It will be a Vuelta a España with 23 teams on the start line, and the list of objectives across the 184 riders runs even longer than the three-week race from August 19 to September 11.
Jumbo-Visma lead the 18 WorldTour squads, claiming race number one as they line up with three-time winner Primož Roglič, while Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic – as the top two UCI ProTeams – join the start list. There are also three wildcard entries, rather than the two seen at the Tour de France, with Spanish teams Euskaltel-Euskadi, Kern Pharma and Burgos-BH joining the fray.
Some teams will be chasing stage victories, jerseys, or perhaps points to chase off relegation threats, while others will be targeting the overall title, although, with the unpredictability of a three-week race, plenty of targets will change from the opening team time trial stage in the Netherlands to the finish line in Madrid.
We have analysed every team, picking out their leaders and looking at each group’s hopes and aims to put together this complete team-by-team guide ahead of Friday’s start in Utrecht.
AG2R Citroën Team
Who? French WorldTour outfit that’s been going since the early 1990s.
Leader: Ben O’Connor
Objectives: GC and stage wins
Rider to watch: Bob Jungels
AG2R Citroën Team head to the Vuelta with renewed GC ambitions after Ben O’Connor’s early exit from the Tour de France. The original plan was for the Australian to hunt stage wins that would complete his Grand Tour set, but he left the Tour after the first week and, as such, has had a chance to re-set and bring a red jersey bid into the equation.
O’Connor placed fourth at the 2021 Tour and had a strong season leading up to this year’s Tour, including third at the Critérium du Dauphiné, so the podium is a realistic aim if he’s back in form.
The rest of the squad is built for breakaways and support, with Clément Champoussin and young Finnish climber Jaakko Hänninen among the names that stand out, while Andrea Vendrame can sprint from a reduced group on a hilly day. Nans Peters, like O’Connor, could complete the Grand Tour set with a stage win, as could Bob Jungels, who won a stage at the Tour in a sign he’s getting back to his best after two difficult years of injury. Jungels, a world class rider, is moving to Bora-Hansgrohe next season and, after AG2R helped him back through surgeries, will want to go out with a bang.
Full line-up: Ben O’Connor, Clement Champoussin, Jaakko Hanninen, Andrea Vendrame, Bob Jungels, Nans…
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