The third and final Grand Tour of the men’s cycling season, La Vuelta a España, rolls out of Barcelona on Saturday August 26, and in this XL race preview we look ahead to what we are already calling “El Clásico”.

After the usual weekly news round-up, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie first examine the route, then the riders and particularly the favourites for overall glory in Madrid. To help them, they enlist one of the voices of Belgian cycling, commentator Renaat Schotte, our resident great Dane, Brian Nygaard, and Eurosport’s eyes on the ground in Spain, Laura Meseguer.

We also hear from the Motown Maestro, Larry Warbasse, who’ll be lining up in Barcelona for his AG2r-Citroën team, plus there’s a trip down TCP memory lane, through our own daily coverage of the Vuelta since 2016.

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S11 Ep109: The XL 2023 Vuelta Preview