Nat Bromhead
Seven Aussies and 3 New Zealanders are amongst the 198 riders who will start this year’s Vuelta a Espana which kicks off in the ancient thermal region of Galicia in north west Spain today.
Orica-Bike Exchange riders Simon Gerrans, Jack Haig and Damien Howson and Movistar’s Rory Sutherland are among the starters.
Nathan Haas is the sole Australian riding with team Dimension Data in the three-week epic and Adam Hansen of Team Lotto-Soudal starts his 16th consecutive Grand Tour.
Over at Cannondale-Drapac Aussie Simon Clarke is flying the Aussie flag.
New Zealanders Sam Bewley (OBE) Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac) and George Bennett of team LottoNL-Jumbo are also competing.
The third and final Grand Tour of 2016 has attracted an exceptionally strong field with Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Team Sky, Nairo Quintana of Movistar and Alberto Contador of Tinkoff among the hot favourites to win.
Orica-Bike Exchange’s ‘honoury Aussie’, Colombian Esteban Chaves, is also considered a strong favourite after finishing 2nd at this year’s Giro d’Italia.
Running until Sunday September 11th 2016, this year’s Vuelta will cover a total distance of 3,315.4 kilometres. A distinct climbers course, the edition features just 7 flat stages (2 with high-altitude finales), 12 hill and mountain stages, 1 individual time trial and 1 team time trial.
198 riders from 22 teams are scheduled to start the race with stage 1 being a 27.8km team time trial. With limited television coverage Bicycling Australia will post online webcast links on our Facebook page prior to the start.
The full start list:
Orica-BikeExchange (Australia)
Sam Bewley (NZL)
Esteban Chaves (Col)
Magnus Cort (Den)
Simon Gerrans (Aus)
Jack Haig (Aus)
Damien Howson (Aus)
Jens Keukeleire (Bel)
Svein Tuft (Can)
Simon Yates (GBr)
Lotto-Soudal (Belgium)
Sander Armee (Bel)
Bart De Clercq (Bel)
Thomas De Gendt (Bel)
Gert Dockx (Bel)
Adam Hansen (Aus)
Maxime Monfort (Bel)
Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel)
Louis Vervaeke (Bel)
Jelle Wallays (Bel)
Movistar (Spain)
Jonathan Castroviejo (Esp)
Imanol Erviti (Esp)
Ruben Fernandez (Esp)
José Herrada (Esp)
Dani Moreno (Esp)
Nairo Quintana (Col)
José Joaquin Rojas (Esp)
Rory Sutherland (Aus)
Alejandro Valverde (Esp)
Tinkoff (Russia)
Alberto Contador (Esp)
Jesus Hernandez (Esp)
Robert Kiserlovski (Cro)
Sergio Paulinho (Por)
Ivan Rovny (Rus)
Daniele Bennati (Ita)
Manuele Boaro (Ita)
Michael Gogl (Aut)
Yuro Trofimov (Rus)
Team Sky (Great Britain)
Ian Boswell (USA)
Chris Froome (GBr)
Michal Golas (Pol)
Peter Kennaugh (GBr)
Christian Knees (Ger)
Leopold König (Cze)
Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol)
David Lopez (Esp)
Salvatore Puccio (Ita)
Trek-Segafredo (USA)
Haimar Zubeldia (Esp)
Julien Bernard (Fra)
Fabio Felline (Ita)
Markel Irizar (Esp)
Laurent Didier (Lux)
Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN)
Riccardo Zoidl (Aut)
Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita)
Kiel Reijnen (USA)
Astana (Kazakhstan)
Dario Cataldo (Ita)
Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz)
Miguel Angel Lopez (Col)
Davide Malacarne (Ita)
Luis Leon Sanchez (Esp)
Michele Scarponi (Ita)
Gatis Smukulis (Lat)
Alessandro Vanotti (Ita)
Andrey Zeits (Kas)
Direct Energie (France)
Ryan Anderson (Can)
