Big Guns line up for the 2017 Vuelta a Espana

Chris Froome, Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet, three of the main protagonists of the Tour de France, highlight the provisional start list of La Vuelta (19 August-10 September), along with two former winners of the Maillot Rojo, Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador

The 2017 Vuelta a España is scheduled to take place between August 19th and September 10th, 2017. The race will start in Nîmes, France, and finish, as always, in Madrid.

Chris Froome of Team Sky has won the Tour three times, but has never been able to transfer that success over to the Vuelta. He finished in second this year behind Nairo Quintana, and also in 2014, behind Alberto Contador. As always, his focus has been on the Tour, but he's looking to add Spain’s biggest prize to his palmares. Chris Froome stated: “In previous years, La Vuelta felt like an afterthought. This year we've thought about it a lot. We're going there with a sense of mission and I just want to have a real shot at it.”

Froome will face stiif competition from three former winners: 3 times winner Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru.

This year see's the first participation of Romain Bardet who finished second and third in the past two Tour de France said “I took some time to think about my second part of the season”, the Frenchman stated. “I had considered taking part in La Vuelta for several months. I'm delighted to do it to change my program of the previous years and to ride two Grand Tours the same year for the first time. I feel mature for it now. My ambitions will be different than at the Tour de France but I hope to impact the stages that suit me.” 

The 2017 La Vuelta also features a long list of dark horses, firstly with the trio of Orica-Scott formed of Esteban Chaves and the twin brothers Adam and Simon Yates.

Tour de France King of the Mountain Warren Barguil and Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Steven Kruijswijk and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo), Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates), Rohan Dennis, Samuel Sánchez and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), Davide Formolo and Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac), Carlos Betancur, Ruben Fernández and Marc Soler (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe, David De La Cruz and Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), Igor Anton (Dimension Data) and Jaime Roson (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) also make the provisional start list extremely attractive.