Saxo-Tinkoff with four options for Vuelta's GC battle

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Having sacrificed his own chances to help Alberto Contador to fourth at this year's Tour de France. Roman Kreuziger will lead the Saxo-Tinkoff team at the Vuelta a España this month.

The Czech rider has had a solid first season with the Danish outfit, having left Astana at the end of 2012, finishing fifth at the Tour, winning Amstel Gold Race, being third overall at the Tour de Suisse and also closing out the podium at last month's Clasica San Sebastian.

Saxo-Tinkoff sports director Tristan Hoffman said he believes the team has more options than just Kreuziger.

"We are entering this year's Vuelta a España with a very strong and versatile team, which will give us quite some cards to play throughout the three weeks of racing," he explained. "Therefore we are also focusing on finishing the race with one of our riders well inside the top-ten, and if things play into our hands maybe even having two of our riders up there. With this group of riders I definitely believe it is possible, even though we know the competition will be fierce.

"In Roman, Nicolas [Roche], Rafal [Majka] and Chris [Anker Sørensen] we have four potential GC riders, with three of them having top-ten finishes in Grand Tours before and Chris finishing just outside a couple of times. They all feel strong before the race, and this naturally gives us some great possibilities in hand."

Majka led the team at the Giro d'Italia, the young Polish rider impressing with his seventh overall and more recently took fourth at the Tour of Poland. Last year at the Vuelta, Majka finished 32nd overall while riding at the service of Contador,

Anker Sørensen will be riding his first grand tour of the year having missed out on the Tour de France after a bout of stomach flu.

This year's Vuelta a España begins with a team time trial from Vilanova de Arousa to Sanxenxo on Saturday August 24th.

Contador will not be defending his 2012 title, resting before focusing on the 2014 Tour de France.

The full Saxo-Tinkoff team for the Vuelta: Roman Kreuziger, Chris Anker Sørensen, Nicki Sørensen, Michael Mørkøv, Nicolas Roche, Matteo Tosatto, Rafal Majka, Evgeny Petrov, Oliver Zaugg.