The Vuelta a Espana has a reputation as a revenge race for riders that have had little success in the first part of the season. This year some of the world’s biggest stars have been plagued by bad luck and while most of the cycling world lamented Chris Froome’s and Alberto Contador’s crashes in the Tour de France and Joaquim Rodriguez’  crash in the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta director Javier Guillen may have had a hard time hiding his satisfaction. This year the Vuelta can probably field the strongest line-up of all the grand tours and even though the main contenders may not all have had the perfect preparation, all is set for a big showdown that includes most of the grand tour winners among the current professionals. CyclingQuotes.com takes a thorough look at this year's favourites and outsiders and finds out all about their strengths and weaknesses.

 

Most of the cycling world was left disappointed when Joaquim Rodriguez crashed out of the Giro, leaving the rest of the Italian grand tour to be an almost ceremonial ride for Nairo Quintana. The disappointment was even bigger when Chris Froome and Alberto Contador both abandoned the Tour de France, thus cancelling what had been described as the greatest duel for years.

 

Luckily the cycling calendar offers a great chance for revenge. The Vuelta a Espana is the perfect opportunity to salvage a disappointing season and this year several riders have lots at stake. With Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana, Ryder Hesjedal, Chris Horner and Cadel Evans all on the start line, most of the grand tour champions will line up at the race and if one adds the likes of Joaquim Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde, Daniel Martin, Fabio Aru, Andrew Talansky, Samuel Sanchez, Wilco Kelderman, Przemyslaw Niemiec, Rigoberto Uran and Robert Gesink, it is evident that the Vuelta can field one of the strongest line-ups in recent years.

 

Contador may not be in a condition that allows him to fight for the overall win but Froome, Quintana and Rodriguez have all made it clear that they line up in Spain with the clear goal of winning the race overall. Horner claims to be stronger than he was when he took a surprise win 12 months ago and Valverde has a formidable track record in the Vuelta where he hasn’t finished outside the top 5 since 2003. Talansky is ready to take revenge from a disappointing Tour and his teammate Martin is keen to make up for a poor Giro. Kelderman, Uran, Aru, Evans and Hesjedal have all recovered from their Giro exploits while Gesink will be keen to show that he is back to his best after his heart surgery.

 

CyclingQuotes.com has taken an in-depth look at the race's favourites, assigning 5 stars to the race's biggest favourite, 4 to his two biggest rivals, 3 to three other potential winners, 2 to four of the podium contenders and 1 to 5 of the race's minor outsiders. In this article, we take a look at the 4-star riders that may be seen as the main challengers to the race's biggest favourite.

 

Nairo Quintana (****)

It takes an exceptional talent to win a grand tour at just 24 years of age and no one has won a three-week race at such a young age since Alberto Contador won the 2007 Tour de France. However, Nairo Quintana confirmed his exceptional potential earlier this year when he coped with the pressure of being the major favourite and took a very dominant victory in his maiden Giro d’Italia.

 

Ever since his victory in the 2010 Tour de l'Avenir, it has been evident that Quintana is a very rare talent but it has come as a surprise for many - even his own Movistar team - that he has matured into a winner candidate already at 24 years of age. However, his excellent performance at last year's Tour de France convinced manager Eusebio Unzue and the rest of the cycling world that he wasready to target the top step of the podium and the wily Spaniard selected a Giro team that was fully devoted to their young Colombian. Quintana paid back the confidence in the most impressive fashion as he overcame that could have sent him out of the race or taken him out of GC contention before stamping his authority on the race with a dominant performance in the final week.

 

It has been a rapid rise through the ranks for Quintana who joined the WorldTour just two years ago when he signed with his current team. In his first year, he proved his talents when he won the Vuelta a Murcia in the early part of the season but he first made a name for himself at the highest level when he won the queen stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné. While the Sky machine was powering along at a brutal pace that prevented the likes of defending Tour champion Cadel Evans from attacking, Quintana took off on the Cold du Joux-Plane, and by using both his great climbing and descending skills, he held on to take a breakthrough solo victory.

