Two years ago, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) made his debut at the Vuelta a España, and needed only two days to earn the red leader's jersey. It was a short spell before he then relinquished the lead another two days later, though he came away with a haul of seven podiums, including a trio of stage victories.
Stage success was again a main objective for the 31-year-old Belgian, who makes his first Grand Tour start of this season. The squad will not have defending Vuelta champion Jonas Vingegaard at the start, due to recovery from a broken collarbone suffered at the Tour de France, so will lean heavily on Van Aert, young Briton Matthew Brennan and former race winner Sepp Kuss to seek daily opportunities.
The first day of racing has visions of the maillot rojo dancing in Van Aert's head, but he said in a press conference Thursday it was just an opportunity and not a priority.
Latest Videos FromCyclingnews
"Saturday was a focus I had in the last weeks, and we'll see how that unfolds," he said about stage 1 starting in Monaco with a 9.4-kilometre race against the clock.
"Well, I did a bit more training leading to this race. Because there's something to win, the time trial itself. But also it might be an opportunity to be still close in GC for the day after."
Van Aert missed the Tour de France this year due to a training crash in June when he injured his elbow. Before that, he rode only a team time trial at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, which Visma won, and a TT early in the season at Tirreno-Adriatico. He returned to action at the Tour of Denmark three weeks ago, winning a trio of stages and the overall, though the five-day stage race did not have a time trial, so he had to deal with a delay in preparations for this ITT.
"It's been a long summer, a very different summer for me, and it's nice to come back to the Vuelta. I had to wait in the end pretty long to ride on a TT bike. But then after the Tour of Denmark, I could do the training how I wanted," he told the media assembled in Monaco, including Cyclingnews.
"I did the recon of the course yesterday morning. I tried to do it in traffic, had a little bit of a look. Honestly, I think it's a bit too technical. The last part they went, in my opinion, a bit over the limit of what you can do on a time trial bike. So it will be interesting to see how that goes.
"But in general, it's an amazing setting here in Monaco with all the buildings around and the coastline. So that will be for sure very special to race between them."
The busy, twisting streets of Monaco hosted a time trial for the Tour de France back in 2009, and this version of the course is 6km shorter. Borrowing from the route used for the famous Formula 1 circuit, Van Aert knows there are many corners and punchy climbs.
"We go pretty quickly into the mountains, stage three, four, so we don't have a long time to take the jersey. But with the time trial and stage two, there should be quite good opportunities for me. I hope to be close, and it definitely would be a dream to wear it [leader's jersey] again," he said.
"I like this race, I'm really motivated, and yeah, I'm really happy we get close to the start now.
"I think it's clear we are here with more of a team for stages than for a clear GC goal, so that's obviously a bit different than usual. I'm a versatile rider, and on this course, I should have a lot of opportunities."
For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You'll get comprehensive race coverage of La Vuelta a España, subscriber-exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.
