Key points :

• The winner of La Vuelta 19, Primoz Roglic, will wear bib number “1” in the official departure of La Vuelta 20 on the 20th of October in Irun.
• Jumbo-Visma will be participating with one of the strongest teams, and with Tom Dumoulin as co-leader along with other favourites including Enric Mas, Thibaut Pinot, Richard Carapaz and Chris Froome.
• Sam Bennett and Pascal Ackermann are the main candidates for sprint victories.

The list of pre-registered participants for the 75th edition of La Vuelta shows that the Tour de France favourites will be coming to Spain, starting with the winner of La Vuelta 19, Slovenian rider Primož Roglič, who was the big favourite to win the Grand Boucle from start to finish, before ceding the yellow jersey to his countryman Tadej Pogacar, in the second-last stage, just 24 hours from the arrival in Paris. He will be leading the Jumbo-Visma team featuring the strongest line-up with Tom Dumoulin as co-leader and his luxury team mates: Robert Gesink, George Bennett and Sepp Kuss. The latter won stage 15 of La Vuelta 19 in the summit of the Acebo Sanctuary.

Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) and Dani Martinez (EF Pro Cycling), winners of mountain stages in the last Tour de France, are also pre-registered in La Vuelta 20, as are the protagonists of the Tour de France’s general classification: Enric Mas (5th), Tom Dumoulin (7th), Damiano Caruso (10th), Guillaume Martin (11th), Alejandro Valverde (12th), Richard Carapaz (13th) and Sepp Kuss (15th). For most of them, La Vuelta is a new chance to improve on this season’s performances.

La Vuelta is also a good opportunity to make amends for the frustrations they encountered during the Tour: Thibaut Pinot and his compatriot David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) and David de La Cruz (UAE Team Emirates), who began injured and ended up becoming one of the most valued collaborators of the final winner, Tadej Pogacar. The Tour de France revelation had already made an impression in last year’s edition of La Vuelta (3rd in the general classification and winner of three mountain stages).

Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) is feeling positive: 8th in the Tirreno-Adriático (and a stage win), 3rd in La Flèche Wallone and 7th in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The winner at the Balcón de Bizkaia summit in 2018 arrives fresh for La Vuelta, a race he particularly enjoys. Among those pre-registered are also great stage hunters such as Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren), leader for one day in La Vuelta 19, Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) and young prodigies such Andrea Bagioli and Mauri Vansevenant (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

There are two stars among the pre-registered sprinters: Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step), the man who dethroned Peter Sagan in the battle for the green jersey in the Tour de France, and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), winner of the points classification in the Giro 2019, during his very first participation in a Grand Tour. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates), Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) and Magnus Cort (Astana Pro Team) are among the candidates to challenge the supremacy of these two sprinters.
@Unipublic