 

He went on to win the Route du Sud a few weeks later and those performance raised the expectations for his debut at the Vuelta a Espana. Already that year he introduced his habit of preparing his three-week races with limited racing and intense training in Colombia but his first attempt was a clear miss. Entering the race, he wasn't firing on all cylinders but bounced back with an excellent domestique performance in the mountain stages in the final week where he emerged as the fourth best climber behind the superior trio of Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodriguez and his captain Alejandro Valverde. He made use of his post-Vuelta condition to take his first big classics victory at the Giro dell'Emilia which created lofty expectations for his 2013 season.

 

A crash prevented him from excelling at Paris-Nice but he got his deserved place in the spotlight when he beat riders like Rodriguez, Valverde and Bradley Wiggins in the first big mountain stage of the Volta a Catalunya. A time loss on a descent on the first day meant that he could only manage fourth in that race but his excellent condition prompted the Movistar management to change his schedule and line up their upcoming star at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco.

 

That race proved to be the major breakthrough for the tiny Colombian as he ended up taking the overall victory. Not only did he climb at his usual high level in that race, he secured the win by doing an excellent time trial on the final day. That performance made him a dark horse for the Tour de France and the excitement was made even bigger by the fact that he arrived at the race straight from Colombia, with no one knowing anything about his condition.

 

Even though he was widely tipped as an outsider, few would have expected him to perform as he did during those three weeks in France. Entering the race as a luxury domestique for Valverde, he was used to animate the race and test Chris Froome in the Pyrenees but when Valverde had his horrible day on the windy roads to Saint-Armand-Montrond, he took over the captaincy role at just 23 years of age.

 

Quintana coped with the pressure and ended the race in second overall after winning the final big mountain stage, even taking the mountains jersey in the process. In the final week, he was even stronger than Froome on the climbs and if he had been racing more conservatively in the Pyrenees, he would have been a lot closer to the win. Even if he had started the race as team captain and had raced as such, however, he would never have been able to beat the superior Brit who was far stronger than the Colombian until the final week and had a clear advantage in the time trials.

 

With Quintana having lots of room for improvement, cycling fans were looking forward to his return to La Grande Boucle and a much closer battle between the two grand tour stars. However, his team made the - probably wise - decision to allow him to mature under less pressure at the Giro than going straight after the win in the sport's pinnacle event. The decision was clearly against Quintana's own desire to return but a couple of factors contributed to the decision. First and foremost, Unzue is convinced that it will be easier for his young star to handle the pressure of being a race leader for the first time in a race with less media attention. Secondly, he wanted to give Alejandro Valverde one final chance to reach his life-long dream of stepping onto the Tour de France podium.

 

However, the decision clearly wasn't an easy one for the team to make. The official announcement wasn't made before late January as sponsor Telefonica were clearly keen on seeing Quintana return to the Tour. Despite his reluctance, the Colombian accepted his schedule and carefully prepared the Giro in his trademark way by returning to Colombia without doing any racing since he ended the Volta a Catalunya in a fine but unspectacular fifth. He returned to Europe with a bang, confirming his potential by taking his first grand tour win.

 

Many teams would hold back a rising grand tour star and not put him under the physical and mental pressure of targeting the GC in another grand tour in the year of his maiden three-week victory. With the Vuelta a Espana being of great importance for the team, however, Movistar have decided to bring their rising star to the Vuelta as well, taking aim at what would be an impressive second grand tour victory in the year he opened his account.

 

However, Movistar have taken the wise decision not to put their rising star through another heavy racing burden in the build-up to the race. Quintana returned to Colombia right after his Giro win and has followed his usual preparation method that has been so successful in the past. While most riders prefer to prepare the grand tours by doing races in Europe and check out the key stages, Quintana has proved that he knows how to get into top form by going through a heavy training regime in his home country. That’s how he prepared for the 2013 Tour and that’s what set him up for his Giro victory.

