Dutch delight as Roglic and Evenepoel headline open Vuelta a Espana
Roglic, whose teammate Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France last month, abandoned the race with a knee injury midway through and has not raced since. His form is unknown. The Slovenian is chasing a record-breaking fourth-straight Vuelta title, where he will go past the likes of Tony Rominger, Alberto Contador and Roberto Heras, who all have three wins in this race.
The start will be special for his team, Jumbo-Visma, as they begin on Dutch home roads with a team time-trial and two sprint stages before heading to Spain. Roglic has a good team to back him up too, including mountain domestiques Robert Gesink (36) and Sep Kuss (27) - the latter who may be a candidate for the overall classification if Roglic and his knee falter.
As much as the former ski jumper is favourite for his fourth successive title, there are plenty of riders looking to topple him. At the front of the queue is the 2022 Giro D'Italia winner, Jai Hindley (26). The Australian is looking to become the first rider since Contador in 2008 to do the Giro-Vuelta double and has a good team behind him with Bora-Hansgrohe able to go with four riders who could top five the race.
The blockbuster name though is the young phenomenon Evenepoel. After riding his first grand tour last year and looking undercooked, he arrives at the start line in Utrecht in good form having won Clasica San Sebastian - on some of the same roads used at this year's race - Tour of Norway and the first monument of his career, Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The course suits his style of riding. The steep, punishing climbs of the last few editions have been replaced with steadier gradients, meaning he could limit his losses in the high mountains to the likes of Hindley and Roglic. Other contenders include Richard Carapaz (29), Mikel Landa (32), Enric Mas (27), Simon Yates (30) and Joao Almeida (24).
Although it will be three weeks of racing, there are a couple of stages that could shape the race. As usual with a grand tour, the mountains will be the main playground and stage 12 will be the first proper test for the peleton. It finishes up a near-20km climb with an average gradient of 6.5%. Then three stages later, the race heads to the Sierra Nevada where it will climb up above 2,500m, which will surely show who is the best climber at the 2022 Vuelta.
Away from the general classification, Alejandro Valverde (42) will be a rider in the spotlight. This will be his final Vuelta after a career that has spanned 20 years. He won the race back in 2009 and has been an icon of Spanish cycling for much of that time. His involvement and ban because of Operacion Puerto, an anti-doping investigation, that looked at blood doping in the professional ranks is still a black mark on his record, but he will be celebrated throughout the race.
There is also a return to grand tour racing for current world champion, Julian Alaphilippe (30). He suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade at Liege-Bastogne-Liege back in April, but remarkably he is back to near his best just four months on.
There are three other jerseys up for grabs: Points, Mountains and Youth - with plenty of riders in contention for each. For the points, normally decided by sprint stages, the likes of Ethan Hayter (23) on INEOS Grenadiers and Pascal Ackermann (28). The Mountains jersey will be decided more on the style of racing throughout the race whereas for the youth classification, Evenepoel is the clear favourite.
It will be him and Roglic who are the headliners for a lap of Spain, but many things can happen over the next 24 days - just ask Roglic.