Vuelta startlist review

The startlist for the upcoming Vuelta a Espana is looking quite jam-packed with strong riders. Discovery's roster alone has 3 possible spoilers in Brajkovic, Devolder, and Danielson. Predictor-Lotto's team is for once designed with only one goal in mind: deliver Cadel Evans to the top step. No Robbie McEwen means no divided team, no riders sacrificed for stage wins only. Cadel can't be discounted as a favorite after his Tour toughness, but I am not convinced that he can hold his form all the way until the end of the Vuelta.

Perennial underdogs Euskaltel are also really not kidding around, with a roster that includes leader Samuel Sanchez, as well as Zubeldia, Anton, Landaluze, and Isasi. Caisse d'Epargne may be without their ace Valverde, but they are still packed with quality riders such as Karpets, Pereiro, Luis León Sánchez, and David López Garcia. Both Lampre and Saunier-Duval are bringing numerous excellent climbers including Cunego, Vila, Szmyd and Loosli for Lampre, and Gomez Marchante, De la Fuente, Cobo, and Piepoli for Saunier. Teams with weaker-looking rosters include T-Mobile, Bouygues Telecom, Ag2r, and Cofidis (although Maxime Montfort is an intriguing talent).

Several teams such as Quickstep and Milram are coming to the Vuelta with the clear goal of sprint wins. Milram brings a full-on leadout train for Petacchi, while Quickstep is bringing both of its super-heavy hitters in Boonen and Bettini (both of whom may be there just for good training before the Worlds, however).

CSC is one team that seems a slightly strange mishmash of riders to support Sastre. At first glance CSC's team seems weaker than many others, but young gun Chris Anker Sorenson's recent rather revelatory climbing in the Tour of Germany may suggest that Sastre will indeed have an additional strong mountain helper to go along with Vande Velde and Cuesta. Still, compared to the climbing prowess of Saunier and Lampre, CSC's roster doesn't quite compare. Yet Sastre is the type of rider who often can manage just fine without too much help. Time after time he is consistently strong in the grand Tours, but just a little bit shy of making the very top position. Hopefully this will be his year to break through.

The wild-card teams will be keen to surprise everyone by stealing a stage win at the very least. Karpin Galicia's roster includes none other than Santos Gonzalez, who you might remember was ignominiously pulled from the 2005 Vuelta while in 8th place, and eventually fired by his Phonak team, due to him failing an internal blood control. No word yet on whether Karpin Galicia will be led by their assistant DS Alvaro Pino, who was dumped by Phonak after numerous doping incidents under his tenure as DS there. Pino also was DS at Kelme, where according to Manzano, systematic doping was the norm and Fuentes was the team doctor. Aren't you glad to know that the Vuelta welcomes teams like Karpin-Galicia and their dope-tainted compatriots Relax-Gam? At least Relax are leaving home their main Fuentes-refugees, as Sevilla and Mancebo are thankfully nowhere to be seen on their roster. The Vuelta is traditionally the most doped of all the Grand Tours, so I suppose I should follow the Spanish example and just wink and nod at such things, rather than raise a fuss.

Euskaltel's strong contender Samuel Sanchez was recently asked who he rates as the Vuelta's favorites and he chose Evans, Sastre, Gomez-Marchante and Santos González. To this list I would add Menchov, Cunego, Brajkovic, and Pereiro as others to keep an eye on. I think it is possible that a surprise winner could emerge. My predictions are that Evans can quite possibly crush the fly-weight climbers in the time trials, but will not be able to keep up with the type of vicious pure climber accelerations that riders such as Gomez-Marchante and Sastre can survive. But Gomez-Marchante was sick before the Tour with an inflamed colon, and it is not clear how much this could have hurt his form in the long run. Sastre also did not look quite as strong as usual in the Tour. Yet Evans has shown consistent, if not explosive, climbing ability over three weeks.

Brajkovic is totally unproven over three weeks, after he cracked badly last year in the last week. Cunego's form is seemingly always slightly suspect, and while he was strong in the Giro, he didn't have quite the climbing spark that we have seen from him in the past. If he is on form and 100% healthy, he could surprise. Pereiro is the type of rider who could slip into the top few spots if others falter and he has both good luck and strong motivation. Without Valverde, Pereiro may want to seize his chance. Other possible protagonists that are hard to make any clear predictions about are Danielson, Devolder, Karpets, and even Beltran. On the right day, with the right form, one of these could certainly play a big role in the race. Or they could lose 10 minutes on the first mountain stage.

As for all the wild-card team riders that I have never heard of, you can bet that one or more of them will do everything to make their names known by the end of the Vuelta, in the manner of Barloworld's Soler. Who is will be (other than perhaps Santos Gonzalez), I have no idea. I just hope that whomever it is, they are clean. And that goes for all the riders. But this is the Vuelta though, after all, so I wouldn't count on it.