According Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha) the world road championship crown will be claimed by a climber who races the Vuelta a España before the Worlds in Florence, Italy.

Last month Rodriguez finished 3rd at the Tour de France after showing tremendous form during the final week, and he will rank among the top favourites in the Vuelta, which gets underway on August 24. Important though the Vuelta is, the Catalan climber acknowledged that he is already eyeing the world championships race in Florence.

“I’m looking forward to the Worlds, because it’s very hard in Tuscany. As well as being 270 kilometres long with 5,000 metres of altitude gained, there’s also a very steep climb 3 kilometres from the finish – it’s 800 metres long and it hits a gradient of 15%. It will do a lot of damage,” Rodriguez told Periodic de Andorra. “I think the Worlds will be won by a climber who comes out of the Vuelta.”

Four years ago, Rodriguez won bronze in the world championships road race in Mendrisio, and he is likely to feature prominently in an awe-inspiring Spanish team in Florence, a line-up that might well consist of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Dani Moreno (Katusha).

With regards to the upcoming Spanish grand tour, Rodriguez is once again among the favourites although he pointed out that the list of budding winners is extensive. “I know I’ll be one of them, but there are others too, like Nibali, Valverde, Basso and Sanchez. Maybe Nibali is a point ahead of everyone else,” Rodriguez said.