Big names all set for 2016 Vuelta de Espana

The 2016 Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycling race will start on Saturday with a team time trial starting in the Galician city of Ourense in north-west Spain lifting the curtain on three weeks of top class cycling.

Although last year's winner, Fabio Aru is not on hand to defend his title, the 2016 Vuelta sees riders such as three-times Tour de France winner Chris Froome, take the start along with Colombian climber, Nairo Quintana and local favorites such as Alejandro Valverde, Samuel Sanchez and Alberto Contador.

Valverde is competing in his third grand tour of the year after already riding brilliantly in the Giro de Italia and the Tour, while it will be interesting to see if Froome and Quintana's legs will allow them to challenge in a race which contains a frightening 12 mountain stages, a team time trial, a 37-kilometer time trial and just seven flat stages for sprinters to compete for.

Contador crashed out of the Tour in the early stages of this year's race and if he has been able to recover his fitness his relative freshness should mean he has an advantage over Froome, who as well as riding the Tour has just returned from the grueling road race and time trial in the Rio Olympic Games.

Quintana, who finished third in the Tour, also missed Rio because of illness and he will be hoping Spain's sharp mountains will help his explosive climbing style.

Meanwhile the extremes of temperature which could bring rain in the mountain stages across Asturias and the Basque Region and temperatures of around 35 degrees when the race hits the south pose further problems for the peloton in a race which may come close to the end of the season, but which promises excitement on virtually every stage. Endit