE Emirates, even more so after ‘punishing’ Juan Ayuso, leaving the Spaniard out of ‘his’ Vuelta.
Instead, it has rewarded the loyalty of two luxury team-mates for Pogacar, with João Almeida, starting from home with three stages in Portugal in this 79th edition, and Briton Adam Yates as the leading names.
After his fourth place in the Tour, and having also been fourth in the Tour of Spain, Almeida is the main candidate, not only because of his value in the mountains, alongside Yates, but also because of his quality in the time trial, where his British teammate is inferior.
With Marc Soler, Pavel Sivakov, Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine, the team from the United Arab Emirates has a luxury squad to defend the leader as the road dictates and hunt down stages, as well as the young Mexican Isaac del Toro, who is making his grand tour debut after winning the Tour de France du Frontera in 2023.
The lead shared with Yates, on paper, leaves it up to the road to define the main contender, with the 26-year-old Portuguese rider, who was fourth in 2022 and ninth in 2023 in this race, benefiting from the time trial in Lisbon to start ahead of the Briton.
The pair know what it’s like to share the lead-out duties, after proving dominant in the Tour of Switzerland, where Yates won and Almeida, who won two stages, was second.
UAE Emirates’ depth of options not only makes it the ‘target to beat’, but also makes João Almeida the main candidate, especially in a year in which the 2023 champion, American Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), has been unlucky.
After triumphing last year because he was better than the leaders on whose behalf he was going to work, this time he’s being defended by the team, with Cian Uijtdebroeks, Wout van Aert and Atila Valter in support, after covid-19 ruled him out of the Tour.
With the three-time winner of the race between 2019 and 2021, Slovenian Primoz Roglic, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe has a proven winner in the race, again looking for redemption after the disappointment of the Tour de France, this year in a new team.
The uncertainty of recovering from injuries and crashes leaves the team expectant, but with alternative plans, as they are also counting on Russian Aleksandr Vlasov and Colombian Daniel Martínez, second in this year’s Tour of Italy, to attack the overall.
With Portugal’s Rui Costa on the team, Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easy Post) will try to win a grand tour again after the 2019 Tour of Italy, while INEOS is betting on Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez, the host country’s main hope in Ayuso’s absence.
The other Spanish options are Enric Mas, leader of Nelson Oliveira’s Movistar and three times second in this race, in a team that also includes Colombians Einer Rubio and the ‘returning’ Nairo Quintana, and Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), fifth in the Tour.
Lidl-Trek also has several options, starting with British rider Tao Geoghegan Hart, who won the Tour of Italy in 2020, joined by Italian Giulio Ciccone and Danish rider Mattias Skjelmose.
Other candidates include Italian Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-VIctorious), Australian Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R), Frenchman Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Italian Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana).
In the sprinters’ section, Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), winner of four stages in the Vuelta and points champion in 2023, is making a comeback, with the hilly course putting off several pure sprinters – Belgian Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is another big name, but Sepp Kuss’ work for him could take away the final edge he needs.
Young Czech Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL) won two stages in the Volta a Burgos and could surprise, as could New Zealander Corbin Strong (Israel Premier Tech) and Spaniard Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
The Vuelta, the last grand tour of the year, starts in Lisbon on Saturday and will have three stages in Portugal, finishing in Madrid on September 8.