Romain Cardis (Fra)
Lilian Calmejane (Fra)
Tony Hurel (Fra)
Fabrice Jeandesboz (Fra)
Julien Morice (Fra)
Bryan Nauleau (Fra)
Perrig Quemeneur (Fra)
Romain Sicard (Fra)
Bora-Argon 18 (Germany)
Cesare Benedetti (Ita)
Silvio Herlotz (Ger)
Bartosz Huzarski (Pol)
Jose Mendes (Por)
Gregor Muhlberger (Aut)
Christoph Pfingsten (Ger)
Rudiger Selig (Ger)
Michael Schwarzmann (Ger)
Scott Thwaites (GBr)
Cofidis (France)
Yoann Bagot (Fra)
Loic Chetout (Fra)
Jerome Cousin (Fra)
Romain Hardy (Fra)
Luis Angel Mate (Esp)
Rudy Molard (Fra)
Stephane Rossetto (Fra)
Florian Senechal (Fra)
Kennth Vanbilsen (Bel)
Dimension Data (RSA)
Igor Anton (Esp)
Kristian Sbaragli (Ita)
Jaco Venter (RSA)
Merhawi Kudus (Eri)
Omar Fraile (Esp)
Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA)
Tyler Farrar (USA)
Nick Dougall (RSA)
Nathan Haas (Aus)
Ag2r La Mondiale (France)
Jean-Christophe Péraud (Fra)
Gediminas Bagdonas (LTU)
Jan Bakelants (Bel)
François Bidard (Fra)
Axel Dumont (Fra)
Quentin Jauregui (Fra)
Pierre Latour (Fra)
Sébastien Minard (Fra)
Christophe Riblon (Fra)
Cannondale-Drapac (USA)
Andrew Talansky (USA)
Patrick Bevin (NZL)
Simon Clarke (Aus)
Joe Dombrowski (USA)
Davide Formolo (Ita)
Ben King (USA)
Moreno Moser (Ita)
Pierre Rolland (Fra)
Davide Villella (Ita)
Etixx-Quick Step (Belgium)
Maxime Bouet (Fra)
Gianluca Brambilla (Ita)
David de la Cruz (Esp)
Yves Lampaert (Bel)
Gianni Meersman (Bel)
Pieter Serry (Bel)
Zdenek Stybar (Cze)
Niki Terpstra (Ned)
Martin Velits (Svk)
FDJ (France)
Kenny Elissonde (Fra)
Murilo Fischer (Bra)
Alexandre Geniez (Fra)
Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra)
Johan Le Bon (Fra)
Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra)
Laurent Pichon (Fra)
Kevin Reza (Fra)
Odd Christian Eiking (Nor)
Giant-Alpecin (Germany)
Nikias Arndt (Ger)
Warren Barguil (Fra)
Koen De Kort (Ned)
Johannes Frohlinger (Ger)
Chad Haga (USA)
Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe)
Sindre Skjostad Lunke (Nor)
Tom Stamsnijder (Ned)
Zico Waeytens (Bel)
IAM Cycling (Switzerland)
Clément Chevrier (Fra)
Dries Devenyns (Bel)
Mathias Frank (Sui)
Simon Pellaud (Sui)
Vicente Reynes (Esp)
Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
Jonas Van Genechten (Bel)
Marcel Wyss (Sui)
LottoNL-Jumbo (Netherlands)
Victor Campenaerts (Bel)
Koen Bouwman (Ned)
Jos van Emden (Ned)
Steven Kruijswijk (Ned)
Robert Gesink (Ned)
Bram Tankink (Ned)
Martijn Keizer (Ned)
Enrico Battaglin (Ita)
George Bennett (NZL)
Katusha (Russia)
Tiago Machado (Por)
Sven Erik Bystrom (Nor)
Jonathan Restrepo (Col)
Sergei Chernetckii (Rus)
Sergey Lagutin (Rus)
Alberto Losada (Esp)
Matvey Mamykin (Rus)
Rein Taaramae (Est)
Pavel Kochetkov (Rus)
Lampre-Merida (Italy)
Yukiya Arashiro (JPN)
Mattia Cattaneo (Uta)
Valerio Conti (Ita)
Maria Costa (Por)
Kristjan Durasek (Cro)
Tsgabu Grmay (Eth)
Ilia Koshevoy (BLR)
Louis Meintjes (RSA)
Federico Zurlo (Ita)
Caja Rural-Seguros RGA (Spain)
David Arroyo (Esp)
Pello Bilbao (Esp)
Hugh Carthy (GBr)
Jose Goncalves (Por)
Angel Madrazo (Esp)
Lluis Mas (Esp)
Sergio Pardilla (Esp)
Eduard Prades (Esp)
Jaime Roson (Esp)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
Darwin Atapuma (Col)
Silvan Dillier (Sui)
Jean-Pierre Drucker (Ned)
Philippe Gilbert (Bel)
Ben Hermans (Bel)
Samuel Sanchez (Esp)
Dylan Teuns (Bel)
Tejay van Garderen (USA)
Danilo Wyss (Sui)
