Our 2023 Vuelta roster

At the finish line, 20 more stages will lie ahead of them. The 78th edition of Spain’s grand tour crosses 3,153 kilometers of countryside, including some of the most rugged and remote mountain roads in western Europe, on its way to its grand finale, three weeks from now, in Madrid.

This year, the fearsome Alto de L’Angliru is back on the Vuelta’s route. Hugh Carthy is eager to return to the slopes of the Asturian peak where he attacked during the 2020 Vuelta and won the most beautiful victory of his career. The Brit is ready to ride another offensive race. Hugh hopes his efforts in the mountains will keep him near the top of the GC. Diego Camargo, Jonathan Caicedo, and Andrea Piccolo will support him in the high sierras and seize every chance that comes their way.

Pyrenean cols such as the Aubisque and Tourmalet, which shape stage 13, have been the site of some of the most storied feats in cycle racing. They are the stuff of every bike racer’s nightmares and dreams. But our riders know that the decisive moments of this year’s Vuelta are just as likely to happen on any of the dozens of lesser known peaks on the route. That’s what makes the Vuelta special. It is an unpredictable, volatile race that’s liable to explode every time the road goes uphill. At this year’s Vuelta, the road goes uphill a lot.

There are a handful of less mountainous stages too. That’s where our fast man Marijn van den Berg will come to the fore. He has had a breakout season this year, with wins at the La Route d'Occitanie–La Dépêche du Midi, Trofeo Ses Salines–Alcudia, and Tour de Pologne, and is excited to make his grand tour debut at the Vuelta. Marijn’s fellow grand tour rookies Sean Quinn and Andrea Piccolo will set him up for the sprints and look for chances to go in breaks. So will Stefan Bissegger, who is focused on stage ten’s individual time trial too. Julius van den Berg will keep Marijn towards the front of the pack on those hard, hilly days where Marijn will have his best chances to drop the pure sprinters and go for the win from a reduced group.

Together, they form a balanced team, ready to light up the Vuelta across all terrain. It’s going to be an exciting race.

Read our riders’ thoughts before the start.

It is my first Vuelta. I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I have heard that it is less stressful than the Tour, so I am really looking forward to it. It will be crazy with the climbing. We’ve got a good team with Marijn for sure. He is in good shape. Hugh will be good too. In Poland, Marijn and I worked well together, so I am definitely really looking forward to it. Personally, I was a bit disappointed with worlds. I didn’t have the power I should have had or wanted to have, but that is also life. Now, I am going in the good direction. Three weeks is a long time. If I can get better day by day, I’ll be super happy. Obviously, I am looking forward to the time trial and maybe some breakaways. There are a few breakaway stages that look quite good for me. It is going to be interesting.

For my part, I feel very happy and very motivated to return once again to the Vuelta. It’s the race where I made my grand tour debut and it is a very beautiful race, so I am so grateful for the confidence that the team has in me to be part of these eight riders. I will give the very best of me. And my personal goal is to support the team as much as I can and to look for a stage, while at the same time I intend to keep learning more every day to achieve my dreams.

I feel very excited to be selected to race this year’s Vuelta a España. My absolute dream would be to win a stage at this grand tour. My form and results at the Vuelta a Burgos lap have given me back the confidence that I can win, so I will give it my all. I will also be of great support to our leader and help in whatever way I can.

I am excited. It has been a long summer at home, but I am finally ready to crack on again. The route is good; it is a nice route. There are some roads I know well in Catalunya and Andorra and over in Navarra as well. Looking at the team that we have got, it is a nice group. Everything I have done at home was as good as it could have been, so I am excited and optimistic as well.

I'm very happy to be part of the team for the Vuelta. For me it's the first grand tour in my career and I'm really very excited about it. I don't have much pressure from myself or the team, but I have made a lot of sacrifices to be prepared for this race and I definitely want to try to enjoy the Vuelta to the fullest and to take away some big satisfaction from these next three weeks.

I am super pumped for La Vuelta. The grand tours are the races that I always dreamed of doing when I was a kid, so it feels like my whole career has been leading up to this point. Of course, a grand tour can feel daunting, but I am very eager to get into the rhythm and see what happens to me in the third week.

Last year was amazing, of course, with the polka dots in my own country and riding through the city where I live in the polka dots. That was really cool, but I think this year will be more based around the team’s goals with Hugh Carthy and Marijn. I hope to help them as best I can. The Vuelta wasn’t on my plan originally, but I am happy to be going, and I feel good. I think the shape is good after the Tour of Poland and the Bremer Classic. Marijn was really good in Poland, so we can go for stages with him in the Vuelta. And of course we have good old Hugh Carthy, who is always in the mix for GC. Those are two good guys I like to work for a lot. I am looking forward to it!

I am excited, also a bit nervous, of course. The longest races I have done were L’Avenir and the Baby Giro, and those were ten days each, so if you combine them, they don’t even add up to the same length as the Vuelta, so I have no idea what to expect, but I am super excited.

I would like to go for a stage win. That is what I am going for. I think stage two is already a really nice one in Barcelona with the finish there. We have a steep kicker, a hard kicker in the end, but hopefully I can survive that and sprint for the win. Also, stage four. For me, it needs to be a harder stage with a little bit of climbing, so the sprinters are tired or dropped and then I will be one of the faster guys, I think. There are few stages like that in the Vuelta, but there are also a lot of climbing stages!