Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team (Spain) – Appointment for the 72nd edition of the Vuelta saturday 19th in Nimes, a lovely town in the Southern France. After the French take off, the race will cross several Spanish regions to end up in the capital Madrid on September 10th.

Twenty-one stages for a total distance of 3,324 kilometers. The Vuelta2017 is also five mountain stages, one individual time trial (40 k) and a team time trial, the first stage, of more than 13 k. As the Vuelta tradition wants, there will be many climbs (around 50) with the difficult arrival of Sierra Nevada and the terrible one , the penultimate stage, of the Alto de Angliru with an average slope of 9.8% and a maximum of 23%!

“I’ve worked hard and I’m ready for this new challenge – says Vincenzo Nibali, Vuelta’s winner in 2010 and second in 2013 – the route is very demanding but overall I like it“.

“Competition is really strong – continues the Italian rider – and seeing the ranking minimum gaps of Giro d’Italia and Tour de France you can not be distracted even for a moment. So many climbs, but also Navarra Circuit’s time trial with more of 40 kilometers can be decisive”.

For Sports Director Paolo Slongo: “It’s the usual Vuelta with so many long e steep climbs and so much ground to attack. We are well prepared and we come from a good Tour de Pologne where Vincenzo and the team have given good signals. Unfortunately, it’s not the team we imagined with the absence of strong riders such as Izagirre, Navardauskas and Sioutsou, but this has allowed us to bring in two interesting young boys like Domen Novak and Antonio Nibali. For them it will be a great experience”.

Lineup for Vuelta a España : Valerio Agnoli, Manuele Boaro, Ivan Cortina, Javier Moreno, Antonio Nibali, Vincenzo Nibali, Domen Novak, Franco Pellizotti and Giovanni Visconti.