Video: Top 5 riders to watch at the Tour of Oman

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Alejandro Valverde gets the win up Willunga Hill (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) at the Dubai Tour. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Tejay van Garderen (BMC) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Rigoberto Uran will tackle the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 2015. (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

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Leopold Konig makes the step up to WorldTour level with Team Sky. (Image credit: Team Sky)

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The 2015 Tour of Oman race route (Image credit: ASO)

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Alejandro Valverde wins (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

The sixth edition of the Tour of Oman (2.HC) starts Tuesday with a field packed full of Grand Tour contenders and general classification hopefuls.

Grand Tour contenders face off at the Tour of Oman

Team Sky's Chris Froome, who won the race in 2013 and 2014, has chosen to face off this year with Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) in the Vuelta a Andalucia instead of trying for his third successive win in Oman, leaving a run for the race's red leader's jersey wide open. And there is no shortage of riders ready to make a run at the overall.

The 18-team field features 13 WorldTour teams, including Astana, BMC, Tinkoff-Saxo, Team Katusha, Movistar, FDJ, Trek Factory racing, Team Sky, Giant-Alpecin, Etixx-QuickStep, Lampre-Merida, Orica-GreenEdge and IAM Cycling. In the video below, Cyclingnews' Sadhbh O'Shea handicaps the top riders to watch.

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Sadhbh O'Shea

Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.