Green jersey – points classification
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Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde will make another attempt to topple Chris Froome at the Vuelta a Espana (Pic: Sirotti)
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Nairo Quintana will bid for the red jersey after crashing badly while race leader last time out (Pic: Sirotti)
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John Degenkolb bagged four stage wins on his way to winning the Vuelta's green jersey in 2014 (Pic: Sirotti)
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Luis Leon Sanchez, last year's Vuelta King of the Mountains, is likely to have domestique commitments this time out (Pic: Sirotti)
Green jersey – points classification
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won back-to-back green jerseys in 2012 and 2013, but John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) denied him a hat-trick last year.
And the two will resume hostilities this year, with Degenkolb bidding to add to his nine career stage wins at the Vuelta. He will face stiff competition from Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), however, with both men keen to rack up the stage wins after missing out at the Tour de France.
Sagan has held a monopoly on the green jersey at the Tour thanks to his incredible versatility and consistency, but Valverde and Degenkolb also have the attributes to succeed at the Vuelta, particularly given Valverde’s uphill kick and the propensity for the race organisers to make the road rise in sight of the finish line.
Another sprinter, and former Grand Tour points classification winner, with a point to prove is Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), who wasn’t a force at the Tour de France as a result of the injury he picked up at the French nationals. For him to win the green jersey, however, he would have to do it by winning plenty of stages, rather than racking up points with the consistency of Sagan, Degenkolb and Valverde – not impossible but improbable.