2014 Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) – Quintana, Froome, Contador; 8/23-9/14

The Vuelta a Espana begins this Saturday. There will be 21 stages (so two rest days) covering 3,239.9 kilometers or 2,013 miles.

5 flat stages, 13 hill and mountain stages, 1 team time trial, and 2 individual time trial stages.

Among the top contenders will be Nairo Quintana, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. Froome and Contador both abandoned the Tour de France, but will return for the Vuelta. Have they recovered from their injuries? Is Quintana in top form? The Vuelta will reveal the answers.

Other notable names include Fabian Cancellara, Chris Horner (the defending champion and the oldest winner ever of one of the Grand Tours, at 41), Andrew Talansky (who will ride in a supporting role), Thibaut Pinot (3rd at this year’s Tour de France), Peter Sagan and Bauke Mollema (who wins the title of most distinctive name in the pro peloton, I think). Mark Cavendish is listed but he will not be riding. Cavendish will ride in the one-week Tour of Britain (Sept. 7-14).

Unfortunately, the TV coverage in the U.S. is limited to the Universal Sports channel, which is not available on Comcast and some other systems. The live coverage will also be streamed on the Universal Sports website, but only for cable/satellite subscribers where the channel is included in the line-up.

http://www.lavuelta.com/14pr/en/index.html

http://universalsports.com/cycling/

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EDIT: These are additional links for live feeds and online video recaps, as suggested by others in the thread below. I’m adding them here for easy reference.

http://www.steephill.tv/vuelta-a-espana/

http://www.cyclingfans.com/vuelta-a-espana/live

http://www.rtve.es/deportes/ciclismo/vuelta-espana/
(Spanish/Espanol)