A month after a very successful Tour de France, Team Bahrain Victorious will start the 78th edition of the last Grand Tour of the year – La Vuelta a España.
The race starts on the Saturday with a 15km Team Time Trial in Barcelona and finishes on September 17 with a flat stage of 100km in the centre of Madrid. Between those stages, there will be one individual time trial, three more flat stages, eight hilly stages, and seven mountain stages.
As Vuelta is known for its steep mountain finishes, this year’s route will not disappoint. There are nine mountain top finishes, five of them first category, and two ‘hors’ categories (Col du Tourmalet and Alto de L’Angliru). This is the first year after 2019 that La Vuelta is returning to the Pyrenees and will have three brutal mountaintop finishes (including the already mentioned Col du Tourmalet which is on the French side of the mountain range).
The first real test for the GC comes already on stage 3, with a Category 1 mountain finish as well as another Category 1 climb 20km prior, both across the border in Andorra. The GC could be shaken on stage 6 where another Category 1 mountaintop finish awaits. The toughest stage of the first week will come at stage 8 with five categorised climbs, with a Category 1 climb 3km from the finish line. The second week will start with a 25km individual Time Trial, which will only be an entree to the back-to-back stages in the Pyrenees, where the mountains will define who’s a contender for the final GC. The final filter of the GC battle will be fought on stages 17 and 18, where probably the toughest mountaintop finish of any grand tour awaits (Alto de L’Angliru) followed the day after with three Category 1 climbs, including the finish. The last three stages will see GC contenders trying to stay in the front group and not lose time all the way to the familiar circuit in Madrid where sprinters will battle for the final stage glory.
Victorious head sports director Neil Stephens spoke about the goals for the upcoming La Vuelta: “With the solid block of riders that we present for the Vuelta España 2023, we are looking forward to using our resilience and consistency to fight for a podium finish with one of our riders. With the high level of our rivals, we will have a difficult job but we also look forward to the battle for the young riders general classification. Stage wins are always a high priority for us and we are hoping to tick as many boxes as we can on our goals and expectations list.”
The team will be led by Santiago Buitrago, who this year already finished on the podium on three occasions (Saudi Tour, Ruta del Sol, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège) and won a stage at Giro d’Italia; and Mikel Landa, who’s also been on the podium three times this year (Ruta del Sol, Itzulia Basque Country, and La Flèche Wallonne).
Matevž Govekar will be the sprinter, supported by Jasha Sütterlin and Kamil Gradek. The road captain is Damiano Caruso, and together with Wout Poels and Antonio Tiberi, they will provide mountain support.
Stephens continues with the breakdown of the riders’ duties and expectations: “Mikel Landa will be our team leader. He is a highly regarded stage race rider looking forward to finishing his time at Bahrain Victorious. The co-leader will be Santiago Buitrago. Santi is our rising star. He has won great mountain stages in the Grand Tours but still needs to prove himself in the GC battle. He is in great shape and looking forward to doing that in the Vuelta this year.
“Caruso is an extremely consistent athlete who we can depend on to be with the leaders to guide and assist them. Damiano has also done some fantastic major tours in his career and comes to this Vuelta in great shape. Poels, who recently won a stage at the Tour de France, will be coming to ride the Vuelta in a mountain support role.
“Riding his first major tour with Bahrain Victorious, Tiberi is a highly talented young rider, who will be riding in support during this year’s Vuelta, so that he can help his teammates and also grow and learn as a major player in major tours in the future.
“Gradek is one of the pillar workhorses of the team, who is looking forward to making his debut in the Vuelta, while Jasha Sütterlin is another workhorse that never seems to tire. He is coming into his third Vuelta in great shape and ready to do his work.
“Govekar will be coming into the Vuelta to make his grand tour debut. There is no doubt that he will do some great work through this race, but perhaps the main goal for Matevz is to continue to develop and learn from his teammates.”
Buitrago is optimistic and humble: “I’m very excited to return to the Vuelta a España; the preparation is on the right track, we have done a very good preparation, and I hope to arrive at the Vuelta in the best shape, it is a great privilege to go to the Vuelta as one of the leaders and more with the support and experience of my teammates, we hope to do a great Vuelta. We have had good results in the Giro and Tour, and we hope that the Vuelta will not be the exception.”