Spain is sending what looks like a dream team on paper to the UCI Road World Championships next week, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha) heading the field and Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) cast in a role as super domestique.

National coach Javier Minguez said that the difficult 272km long course is good for his team. The three superstars should all be very suited to the hilly parcours awaiting the riders.

The three captains will be backed up by Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar), Jose Herrada (Movistar), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Dani Moreno (Katusha) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Belkin) as the race to find the successor to current world road champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team).  The reserve riders are Jesus Herrada (Movistar), David Arroyo (Caja Rural), Angel Vicioso (Katusha), Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Xavier Zandio (Sky).

When trying to predict how the race will unfold, Minguez told Spanish sports daily that it would be “very problematical to control the race, since the road is very constricted and hampers team work.”  In the finale, he predicted, “only the very best will survive.”

Castroviejo and Sanchez will represent Spain in the individual time trial on September 25.

A Spanish rider hasn’t won the world road championship since 2004, when Oscar Freire claimed his record-tying third title.