The Vuelta a España continues to attract an increasing number of important riders: there are always those who consider it a race that can save the season, but increasingly it is considered for what it truly is, a genuinely important race, where many of the best World Tour riders duel to win.

The absolute favorite, after his second place at the Tour de France, will be Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who will have to compete for the red jersey against opponents like João Almeida and Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates-XRG), Richard Carapaz (EF Educational Easypost), Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Egan Bernal (Ineos-Grenadiers), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious). Among the Italian riders currently selected are Damiano Caruso and Andrea Pasqualon (Bahrain-Victorious), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), Giulio Pellizzari with Giovanni Aleotti (Red Bull – Bora Hansgrohe), Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers), Marco Frigo (Israel Premier Tech) and Elia Viviani (Lotto).

What adds to the race's fascination is that it is always full of uncertainties regarding the physical condition of some of its protagonists. Vingegaard, the great favorite, took a break after the Tour: we only know that he hasn't raced since, resuming training last week near Annecy (Haute-Savoie), where he lives with his family. The Dane can count on a strong team with Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss, and Victor Campenaerts by his side. In contrast, Giulio Ciccone, after withdrawing from the Giro d'Italia, has recovered well and we've seen him achieve positive results, like first place in San Sebastian and a stage win at the Vuelta a Burgos. The Abruzzo rider was forced to retire due to a crash 20 km from Nova Gorica at the Giro, suffering a significant hematoma in the vastus lateralis muscle, and now wants to take his revenge by proving he's back in form.

With a stage win and third place overall at the Giro d'Italia, Richard Carapaz has shown he can compete for important goals. He skipped the Tour de France due to a gastrointestinal infection announced a few days before the start, but was able to resume training at home in Ecuador. Carapaz even participated in an amateur race organized by his former teammate Rigoberto Uran at the end of July. We don't yet know his objective for the Vuelta: we'll have to wait a few days to understand if he'll aim for stage wins, the red leader's jersey, or the climber's jersey.

Also Felix Gall, after finishing fifth overall at the Tour de France, hasn't raced since: the Austrian took a week off and then started a two-week high-altitude training camp at 2,000 meters in Tyrol. Just before leaving for Spain, he'll spend two days with his teammates working on the team time trial scheduled for the fifth stage.

Regarding UAE Emirates-XRG, they might have surprised some fans by bringing two leaders who on paper seem quite incompatible, given their argument on the Galibier last year (third stage of the Tour de France). João Almeida wanted to do well at the Tour de France, but due to a crash, he was forced to abandon on the ninth stage, after suffering several abrasions and especially a fractured rib. After the injury, he returned home to Portugal, and we don't know precisely what his current condition is.

As for Ayuso, he arrived at the Giro d'Italia with great ambitions but never in brilliant form, and with Del Toro in great growth, he was relegated to a race of catch-up. Ayuso then abandoned the pink race due to an insect bite and then returned to racing in San Sebastian, where he didn't achieve a good result, while at the Circuito de Getxo he finished second behind his teammate Del Toro.

Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) are riders about whom it's difficult to make predictions. The Spaniard, after crashing on the first day of the Giro d'Italia and fracturing his eleventh thoracic vertebra, took three months off before returning to racing at the Vuelta a Burgos, where he finished 18th in the general classification. His declared goal for the Vuelta a España is to obtain the best possible result.

Gaudu, after a complicated Giro finished in 66th place, skipped the Tour to slowly rebuild his condition. After a period of high-altitude work in Tignes, the sixth-place finisher of the last Vuelta a España returned to action with a second place behind his teammate Tom Donnenwirth in the first stage of the Tour de l'Ain last week.

Unfortunately, the next day he was already struggling after 70 km of racing, then completely collapsed almost 50 km from the finish. What happened to the Frenchman is not easy to decipher, and this Vuelta could mark a moment of rebirth for him.

As we've seen, Italy will bring excellent riders to the Vuelta, and it will be exciting for our riders to start from Turin and Piedmont with the first four stages. We expect Giulio Pellizzari and Antonio Tiberi to collect excellent results in the Spanish race. The Marche rider finished sixth in the general classification at the Giro d'Italia and has shown he is one of the best young riders in the pink race. Recently, he finished fourth at the Vuelta a Burgos. Antonio Tiberi's situation is more complicated. The rider from Lazio had a Giro d'Italia below his expectations. At the Tour of Poland, he showed he was competitive again, finishing second in the general classification.

The official start lists for each team have not yet been released, so there could be surprises with the presence of other important riders who want to do well in the last grand tour of the season.