Jumbo-Visma have confirmed their eight-man line-up for the 2023 Vuelta a España, with Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič set to ride as co-leaders.
Vingegaard and Roglič have already won the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia this year respectively, and will join forces as the team attempts to achieve an unprecedented clean sweep of all three Grand Tours.
"It is an ambitious goal that we dare to declare and for which we can field a very versatile and strong eight-man squad in Spain”, said sports director Marc Reef on the team’s official website. "We are ready for anything with this team, and I look forward to starting in Barcelona with these riders.”
Reef also confirmed that both their star riders will have equal status as protected riders.
"Vingegaard and Roglič will start the race both as our leaders. Roglic had an excellent preparation with a rest after the Giro and then altitude training followed by the Tour of Burgos. Vingegaard took a break after winning the Tour but then started training again, and the signals we got from him are also very good. The big goal is for one of them to reach Madrid in the red jersey.”
Joining them will be Sepp Kuss, who was a part of the winning line-ups at both the Giro and Tour, as well as all three of Roglič’s previous Vuelta victories in 2021, 2020 and 2019. He’ll again adopt his usual role as climbing super-domestique, and will be relied upon to offer the leaders protection in the mountains along with Wilco Kelderman.
"Both were very important during the Giro and the Tour”, said Reef. "We followed them up well after the Tour. Kuss crashed in the final of the Tour de France, but he recovered quicker than expected. After a period of rest, both Kuss and Kelderman have been able to resume training, and we think they are ready. Their role will be similar to their role in the Tour.”
Dylan van Baarle has also been retained from the Tour de France roster, while Attila Valter, Jan Tratnik and veteran climber Robert Gesink complete what looks like a very strong line-up.
Jumbo-Visma line-up for 2023 Vuelta a España:
- Jonas Vingegaard
- Primož Roglič
- Robert Gesink
- Wilco Kelderman
- Sepp Kuss
- Jan Tratnik
- Attila Valter
- Dylan van Baarle
