Well after years in development the day of reckoning is finally here as 23 year old Justo Tenorio and 24 year old Angel Madrazo join forces to wreak havoc across this Spanish grand tour. Looking at last years results it may seem surprising that it seems likely that Madrazo will be team leader here. But as we know Madrazo has the potential to be one of the most feared climbers around.

Last year the duo raced on loan for protour teams Festina and Lafarge. Madrazo was used in last years Vuelta as a luxury domestique for Contador whereas Tenorio led the now defunct and then struggling Lafarge outfit. Tenorio has been in action this year and looked impressive when 3rd to Tour bound Pluchkin and Uran in Oman but less so recently in California. Perhaps the prospect of playing second fiddle to the man he beat in last years Tour de L'Avenir has dropped his morale?

The duo have brilliant climbing backup in the experienced Lopez Garcia, Arroyo and Gonzalo as well as another useful youngster in Valls. Erviti is here to relieve Tenorio and Madrazo from too much time trialling on stage 9, whilst Del Nero and Allonca are here no doubt to lead the first part of any chase.

The seemingly cursed Festina squad will no doubt come here expecting the worst, but in reality you would have to think that Contador has at least a strong chance of making the podium. Of course no-one can compare with the supplies of the Santander squad but in Jose Serpa and decent enough climbers Morabito and Dees, Festina surely have enough to do something decent in the Vuelta.

But for whatever reason Contador seems to be stuck in a inferiority syndrome where he rarely is able to muster the strength to beat his peers. Alberto has yet to register a stage win or even a grand tour podium and now he has reached 30 years of age surely his ambitions are higher than stage wins at places like Romandie.

Festina have always looked hard into the tactical element of a race, here they bring three TT specialist in Bernaudeau, Goddaert and Navardauskas. Meanwhile sprinter/rouler Holloway should be useful and American will look to continue to develop into a superstar sprinter. A stage winner in the Vuelta last year Rafael Rodriguez Segarra gives the team some extra local knowledge, it has the look of a team that is here to compete.

The defending champion Valverde maybe a bit of a mercenery but few can deny that the rider has not had his share of success. The only previous Vuelta winner in the field he knows how to survive (and importantly stay on his bike) to win the race. The 'unbeatable' proved unbreakable in what was a mountainous profile last year when riding for Cafe de Colombia. When it comes to his team however it is difficult to see, team time trial excepted, how he can rely too heavily on them.

Mark Cavendish will clearly have his own ambitions having moved away from an underachieving year at 100% Me, the Brit has been fairly quiet up to now. Will he be around too much in the latter half of this race, probably not. Marc De Maar and Kevin De Weert should keep Valverde company to the finish of the race and are his best climbing support. Ma, Mouris and Hacecky just need to keep their strength for stage 9, David Kopp is here perhaps as leadout support for Cavendish whereas Stoltz is a rare development project by the team manager.

With little support one bad day will likely be all it takes to hurt Valverde, the Spaniard knows though if he can keep in touch his final kick is devstating so Valv.Piti cannot be ruled out.

The feeling that last year was the big chance for 26 year old Intxuasti, but arguably last years performance where he spent a large portion of the race in the lead was better than his surprising second place to Andy Schleck in 2010. The Basque rider loves the long climbs and has a good catalogue of Grand Tour experiences now behind him.

It's a fine back up squad with Iglinski, Samwel, Kvasina and Claerebont to support him on the climbs and some time trialling back up in Ford, Kittel and Stundzia. Vesuvio as ever will be hunting a high finish, Intxausti possibly their best hope of picking up a grand tour win they will be going all out. Has looked as good as Contador on the climbs all season he will be on Santander's card as a threat.

Having twice reached the podium in 2007 and 2010, Gomez Marchante decided to concentrate on the Tour de France last year. It didn't really work out for the much travelled Spanish climber, and this year he has slotted in with one of the few young Spanish climbers to miss the Santander radar in Florentino Marquez at UBS. The duo will look to crack the top ten and with Gomez Marchante's experience they could even surprise.

It's a decent squad with good climbing support from Riblon, Frei and Zahner and rolling support from Chtioui, Champion and Stalder. Argentine sprinter Richeze gets a go at a Grand Tour, though he has not been able to figure in ProTour sprints so far, he knows usually how to survive climbs and will be in the hunt.

This could be an important race for UBS, a successful one with a few stage wins and a couple of high GC finishes could keep them in a mid table position. Gomez Marchante showed in Oman he can live with the favourites when he came 5th in decent company, but equally struggled to establish himself more recently in Catalunya finishing 9th. It could go either way for him here in the Vuelta

Whilst it's the next big Grand Tour that we all know Cafe de Colombia is aiming for, hopes will be high that they can land a decent result here through David Abal. The young Spaniard was allowed to slip away from his loan period at Santander, giving them experience last year of carrying a team leader around the course. The then 25 year old finished 5th and won stage 18 which was seen as a pretty good debut for Santander.