 

In the run-in to the Giro, he had planned to get one final race under his belt at the Vuelta a Asturias but when that race was cancelled, he took the start with no recent racing in his legs. This time he has been doing the Vuelta a Burgos to prepare for the race and by taking a second overall victory in the traditional preparation race he proved that he goes into the race in solid condition.

 

Quintana’s main assets are of course his great climbing skills that allowed him to win the Giro. He lost a chunk of time to Rigoberto Uran in the time trial but easily proved that he was the strongest climber in the race. His win may have created a bit of controversy due to the dramatic circumstances in the Stelvio stage but his performance in the mountain time trial clearly underlined his status as the best climber in the race.

 

With more summit finishes than any other grand tour, the Vuelta is probably the three-week race that suits Quintana best. He may be a pure climber but he has proved his ability to handle all kinds of ascents. He would probably have benefited from the inclusion of some of the brutally steep climbs that have often created drama in the race and he would have excelled more if the mountain stages had been harder and included more mountains before the final climb. Furthermore, the relatively low altitude means that he will be unable to benefit fully from his background but the 9 summit finishes will offer him plenty of terrain to make a difference.

 

Despite his climbing skills, however, it is hard to argue that Quintana is the favourite to win the race. In last year’s Tour, it was evident that Froome was a notch above the Colombian. The Brit may have faded a bit in the final week and they seemed to be pretty equal in the third week but that didn’t allow Quintana to gain much time on the Sky leader.

 

Quintana may have been riding well all season but nothing suggests that the hierarchy has changed. While Froome put in an impressive performance in the Dauphiné before he crashed, launching an attack that Alberto Contador described as the most impressive he has ever seen, Quintana has not been producing such dominant performances. He was unable to match the likes of Alberto Contador and Joaquim Rodriguez in the spring and even though he won the Giro, he was less dominant than Froome was in the 2013 Tour.

 

Of course he was set back by illness in the first part of the race but when he returned to form in the final week he rode a pretty conservative race. He produced one outstanding performance in the Gavia-Stelvio stage but it is hard to say how much time he would have taken if the favourites had been together at the bottom of the final climb. He won the mountain time trial but had to go to the very limit of his capabilities to beat Fabio Aru. In the remaining mountain stages, he was content with following wheels, even on the Monte Zoncolan where he had no reason not to stamp his authority on the race.

 

His performance in the Vuelta a Burgos doesn’t suggest that he is now ready to beat Froome if the Brit is at 100% of his capabilities. Despite repeated attempts, he only managed to drop Daniel Moreno with 400m to go in the queen stage and he won the race by just 3 seconds. It is a well-known that Moreno is always strong at this time of the year but it is also evident that the Katusha rider is not comparable to Froome when it comes to climbing abilities. Of course Quintana is not yet at 100% but his performance is a far cry from the ones that Froome has traditionally delivered in the Dauphiné.

 

Furthermore, Quintana has the big disadvantage of being up against a superior time triallist. He has definitely improved a lot in the discipline and he probably did the TT of his life in Burgos on a course that didn’t do him any favour. He beat several specialists to finish second behind Aleksejs Saramotins but there is no doubt that he will suffer a massive time loss to Froome in the long time trial at the midpoint of the race. After all he lost almost 3 minutes to Rigoberto Uran in the long Giro time trial which even suited him a lot better. Froome is a much better time triallist than Quintana and it will be a massive task to take back that time in the mountains.

 

Finally, Quintana finds himself in new territory. He may have proved that he can now handle a grand tour and cope with the pressure of being a race leader but he has never down two grand tours in one season. Everything suggests that he has an outstanding ability to recover and that he will be able to handle the strains. However, the task of winning two grand tours in one season is a massive one that no one should underestimate.

 

As always, Quintana has a formidable team at his side and this time he will have the guarantees of being able to rely on Alejandro Valverde. The Spaniard’s presence may cause a bit of uncertainty about the captaincy role but in the end, the legs will do the talking and last year Valverde proved that he won’t hesitate to put his personal ambitions aside and ride in support of his teammate. In fact, the two-pronged attack may be a clear advantage as the pair will have a tactical advantage compared to Froome who is the only GC rider on the Sky roster.

