The Vuelta a Espana starts two weeks after the Olympics road race which has a profile for climbers and so has attracted the big stars who aspire for glory at the Tour de France. That leaves the Spanish race in an awkward situation as it comes after a big double challenge which will only be made harder if riders decide to add the final grand tour to their schedule.

Until now, Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodriguez and Esteban Chaves have confirmed their presence at the start of the 2016 Vuelta in Ourense. Purito has expressed his fear of cracking in the Spanish race. "Yes, it scares me because this year we won’t have the break that we normally have after the Tour but I will still be competing and also very focused because the Olympics are very important,” he told BiciCiclismo a few weeks ago.

Javier Guillen, race director of the Vuelta, does not deny the difficulties and tells BicCiclismo that he has taken steps to make the race as comfortable as possible. "Yes, it's not wrong to say that the Olympic year make some special conditions for the level of participation. Many riders will focus on the Tour de France and the Olympics. So we have worked more on making less transfers and we wanted to be especially sensitive towards the riders and extreme fatigue that they can accumulate during the Tour, the Games and the Vuelta. Obviously, there will be transfers. That is inevitable because we depend on certain departures and arrivals, but it will be much less,” he tells the Spanish website.

The director confirms that there will be "ten uphill finishes" although another of his desires has been to make the race less demanding than in other years. "It is intended to be less hard, but it is something that can be measured in many ways. We have opted for short stages. I think that only one will be above 200 kilometers. One problem is that the geography of Spain is complicated and you don’t have to do big climbs to accumulate lots of metres of climbing. Yes, you can say that it will be a Vuelta that is a little less hard than last year. That's our philosophy, but everyone will be able to share their opinion after the presentation," says Guillen.

As for the invitations, they will be announced "before the Tour and I understand that it will be in March." "Obviously I cannot reveal anything, especially because we are still receiving applications from teams and will continue to do so until January. Our criterion is the sporting one and we are interested in the profile of the riders that will be there. In recent years it has mainly been climbers. And the Vuelta is an opportunity for some teams. I am proud to be the first to invite Skil-Shimano which is now Giant-Alpecin, and MTN-Qhubeka.”

Finally, he also confirmed the sale of broadcasting rights for the United States in "a long-term” deal. Guillén did not specifically name NBC Sports Group but Velonews have reported that they will broadcast the race via their NBC Sports Network and Universal HD channels.