There are question marks about Abal's ability to improve on that showing however and as a pretty ordinary 10th place at the Volta a Catalunya attests he has the capability of simply riding with the others. He will need to separate from the crowd if he is to go further up the standings. Four Colombians make up the the nine man squad, sprinter Castaneda will look to upset the big sprinting favourites, whereas youngsters Sarmiento and Rodriguez Parra like Irishman Sam Bennett are here for experience. Alex Ardilo Cano and Spanish veteren Perez Sanchez will offer Abal support in mountains. As will TT superstar Michael Rogers, who could fancy a crack at an early tilt in the res jersey himself.

The final name worth mentioning is Giro sensation Banos Ballester who took advantage of Cafe de Colombia's late re-entry into the Giro with a stunning batch of stage wins.

A bit like UBS you feel as if Cafe de Colombia really need to start getting some points on the board as we move through the months and races run out. The Colombians are pereliously allowing a big gap to appear ahead of them in the team standings, a stint in red, some stage wins and a good solid showing from Abal is the order of the day before the Tour de France build up.

When it comes to the Vuelta Ruben Plaza has those solid dependable characteristics which has given him two podiums in 2009 and 2010 and a 4th place finish in 2011. There is nothing that fancy about Plaza's climbing which tends to be more grinding than anything else but he seems to know his limits and rarely blows up. These sorts of qualities make him consistent enough to keep high on GC without threatening the big favourites. He is also a very solid TTer which means the lack of ITT in this years edition is to his detriment.

Looking at the squad Jack Wolfskin have brought here, it seems to acknowledged the alteration on time trialling and they have gone all in on the big long team time trial. Cornu, Posthuma, Donald, Vandewalle, De Kort, Vaugranard, Rosseler and Van Winden have been enticed to come along and as long as they survive the southern mountains are going to be pretty much unstoppable come stage nine. Who knows Plaza could be in Red when we hit the Pyrenees.

Plaza will at least need that support of having the jersey because once the high climbs hit in the second week he is on his own. It's a bold plan from Jack Wolfskin, which could be a masterstroke or could blow spectacularly in their faces.

Italian climber Emanuele Sella is one of the best climbers in the world and with Cunego spreading his wings to try out the Tour de France this year it is concievable that there could be an Italian winning all three grand tours! Sella has won outside of Italy before do at the 2010 Tour de Suisse and the 2011 Paris Nice.

The Italian has excellent back up in the mountains with the likes of the expereinced Camano and Danielson with the useful talents of Rodrigues who did well in the recent California race. Thomas Bontenackets and Gregor Gazvoda should ensure the team time trial is not a complete disaster with Avelino hoping to strike in the sprints particularly early on in Portugal.

It's always a longshot to win either the Giro or Vuelta as a foriegner as Sella well knows in the Italy, the profile of this Vuelta suits the Italian right down to the ground however with its lack of ITT kilometres. This is clearly the key part of Webeffects season and the lingering memories of the recent Giro should spur them on.

Wiggle have a bit of an Eastern European feel with on loan T.CS Bank men Kritskiy and Kunshin key lieutenants for Popovich. The Ukrainian had a storming Tour de France last year and this time has entered the Vuelta perhaps as preparation for that. That podium was a breakthrough for 'Popo' but found himself up for sale by a Carmuese manager looking for a younger model.

It's a strong back up squad from Wiggle with riders waiting to animate in the mountains with Bibby, Scarponi and Costagli awaiting the mountains. Tom Diggle had a good run in the King of the Mountains jersey in California and is probably the breakaway hope. Matt Rowe will try his luck at the sprints with Bileka a possible lead out rider.

With so many Spanish leaders it could be hard for Popovich to hold on to a high finish, he has support though so could still sneak a good top ten place.

Pearl Adidas are having a great season and prospects loock very good for the future too with Machado being one of two new stage racers they are hoping can step up to the plate. Machado has all the tools the problem I guess for the Portuguese rider is that he is up against a lot of Spanish riders.

Panayotv, Kangert, Samoilev and Rodriguez support Machado for the climbs with some really decent roulers in Walker, Leezer, Bertou and Mendes also. Any one of them could do well in a break so Pearl Adidas will hope they attack as well as defend Machado.
Them being one of the form teams you feel that Machado will surely crack a top ten perhaps taking one or two Spanish scalps along the way.

It's another more than decent climbing squad here and Nestle will be interested to see what their 25 year old Austrian climber can do on the Vuelta's climbs. A top ten is a realistic target for Denifl who has Maillet, Duran, Delgado, Du Luca and Loosli all here as support,. It'll be interesting to see whether that multipronged climber approach works.

