Vuelta a Espana betting tips: Preview and best bets for cycling

Cycling betting tips: Vuelta a Espana

4pts Joao Almeida Podium Finish at 13/8 (General)

4pts Thymen Arensman Top 10 Finish General Classification at 7/5 (Unibet)

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After Tadej Pogacar became the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to Win the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France in the same year, with the UAE Team Emirates Rider winning by a combined winning margin of 15 minutes and 73 seconds, riders will be pleased to see that the Slovenian sensation isn’t lining up for the final Grand Tour of the year in Spain for what is a brutal edition of La Vuelta a Espana.

Across the three weeks the riders will cover 3265km with over 52,000m of climbing in the shape of one Flat Stage, five Medium Mountain stages, eight mountain stages, five hilly stages with two altitude finishes and two individual time trials to open and close the race.

With such a mountain/hilly featured parcour it’s no surprise to see a lack of sprinters at this race and with no Pogacar at the start line, the battle for the Maillot Rojo looks to be wide open contest.

Reigning champion Sepp Kuss lines up for Team Visma | Lease a Bike as their leader. The American will be supported by a strong roster which includes Cian Uijtdebroeks, Steven Kruijswijk and Attila Valter who will help in the Mountains. Robert Gesink and Dylan van Baarle on the flat while all round rider Wout van Aert will target stage wins across the three weeks.

After all the bad luck that Team Visma | Lease a Bike have endured this year, it would be a fitting end to the Grand Tours to see them take the overall victory.

However, despite winning Vuelta a Burgos last week, Kuss did miss the Tour de France through covid and hasn’t raced in a Grand Tour this year. It’s hard to know exactly what his Grand Tour form is and with that in mind it’s easy to look elsewhere.

A podium finish would be a good result for The Eagle of Durango, showing that he can compete as a General Classification rider and that last year’s victory was no fluke.

Red Bull – BORA – Hansgrohe lead with 3x Vuelta a Espana winner Primoz Roglic who will look to bounce back after a disappointing Tour de France where the Slovenian crashed on stage 12 and fractured his vertebrae in the process.

Accompanying Roglic around Spain will be usual right hand man Aleksandr Vlasov, promising young German rider Florian Lipowitz and this year’s Giro d’Italia runner-up Daniel Martinez, in Roglic’s bid to win his fourth Vuelta a Espana.

The Red Bull – BORA – Hansgrohe rider is heading straight into the race without racing since fracturing his vertebrae at the Tour de France. Without knowing any form and looking a bit off the pace in the Tour de France before his crash, it’s tough to make a case for the 34-year-old to win his fourth Vuelta a Espana title.

INEOS Grenadiers, Movistar Team and Soudal Quick-Step have hopes on their home nations riders Carlos Rodriguez, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa.

The 23-year-old Rodriguez had an underwhelming Tour de France this year when finishing 7th overall after finishing 5th the year before. Mas finished 3rd on Stage 17 & 5th on Stage 20 at the Tour de France, showing strong week three form in his favoured mountains terrain after a slow start, and Landa recorded a 5th place finish in the General Classification while looking after Remco Evenepoel.

I expect to see all three riders in and around the top 10 of the General Classification across the three weeks and maybe even one on the podium.

Grand Tour Podium for Almeida

It’s no surprise to see UAE Team Emirates once again fielding such a dominating roster. At the forefront of the team is 2024 Tour de Suisse & Tour of Oman Winner Adam Yates and 4th place Tour de France finisher Joao Almeida.

However, it is Almeida who is worth backing. The Portuguese rider has a consistently strong track record in Grand Tour General Classification with his form figures reading 4,9,3,4, DNF,6,4. With the race starting in his home country as well, the 26-Year-Old rider will be keen to make a statement early on in front of his home crowd.

Completing the strong UAE Team Emirates roster is Australian rider and 2x Vuelta a Espana stage winner Jay Vine, Super domestique Pavel Sivakov, American Brandon McNulty, Mexican rising star Issac del Toro, Marc Soler and Grand Tour debutant Filippo Baroncicni.

With such a strong team and two leadership cards to play, the Yates/Almeida combination can hurt other General Classification riders such as Roglic, Kuss and Mas.

• CLICK HERE to back Almeida with Sky Bet

Top 10 Finish for Thymen

Fresh from signing a new three-year contract with the INEOS Grenadiers, Thymen Arensman can once again show that he can gain results in General Classification at Grand Tours.

The Dutch rider will be looking to prove a point after finishing 6th at the years Giro d’Italia despite an uncharacteristic start to the race where Arensman lost 4 minutes in the opening three stages.

The INEOS Grenadiers rider recovered well in the two Time Trials where he finished 3rd and 4th and in the mountains on his way to finishing 6th overall, a positive sign given this years Vuelta a Espana has two-time trials where he can make his presence known.

The mountainous parcour also suits Arensman as well, as he won the Queen Stage in this race in 2022 on his way to finishing 5th overall. Since then, Thymen has finished 6th in both 2023 and 2024 editions of the Giro d’Italia and DNF in Vuelta a Espana 2023 after a crashing out on stage 7.

With this in mind and his previous Vuelta a Espana success, he’ll be back this year to prove a point.

• CLICK HERE to back Arensman with Sky Bet

Posted at 1250 BST on 15/08/24

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