Five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain visited the 2023 Vuelta a España on Tuesday saying the race 'has barely begun'. With major stages in the Pyrenees and northern Spain still awaiting the riders, Indurain warned that the biggest days of the race are all yet to come.
Spain's greatest-ever athlete's visit was low key, and he spent time chatting with riders and old teammates in the start area of the Valladolid time trial and wandering around by himself from one bus to another.
Indurain also had time to analyse the current GC situation in the Vuelta, telling Cyclingnews: "The Vuelta really starts here."
"The race has been complicated up to now, but not much has been decided in the first week.
"Today's time trial result will have its effect, of course, but today if there's not much wind, it's not going to make much difference. Tourmalet [stage 13] the Col de Larrau [stage 14] and the mountains of Asturias, [stages 17 and 18]: these will decide the Vuelta."
Asked if the race would not be over until the Angliru, Indurain warned that the Pyrenees could well be where a definitive candidate for overall victory really emerged.
"The Tourmalet and Larrau are much complicated, bigger, longer climbs than anything we've seen up to now. So it's only after the time trial that we'll see the real battle start."
The winner of a time trial in the Tour de l'Avenir in Valladolid in 1986 - which he then went on to capture outright - Valladolid was also where Indurain took fourth in the opening prologue of the 1986 Vuelta, his first Grand Tour.
Aged 20, Indurain then moved into the top spot overall a few days later, and until last week when an even more youthful Lenny Martinez took la roja in Javalambre, for nearly four decades, Indurain remained the youngest ever leader of the Vuelta.
As for whether he minded losing his record, Indurain responded with a typically good-natured grin, "Not at all. Records are there to be beaten."
While hugely impressed with Remco Evenepoel and rating his chances for a repeat triumph, Indurain argued that Jumbo-Visma collectively represented the best option for victory in the Vuelta, saying that of the trio of leaders, "any one of them could win."
"Jumbo have a great team, they've got so many top names for all kinds of terrain. Vingegaard is under no pressure and if he doesn't do it [win the Vuelta], he's already got the Tour in his books for this year. With Roglič and Kuss at his side, he can afford to take it easy and if he's in good shape, he can beat everybody and win."
As for Sepp Kuss, Indurain also said that the American was a favourite, but warned that "he can't afford to lose his focus. He needs to stay sharp in that area."
"One thing's certain: when you're in form, you, have to make the most of it to the absolute maximum."
Speaking before Filippo Ganna won the Valladolid time trial, but, in any case, looking at the overall battle, Indurain concluded, "Just look at Ineos."
"They brought their top team here and made a big effort to prepare for the overall classification, but through no fault of their own they've been out of luck and things have gone wrong. So whenever things are looking good for you, you can't let those chances go by."