South African sprinter Hoffman can survive climbs pretty well and may be one of those still around in the last week to give the flat stages a whirl, early on in the race Kupfernagel and sole chrono specialist Gretsch will be around to give the team a hand.

After team leader Tom Boonan's success in the cobbles this team seems to gain energy from that, if so Denifl may just surprise a few.

Protour champions surprised here last year when Trofimov landed a battling 6th place, though Sony are hardly known as a Grand Tour GC team. Still they like to have at least one guy with a shot at the top ten and Pedraza represents South America's best chance of matching Rujano's podium of last year. The Colombian hacked his way round to 15th at the Tour last year but he may prefer the succession of mountain top finishes here.

Still it is going to be a long shot of making a high top ten, thought from this sqaud may be more toward doing something against the clock on stage 9. Sebastian Lang, Danacik, Johansson, Renang, Wetterhall, Pauwels and Meyer all are pretty good against the clock. They have also got a sprinter, though Grillo's inability to strike in his home tour hardly shouts him out as a favourite there.

A second top ten would be a massive success Sony with a rider like Pedraza who will only have Pauwels and Danacik to rely on in the mountains.

Fifth in 2009, Denis Menchov brings Protour newcomers to the Vuelta with a leader to rally around, unfortunately as shown in the Giro the Russian does not have the legs to survive with the younger climbers these days. Still it is a decent back up squad that could easily take advantage of any crashes that may happen to deliver Denis to a decent result, but more likely the only chance of a win is if Menchov goes on a rare attack.

Siutsou, Faiers and Ji are decent back-up riders, Ji and Faiers may well be able to progress in the future. British chrono men Wiggins, Cummings and Millar will be looking forward to the team test where perhaps a podium is realistic. Irishman Deignan and Frenchman Lagdagnous look like classic breakaway men.

GC chances look bleak for Pendleton's but this may be the team that can profit hugely from breakaways.

Not every team can have a GC candidate and whilst Solis is a decent mountain man he often loses time on the flat so will be looking for a moment in the mountains to shine. The attention for this team is really on whether Roelandts can retain his points jersey and add to the two stage he won last year. Certainly his form in California suggest that the Belgian is in the mood with Weylandt added to Caethoven and Aulas in the sprint train, it could be tough for the other fast men to get a look in.

Other riders like Kneisky, Vandousselaere, Curfs and Gallopin are here for the experience.

Terciado and Pardilla will probably look for something long range, though the succession of mountain top finishes are not really the best hope for doing that. It is Michael Van Stayen who demands attention though after two stage wins at last years tour ahead of Boonen and Bennati he is definately capable of taking some sprint in the Vuelta. The Belgian climbs pretty well too, mind you his only lead out guy Abakoumov is a bit suspect at getting over the mountains so come the pyrenees he may be on his own.

The others in the squad will look to loot the breakaways on the right days, a stage win is a realistic goal most likely though Van Stayen.

A little like the Giro, there will be no apologies from Wikipedia that there are here for the sprints alone. Mai, Sprick and Barton will test themselves over the climbs but it is South African strongman Van Heerden who is the lead. He has a super lead-out in Farrar, which he seemed to lack a comprehensive rider for that in earlier races. Van Heerden is a bit suspect on the mountains after riding around the more lowlanded races in the CTour the last couple of years. Certainly though until the Pyrenees at least you'd expect Wikipedia to be looking for a sprint win.

A bit of a collection of all sorts from the Milka crew, with Coppel looking to challenge the best chrono men on the opening day possibly being the biggest target. Elsewhere there is a triple sprint threat through Forero, Vanderaerden and Hutarovich, a decent team time trial squad and a top 20 GC hope in Rohregger.

It though may well come down to whether Coppel wins the opening day, if not it could be a long tour, if so that could give the team a boost to go for breakaways again and again.

May bleat on about Nico Keinath as a GC threat but on this type of profile the German's hopes look very remote indeed and a place inside the top twenty would be a triumph. This teams best hopes may well lie on stage 9 like a few others in the team time test. There is no big leader to the time trial squad but with 8 similarly match riders (Sagan is the exception) they may surprise a few.

Will hope to slot into as many breakaways as possible before the final week starts. Could be down to just a few riders in Madrid.

It is rare to see a team purely about experience and breakaways but here is such a team, Reimer, Bak and Weiss will be dangerous if they can infiltrate a break that lasts the distance. Pecharroman is probably the one that will try and get away on the harder mountain stages. Any points gained (other than for finishing) in this race will be a bonus for Spyker.

With four Spanish veterans this is a team for the romantics and it may well be that one of them could land one last win to talk to their grandkids about. All nine riders could well get round the course including Kiwi youngsters Jesse Sergent who should make great leaps in his development being here. It's coming up to Warner Brothers big moment of the season the Tour de France defence some of the riders who de well here could well appear there too.