 

If Froome had been at 100%, however, Quintana faced an uphill battle but now they should be on more of a level playing ground. Froome may be unable to produce the stinging attacks that are usually his trademarks and if Quintana comes into the race better prepared, he may gain some time in the early part of the race. Whether he will be able to hold onto such an advantage in the final weeks and in the time trials, remains to be seen. However, Quintana will be ready to exploit any chink in the Froome armour and if he manages to do so, he may break new ground by becoming a double grand tour winner at just 24 years of age.

 

Joaquim Rodriguez (****)

During the early part of his career, it was not at all obvious that Joaquim Rodriguez would develop into one of the best grand tour riders in the world. Being a formidable classics rider and stage hunter in the biggest races, he was hugely inconsistent during the three-week events and was mostly unable to handle long, gradual climbs as opposed to the short, steep ramps on which he thrived.

 

A dedicated effort to develop into a rider also for the high mountains, improve his poor time trialling ability immensely and get rid of his numerous bad days has seen him step onto the podium in all three grand tours, with last year's 3rd in the Tour de France finally making the plate full.

 

He had come close on a number of occasions but in 2012 he finally stepped into the world elite of grand tour riders. He had no bad day at neither the Giro nor the Vuelta and he even finished 7th in the long time trial at the Vuelta - a performance that was not even comparable to the one that had seen him lose more than 6 minutes two years earlier. While his climbing was not outstanding at the Giro, he was doubtlessly the best rider in the Vuelta mountains and only a bold move by Contador in an intermediate stage that was completely unsuited to Rodriguez' characteristics, saw the Katusha rider miss out on the win.

 

As a pure climber, Rodriguez clearly knows that he will never win the Tour de France which is often loaded with flat time trialing and so his grand tour focus has mostly been on the Giro and the Vuelta whose mountainous natures suit him down to the ground. Last year an unusually hilly Tour de France course made him skip his usual Giro-Vuelta double and make his only second appearance at the world's biggest bike race in a quest to achieve the rare feat of finishing on all three grand tour podium. He rarely fails to hit his best form for the biggest targets but he performed unusually poorly in the Pyrenees before a very strong comeback in the difficult final week allowed him to accomplish his mission when a strong ride in the final mountain stage allowed him to finish on the podium.

 

However, the grand tour victory that so narrowly eluded him two years ago, is still missing on his palmares, and this year he changed his focus back from podium aspirations to a dedicated quest to win the Giro and/or the Vuelta. For Rodriguez, another second place has little value: this time it was all about the overall victory.

 

Knowing that he has a heavy racing burden ahead of him, Rodriguez scaled down his spring racing significantly and he arrived at the Giro with fewer racing kilometres in his legs than ever before. For the first, he skipped both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico and he didn't make his usual appearance in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco either. In fact his only racing between a rather heavy early-season block that ended at the Tour of Oman in late February and the Ardennes classics in late April, was his home race, the Volta a Catalunya.

 

That race, however, suggested that Rodriguez was on track for big things. With its lack of really long hard climbs, the course may have suited him well but it was an impressive performance for him to come away with the win in what is arguably the strongest field assembled for any week-long stage race this year. He not only beat his Giro rival Nairo Quintana, he also held off a resurgent Alberto Contador who had crushed the opposition in Tirreno-Adriatico less than two weeks earlier, and a - albeit underprepared - Chris Froome.

 

Much has been said about the bad luck that has plagued Chris Froome’s season but Rodriguez has not been spared anything either. For the second year in a row, an in-form Rodriguez crashed out of the Amstel Gold Race and he hit the deck again a few days later in the Fleche Wallonne. At the time, he played down the importance of the incidents but when he abandoned the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, it was clear that something was wrong.

 

In fact, Rodriguez had fractured a few ribs but he decided to keep his vulnerability as a secret. He lined up at the Giro hoping to limit his losses in the first week while his bones were still healing but when he took another tumble in stage 6, fracturing another few ribs, the race was over for the Spaniard.

