Ever since it moved to be the final Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> has occupied an interesting place in the cycling calendar. It’s important, of course \u2013 it’s a Grand Tour \u2013 but it is decidedly third in the hierarchy behind the Tour de France <\/a>and Giro d’Italia in terms of prestige.<\/p>\n As a result, not all that many top riders will start the season with the Vuelta in mind as their primary Grand Tour target \u2013 it is often secondary to other goals \u2013 and what that means is that the Vuelta start list<\/a> is often a kind of wash-up of riders who haven’t achieved what they wanted to so far this year.<\/p>\n [**********]<\/p>\n