John Degenkolb loves the Vuelta and the Vuelta loves him back. In 2012 – being 23 year of age – he was fastest in five bunch sprints.
A fast man if there ever was one, Nacer Bouhanni had his break through in recent Giro. He took over from Marcel Kittel after the German had to abandon with illness. The 24-year old Bouhanni took three stage victories.
Peter Sagan was four times second in the last Tour de France. His main rivals in La Grande Boucle – Kittel, Kristoff and Greipel – are not present in Spain, opening perspectives.
Belgian champion Jens Debusscherre comes to Spain with André Greipel’s lead out man: Gregory Henderson. So that’s loads of experience to benefit from for the young Belgian sprinter.
Other sprinters in Spain are Michael Matthews, Matteo Pelucchi and Moreno Hofland, whilst Astana shows up with a delegation of three fast men: Andrea Guardini, Jacopo Guarnieri and Aleksey Lutsenko. Recently, 25-Year old Guardini was victorious in stage 1 of the Dutch/Belgian Eneco Tour.
Favourites
John Degenkolb
Nacer Bouhanni
Peter Sagan
Outsiders
Andrea Guardini
Moreno Hofland
Jens Debusscherre
Matteo Pelucchi
Michael Matthews
Vuelta 2014 stage 2: Images and more
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