 

Rodriguez had barely left Italy before he announced that he would now go all in for the Vuelta. Due to limited racing opportunities in the summer, his team decided to send him to the Tour de France where he would target a stage win and the mountains jersey. However, the main objective was to build form for the Spanish grand tour and even though his form was clearly not good enough to achieve his goals results-wise, his efforts had clearly paid off. Less than one week after the final stage to Paris, he dropped everyone else on the final climb in the Clasica San Sebastian to prove his return to his top level.

 

Since then he has been carefully finalizing his preparations and there is no reason to believe that he will not be at 100% by the time he rolls down the start ramp for the opening team time trial. While his key rivals have already been going full gas for the GC in one of the first two grand tours or have been set back by injuries, the Katusha leader has had a seamless build-up and with a reduced racing scheduled, he should be a lot fresher than his main challengers.

 

At 35 years of age, Rodriguez is approaching the end of his career and time is running out for the punchy Spaniard. However, nothing suggests that he is slowing down and even though this season has been a poor one, he has shown signs that he is still one of the strongest climbers in the world. In fact, his performance in Catalunya was probably one of the best of his entire career and proves that he still has the skills to keep up with the very best.

 

The Vuelta is probably the grand tour which suits Rodriguez best and with 9 uphill finishes, there will be plenty of terrain for him to shine. However, the organizers have put together a course which is a bit more balanced than last year and this is clearly a disadvantage for the Katusha rider.

 

The number of time trials has been increased and the courses for the two individual tests are both a lot flatter than usual. Rodriguez may have improved a lot in the TTs and he no longer suffers the massive time losses that hampered him a few years ago. Being up against Froome, however, he faces a tough ask. Last year he lost more than 3 minutes in the first flat Tour time trial which was even a bit shorter in this year’s key individual test. There is no reason to believe that Rodriguez will not lose a similar amount of time and it will be very hard to take back all that time in the mountains. With Quintana showing great improvement in the discipline, he will also suffer a time loss to the Colombian.

 

Traditionally the Vuelta has been littered with finishes on short, steep ramps where Rodriguez is usually in a class of his own. With bonus seconds on the line, they have allowed the Katusha rider to gain important time but this year the organizers have completely avoided that kind of finales. This year’s summit finishes are all on longer, more regular climbs which suit Rodriguez a lot less. However, the irregular, steep Spanish climbs generally play into the hands of Rodriguez who is a lot more suited to the mountains on the Iberian Peninsula than the long climbs in the Alps.

 

Finally, Rodriguez will probably not be too pleased with Froome’s decision to line up in the race. With his explosive skills, Rodriguez easily responds to the attacks but he has a harder time coping with a hard, sustained tempo. That’s how Sky usually rides and they have selected a formidable team for that strategy. Rodriguez may be one of the few riders who can following Froome’s searing accelerations but the Sky train may have worn him down before he gets to the crucial point of the race.

 

Rodriguez is backed by a formidable team that also contains his key lieutenant Daniel Moreno who showed his usual great autumn condition in the Vuelta a Burgos. He can also rely on Giampaolo Caruso who was climbing better than ever before he crashed out of the Giro. With three strong climbers and two potential GC threats, Katusha have one of the strongest teams with several tactical options.

 

In the end, however, Rodriguez has to prove that he can distance Froome and Quintana in the mountains and even though he rode outstandingly in Catalunya, nothing suggests that he will be able to do so. In the final week of last year's Tour, they were clearly performing at the maximum of their capabilities and even though they were very equally matched, Quintana and Froome slightly had the upper hand. Rodriguez’s explosive riding style means that he usually gains time with a violent attack in the finale but with huge time losses in the time trials, it will be hard to take back all that time in the mountains.

  

Despite those disadvantages, Rodriguez' recent history in grand tours, his good preparation and - more importantly - his excellent showing at the start of the season turns him into. If Rodriguez has the same legs as he had in Catalunya, it may not be impossible for him to rid himself of his rivals and if that happens, he could finally reach that big objective of winning a grand tour - a feat that few would have expected him to achieve when he started his career as an inconsistent classics specialist.