Excuse my Spanish start to today, but I did the same early in July for the start of the last Grand Tour, and today is that start of tyhe last Grand Tour of the 2011 season. Yes today sees the start of the Vuelta a España.
There may be a BMC Team without Cadel Evans, a Schleckless Leopard-Trek, no Contador in the Saxobank Team and as for Thomas Voeckler well Europcar don't even take part. However, there are some names that are targetting the Vuelta this yearwho started in the Tour de Francee.
Sky see Bradley Wiggins, Omega Pharma Lotto have Jurgen Van Den Broeck both back in the saddle after their horrendous crashes before the Pyrenées in this year's Tour. Nicolas Roche is also there for AG2R trying to shake off that bad day he had in the Alps this July. As for the sprinters well there is Tyler Farrar (Garmin), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampré) and Tom Boonen (Quickstep) all experienced guys, but there is also the winner of the London-Surrey Cycle Classic last weekend over the Olympic Course, of course HTC's Mark Cavendish. Last year Cav wore the leader's Red Jersey for the second day, but more importantly wore the Green for longer and more importantly in Madrid at the end after winning three stages. As the current holder of two points classifications of the three Grand Tours he may well be going to defend as built up to the World Championships this September, in the Netherlands.
Today though is the individual time trail around Benidrom, so some Brits won't be lazing on the beach and one, Wiggins, may even be hoping to pull on the Red jersey at the finish.
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