Fewer time trials, steeper hills and three stages in the Netherlands await a heavyweight field in the year’s final Grand Tour
A shadow was cast over the Vuelta a España by Thursday’s withdrawal of Nairo Quintana as the Colombian prepared his appeal against a positive test for the painkiller tramadol during the Tour de France, but even without the 2016 race winner, the final Grand Tour of 2022 is set to be contested by the race’s strongest field in recent years.
The unexpected return of the triple winner Primoz Roglic after his crash in the Tour de France means there will still be five previous winners in the field when the race begins in Utrecht on Friday – Alejandro Valverde (2009), Chris Froome (2011, 2017), Vincenzo Nibali (2010) and Lancashire’s Simon Yates (2018) being the others – along with three recent winners of the Giro d’Italia: the Londoner Tao Geoghegan Hart, his Ecuadorian Ineos teammate Richard Carapaz and the Australian Jai Hindley.
Continue reading...