Next Saturday the third and last grand tour of this season will start in vacation resort Benidorm. No lazing around on the beach for the riders, hard work should be delivered as it starts with a relatively short team time trial. As always, the stages are not long in the Vuelta, but often very vicious. One example is the stage with the arrival on the (in)famous Angliru. Because the change on the calendar (the Vuelta starts one week earlier this year), the Vuelta is now better placed for riders who try to prepare for the World Championships which will be held later in Copenhagen.

velonews.com, 9 September 2011
Maxime Monfort’s great performance so far through this Vuelta a España is being overshadowed by the surprise announcement that his Leopard-Trek squad will merge with RadioShack next season. We caught up with Monfort before the start of Thursday’s stage to gauge his reaction to the news.
Read the interview >>>