These Vuelta a España riders start with question marks — making them risks or opportunities for your fantasy team

The Vuelta a España is about to get underway. Traditionally, the third Grand Tour of the year is a race where emerging talents make their breakthrough, but it is also often the point in the season when three weeks of racing simply proves one challenge too many for certain riders. Once again this year, several major names will line up with significant question marks hanging over them.

The most famous of them all is Primož Roglič, the four-time winner representing Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Roglič was struck by a car during an altitude training camp several weeks ago and, judging by the noises coming from within his team, his participation was uncertain for quite some time. True to character, Roglič himself made little effort to raise expectations ahead of the start. For more background on his disrupted preparation.

“Instead of preparing, I was rehabilitating,” Roglič summed up succinctly at Thursday's press conference. “Three weeks ago, putting on my socks was the hardest thing. I still can't lie on my right side, but I'm fit enough to start the Vuelta.” The biggest issue is a large hematoma around his right thigh and hamstring area.

At UAE Emirates-XRG, the attention will obviously be focused on Tadej Pogačar, but in his shadow João Almeida — second overall last year — had also been hoping to put together a strong Vuelta. The Portuguese rider spent a lengthy spell on the sidelines this season with a virus, the precise details of which he has preferred not to disclose, and missed the Giro d'Italia. He did, however, return to racing at the Tour de Pologne.

A crash there brought his final Vuelta preparation to an abrupt end. “It's been a complicated year,” Almeida said, with some understatement. “I'm coming into this feeling good, but with little self-confidence. I'm here to help Tadej win what he's still missing. If I can get a good result after that... all the better.” It makes Almeida an intriguing fantasy pick: his pedigree is unquestionable, but his recent racing rhythm and confidence are far less certain.

Mikel Landa is another rider who has endured a year to forget. The Basque climber crashed heavily on home roads in April and has never really rediscovered his best sensations since. “This is my most uncertain Vuelta so far. I've had a bad year, after a long injury that I still haven't fully recovered from. I'm going to try to get through the first week and then we'll see what goals I can set myself,” he explained. His struggles to rediscover top form have already been apparent in his pre-Vuelta racing.

His fellow Basque Pello Bilbao is also not arriving in peak condition, according to his Bahrain Victorious team. Bilbao will not chase the general classification in his final Vuelta, but hopes to become competitive enough during the second and third weeks to challenge for a stage victory. Doing so would complete his personal trilogy of stage wins across all three Grand Tours before he brings his professional career to an end.

A slightly younger Spaniard, Carlos Rodríguez of Netcompany INEOS, has hardly enjoyed a vintage season either. Still only 25, Rodríguez finished third in the Tour de France three years ago, yet was not selected for that race this season. At this Vuelta, he will have the opportunity to rebuild in the shadow of Oscar Onley and could potentially receive freedom to hunt individual stage wins as well. One factor in his favour is that the decisive part of the race takes place largely in Andalusia, his home region, where familiarity with the terrain could give him extra motivation.

Moving on to the sprinters, Kaden Groves has been battling setbacks throughout the year. The sprinter, who is set to leave Alpecin-Premier Tech, missed the spring after suffering an injury and then had to abandon the Giro fairly early following a crash. Last weekend, he returned to competition at the Cyclassics Hamburg but managed only 100th place — hardly the kind of result you would normally associate with a rider of his calibre. That makes him one of the more difficult riders to assess for fantasy managers: his proven Grand Tour finishing speed is attractive, but his current level remains unclear.

Eddie Dunbar won two mountain stages at the Vuelta only two years ago, but things have not exactly clicked since his move to Pinarello-Q36.5. There is a very clear reason for that. Earlier this year, Dunbar was hit by a motorcycle while walking in his adopted home of Monaco, suffering a serious ankle injury. Like in 2024, the Irishman is hoping to build his condition over the course of the race and reach his best level in the final week. If that happens, he could become increasingly dangerous from breakaways as others begin to fade.

At the Vuelta a Burgos, two more Australians with considerable potential — Luke Tuckwell of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Jay Vine of UAE Emirates-XRG — abandoned the race. Tuckwell later addressed his situation through his team's channels. “There are so many unknown factors going into a first Grand Tour that I don't want to attach a specific result to it. My goal is to reach the finish, learn as much as possible and be a good teammate whenever the team needs me.” For a 21-year-old making his Grand Tour debut, expectations therefore need to be tempered despite the impressive results he has already produced this season.

Vine, meanwhile, has kept relatively quiet, but we do know that one of his biggest objectives of 2026 is becoming time trial world champion in Montreal. With that in mind, he is certainly worth noting for the long individual time trial in the third week. Stage 4, finishing in his adopted home of Andorra, has also caught his attention. Given everything the Vine family has been through following his repeated crashes in recent seasons, a successful Vuelta would carry extra significance — and if his condition improves as the race progresses, he remains one of the most dangerous stage hunters in the field.

Several Belgians have also suffered setbacks in recent weeks. Jarno Widar fell ill during the Vuelta a Burgos but nevertheless starts as Lotto-Intermarché's leader, with ambitions of fighting for stage victories. Thibau Nys has likewise endured a 2026 season filled with bad luck for Lidl-Trek, but his team believes he is ready to begin the race. “In fact, my latest training rides have really surprised me with how good my condition is,” Nys said. That makes him an especially interesting wildcard: the racing evidence is limited, but his own training feedback suggests there may be considerably more to come.

Cian Uijtdebroeks, however, begins the Vuelta with more doubts for Movistar, as he acknowledged to Sporza. The Belgian was forced to abandon the Tour de France because of illness. “I spent a week in bed and when I wanted to start again gently, my body initially wasn't cooperating. Having to leave the Tour so early after all the sacrifices took a lot out of me mentally. I just want to enjoy racing for three weeks and really race. If that also leads to a nice general classification result, or if I can target a stage, that would be really nice.” His ambitions are therefore deliberately open-ended, but that freedom could make him either a risky selection or a potentially valuable bargain if his condition improves during the race.