All it took was one Instagram picture posted by Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), grinning above the glittering Mediterranean near Monaco as he enjoyed his first post-Tour training ride, and a first uncertain sign that history could be made in the 2022 Vuelta a España finally appeared.
The logic for this landmark in the Vuelta a España is simple: if Roglič rolls down the start ramp at Utrecht on August 19 as leader of the ‘clockwork banana’, as the Spanish press have now dubbed the all-conquering yellow and black-clad Jumbo-Visma team, the Slovenian will be aiming for a record-equalling fourth title.
No other rider bar Roberto Heras has taken four overall wins in the Vuelta. In Heras’ case that was in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005, even if the fourth victory, enshrouded in a possible doping case, was only declared valid after a drawn-out court case.
Should Roglič stand tallest on the final podium on Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana on September 11, he will become the first rider in history to take four straight wins in the Vuelta and the first to take four consecutive victories in any Grand Tour since Miguel Indurain in the Tour de France between 1991 an1995. It would also be another show of tenacity, as he bounces back from a third successive Tour disappointment.
Roglič’s participation is still uncertain, but regardless of whether or not he starts, the Vuelta field will not be short of familiar names. In what is perhaps the highest ever number of former podium finishers and winners ever to line up again in the same Vuelta, no fewer than six former winners look set to be present. Roglič could be joined by Alejandro Valverde (2009), Vincenzo Nibali (2010), Chris Froome, (2011, 2017), Nairo Quintana (2016), and Simon Yates (2018). Former podium finishers Rafal Majka, Hugh Carthy, Esteban Chaves, Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Jack Haig and Miguel Angel Lopez are also down to take part.
Despite the star-studded line-up, the absence of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) remains a real pity, given that he and Roglič have not gone head-to-head in a Grand Tour on equal terms since the 2020 Tour de France. But on paper, the level of competition that Roglič faces will surely still be fierce enough to provide a high level of entertainment over the next three weeks.
So who could beat the clockwork banana? Fresh off finishing second in the Giro d’Italia, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) is a man on a mission in this year’s Vuelta after going so close in…
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