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Often derided as the lesser of the three Grand Tours, the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Vuelta a España could be set for another memorable edition with🍨 a mouthwatering line-up in prospect.

While the Tour is, as they say, the⛎ Tour, and the Giro has become the three-week race of preference for the discernin൩g, the Vuelta has acquired a reputation as the least significant Grand Tour.

But it seems to have bucked that trend in recent years, with some of the highest-quality fields and most dramatic racing seen all season. Indeed, last year the battle for the red jersey went right down to the penultimate day, while the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Chris Froome-168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alberto Contador duel was arguably the closest and most entertaining tussle of t꧋he 2014 Grand Tours.

With Froome, Contador, and Nairo Quintana all set to line-up in Orense in thr💛ee weeks' time, we could be in for another memorabꩵle edition.

2014 highlighted a trump card the Vuelta holds over the Giro; while most of those serious about targeting the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France won't consider harming their plans by riding the Giro, the Vuelta represents an ideal second opportunity for those wh꧋o didn't get all they might have wanted out of July.

The 2014 Tour should have been the best line-up of the year, with three of the four best stage racers in the world in Froome, Contador, and Vin🌳cenzo Nibali. When Froome and Contador both crashed out early on it was very much the Tour's loss – as Nibali cantered unchallenged to victory – and the Vuelta's gain.

That💛's the situation we have again. After crashing twice on the opening two days and then succumbing to illness, Contador exited the Tour after a week and soon had his name down for the🤪 Vuelta. It seems strange that less than a year ago Contador was saying this Tour would be his last – now he seems hungry to carry on for a year or two more.

Quintana reached Paris but was under the weather, suffering with allergies, and was never able to threaten Froome. He took the ༒decision to skip the Olympic Games, giving him the time to rest and recuperate that should mean he's somewhere near his best at the Vuelta.

Froome doesn't need bad fortune to head to the Vuelta; he went there last year after winning the Tour and his fifth participation in six๊ years was confirmed shortly after wrapping up his third yellow jersey last week. The question mark will be how he copes with the accumulated fatigue as he faces littleℱ let-up with th✤e Olympic road race and time trial on the horizon.

Froome's lack of freshness could open the door for 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mikel Landa to lead Sky's GC charge, and that's where another bunch of conteඣnders come in &nℱdash; those who did the Giro.

With Grand Tour doubling-up tough to manage in the modern era, the Giro-Vuelta is the natural fit, and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Esteban Chaves will surely be a force to be reckoned with after coming of age, and coming so close to victory, in May. Likewise 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Steven Kruijswijk, who looked the strongest man in the Giro and led the race until his disast💧rous crash on the desce♊nt of the Agnello pass.  

The fresh 'lesser lights' against the potentially fatigued bigger names - though does Contador have the best of both worlds? - should make for an entertaining three weeks, with the notion that the stakes are lower than at the Tour and the racing less ⭕inhibited. 

This year's Giro will be hard to beat but with the Vuelta continuing its ꦿrecent trend of gluttonous servings of uphill finishes - 10 this year - the most exciting Grand Tour racing of the season may well be ahead of us.