The last Grand Tour – 2018, Spanish Vuelta will start tomorrow with short 8 kilometers individual time trial race. So it is good time to review team squads and talk a little bit about race favorites.

Bookmakers think that main favorite of the race is Richie Porte (BMC Racing). This year is the third season in raw when Porte has victory in Tour de France as main goal of the season, but every time we had bad luck and couldn’t reach it. And this year was to withdraw after crash on the 9th stage of French race. After that incident Porte did not take part in any race so we dodn’t know his current conditions. Racer before start in Vuelta said that his main goal is preparation for World Championship that would be held in Austria. All these factors significantly reduce the probability of Porte's victory, so I would not put money on Richie's success.

Simon Yates. In my opinion, it is the Briton from Mitchelton-Scott who is the main contender for the red jersey for the following reasons:

1. A good form, the second place on the recent Tour of Poland shows that Simon certainly will not only save, but will improve it during the Vuelta.

2. A brilliant result at the Giro, demonstrating the superiority of Yates, when he is at the peak of his form. During the Italian tour, he won three stages and spent about two weeks in a pink, but he failed in the 19th stage, faced with a serious crisis. That failure, for sure, has become a precious experience for the rider.

3. Profile of Vuelta stages, where not only serious mountains, but also small hills abound with extreme slopes, which is suitable for Yates, who likes to attack on double-digit gradients.

Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde and ... Richard Karapas. Formally, the Movistar team starts on the Vuelta with two captains: Valverde and Quintana. It should be understood that the age-old Valverdre is unlikely to stay in good conditions for 3 weeks, so the main rider of Movistar will be Quintana. At the same time, the last multi-days show that Nairo almost always on one of the days of the race falls into a crisis and loses the chances of winning the overall standings. In this case, an excellent option to replace the captain is Ecuadorian Richard Karapas, who took the fourth place in the Giro.

Miguel Lopez. The Colombian from Kazakhstan's Astana team this year has already the podium of Italian Giro, which was the implementation of the first part of the pre-compiled plan for the struggle for high places on the two Grand Tours of the season, that is, the entire preparation of the Colombian after the Giro was completed with participation in the Vuelta. Lopez recently took second place in the Vuelta Burgos, which indicates a competent approach for reaching the peak form during the Vuelta. Also in the Colombian's asset you can write two wins at the stages of last year's Vuelta and eighth place in the general classification.

Thus, the main contenders for victory in the Vuelta can be called the five riders: Richie Porte, Simon Yates, Nairo Quintana, Richard Karapas and Miguel Lopez. Yhe second raw of contenders inclides Vincenzo Nibali, Ilnur Zakarin, Rigoberto Uran, Fabio Aru and Michal Kwiatkowski.