On Saturday, the 20th of August, Caja Rural - Seguros RGA will line up at the start of Vuelta a España for the fifth year in a row. For the Spanish team, this is the most important race on the calendar.
 
The main goal is to win a stage and to help the team achieve that, the following nine riders have been selected for the Spanish Grand Tour: Hugh Carthy, Jaime Rosón, Sergio Pardilla, David Arroyo, José Gonçalves, Pello Bilbao, Ángel Madrazo, Lluis Masand Eduard Prades. Eugenio Goikoetxea and José Miguel Fernández are the team’s sports directors for the race.
 
For three riders, this year’s Vuelta a España will be their first Grand Tour experience.Carthy (22) has been one of the revelations this season. The young British climber finished 9th overall in Volta a Catalunya against some of the best riders in the world before he went on to win Vuelta Asturias. He also won the queen stage of the Spanish race. The two other GT debutants are Rosón (23) who soloed to win the queen stage of Tour of Turkey and Prades (29) who stormed to victory at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and won the first stage of Gran Premio Beiras.
 
Gonçalves (27) is one of Caja Rural - Seguros RGA’s main references for a stage win in the race. Last year, the Portuguese made Top5 in no less than four stages during the Vuelta. This time, he aims to finally break the spell and claim victory. Gonçalves has had a great season so far with the overall win in Tour of Turkey as the highlight. Most recently, he showed great form in Volta a Portugal where he made podium four times and won a stage.
 
The veteran of the team is Arroyo (36) who’s starting his seventh Vuelta a España after finishing 12th overall last year. The Spanish climber is a former stage winner in the race, a performance he hopes to mimic in this year’s edition. Bilbao (26) also starts the race aiming to win a stage. He came very close last year, when he finished second in Murcia. Bilbao has done very well this season, winning a stage in Tour of Turkey and leading the race overall. He finished second in Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and most recently, he showed good shape in the Spanish warm-up races for the Vuelta.
 
Madrazo (28) gave Caja Rural - Seguros RGA the team’s first win of the season back in February when he won a stage in Etoile de Bessèges. The strong Spaniard has been good in the last races and he now hopes to add another win to his palmares. The same goes for Mas (27) who has been very consistent throughout the entire season. He finished 4th overall in Tour of Turkey and proved to be in good condition last week in Vuelta a Burgos. In that race, Pardilla (32) demonstrated that he’s back at the highest level again, after his terrible crash last year, as he won the queen stage and finished third in the general classification. It was the third time this year that Pardilla made the overall podium in a stage race. Before that, he had finished second in both Vuelta Asturias and Gran Premio Beiras.
 
Sports director Eugenio Goikoetxea said: “The team takes on this Vuelta a España with high hopes. We have had a good season but we also know that as soon as the race begins, we have to forget what we have already achieved and start from scratch. The main objective, in addition to make our presence in the race known, is to win a stage. Later on, the race may present other opportunities for us”.