La Vuelta 2022: The prospects of Chris Froome, Simon Yates, Hugh Carthy, and the other eight British riders

Updated 18/08/2022 at 15:27 GMT

Former winners Chris Froome and Simon Yates, and the 2020 Giro d’Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart, will be among the British contingent when La Vuelta gets underway in Utrecht on Friday. There are 11 British riders in total for the third and final Grand Tour of the season, including a debut for the versatile Ethan Hayter and a fifth appearance for Hugh Carthy, who finished third in 2020.

Vuelta 2022 route: Climbs galore and the team time trial is back...

Two previous winners, a Giro champion, a podium finisher, five debutants and two Spanish sophomores make up the 11-strong British contingent at the Vuelta a Espana, which gets under way on Friday with a team time trial around the Dutch city of Utrecht.

After a comprehensive stage guide, a focus on the red jersey contenders, and a team guide, the fourth of our previews for the 77th edition of La Vuelta takes a closer look at the form and prospects of all 11 British riders taking to the start of the third and final Grand Tour of the season.

In addition to profiling each of the British riders, Felix Lowe also analyses which of them is most likely to win a stage, don the red jersey, get in the breakaways, post the most top 10 finishes, and – shudder – win the whole thing...

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Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech)

37. Riding eighth Vuelta. Best result: 1st (2011, 2017). 5 stage wins

Besides 2015, when he crashed out, Froome had never finished lower than fourth place since (retrospectively) winning on his Vuelta debut in 2011 – until his lowly 98th in 2020 in what was his first Grand Tour back after a career-threatening injury the previous summer. That year, Froome failed to finish higher than 57th place in any stage – something that seems inconceivable given his palmares.

If last year’s Tour offered little more in terms of highlights, then Froome’s performance in France this July marked a return to form of sorts for the veteran winner of four yellow, two red and one pink jerseys. Froome was undoubtedly far more competitive and came close to a win on Alpe d’Huez the day compatriot Tom Pidcock took the spoils.

Covid ruined his chances of pushing for a top 20 finish overall, and the 37-year-old will be in Spain primarily as a domestique for team-mate Michael Woods. Given his steady rise from the abyss, a stage win in the Grand Tour he enjoys most is not unfeasible.

‘Everything starts again’ – La Vuelta is coming…

Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco)

30. Riding fourth Vuelta. Best result: 1st (2018). 2 stage wins

The biker from Bury hit the big time with victory in the 2018 Vuelta just months after his dramatic collapse in the Giro the day compatriot Froome rode into pink at Bardonnecchia. While he has become a regular stage winner on Grand Tours since, Yates has since struggled to impose himself in the GC battles – his best result being third in the 2020 Giro.

This marks his first appearance in the Vuelta since his 2018 win and comes three months after he was forced out of the Giro with Covid. Victory in the opening time trial in Italy underlined Yates’s fine form, but a crash in Sicily in Stage 4 took the wind out of his sails and he had slumped to 23rd place on GC – despite a lovely solo win in Torino – by the time he withdrew midway through the final week.

Having failed to finish three of his last four Grand Tours, Yates could do with a bit of luck. He has the capacity to be a contender, but illness and injury keep on getting in the way. Without a strong BikeExchange-Jayco team around him, the 30-year-old may be hunting stage wins more than thinking about the red jersey – but that may change if the legs are good and he avoids any trouble.

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Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost)

28. Riding fifth Vuelta. Best result: 3rd (2020). 1 stage win

It would seem highly unlikely, but should you ever want to know what Carthy’s face is like while out clubbing at 4am or in the throes of passion then just rewatch the closing moments of his stunning win on the Angliru back in 2020. That gruelling maiden Grand Tour stage win for Carthy was capped by a place on the final podium in Madrid, but the 28-year-old has failed to kick on from that breakthrough result – with two top 10 finishes in the Giro either side of a troubled return to Spain in 2021.

The Preston pedaleur has not been firing on all cylinders this season but will be ably supported by Colombian duo Rigoberto Uran and Esteban Chaves in Spain. Provided EF Education-EasyPost can limit their losses in the opening TTT and Carthy keeps out of trouble in the flat and potentially windy Dutch stages, he could put in a timely reminder of his class once the race hits the Sierras of Spain.

Hugh Carthy of The United Kingdom and Team EF Pro Cycling on the Angliru in Stage 12 of La Vuelta

Image credit: Getty Images

James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost)

26. Riding first Vuelta

Shaw’s fifth place in the Tour of Slovenia last year caught the eye of Jonathan Vaughters who snapped him up for EF from the British continental outfit Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling. The rider from Nottingham got his WorldTour career off to a solid start with two top 10 finishes in his first race, the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var. He hasn’t pulled up trees since but this will be Shaw’s first chance to impress in a Grand Tour.

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious)

23. Riding second Vuelta. Best result: 44th (2020)

The affable Londoner was one of the revelations of the Tour with some gutsy, opportunistic riding that saw him take a top 10 in Megeve and then finish second behind Mads Pedersen at Saint-Etienne. Wright came close again with a counterattack in the stage to Cahors, one day before placing an impressive eighth in the final TT.

Keep performing like this and that first pro win will surely soon be on the cards. And it could well come in Spain as Wright returns to the Vuelta two years after his debut, where his best result was fourth place at Puebla de Sanabria in Stage 15. Passionate and happy-go-lucky, Wright took a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games TT and then finished ninth in the road race. A win is around the corner.

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers)

27. Riding third Vuelta. Best result: 20th (2019). Giro champion 2020

A year before his breakthrough victory in the 2020 Giro d’Italia, Geoghegan Hart came close to winning back-to-back stages in his second Vuelta appearance. The Hackney-born rider was third in Stage 15 at the Santuario del Acebo on the day Sepp Kuss took the spoils; the next day he finished behind Jakob Fuglsang on the Alto de La Cubilla.

Geoghegan Hart went on to win the Giro on the last day of the race in 2020 before making his Tour de France debut last year. It’s been a tricky year for the flame-haired all-rounder, although he showed glimpses of his potential in the Vuelta a Burgos. This will be his first Grand Tour appearance of the year and it’s likely he will play a super-domestique role for team-mates Richard Carapaz and Pavel Sivakov.

Tao Geoghegan Hart, winner of the 2021 Giro d'Italia

Image credit: Getty Images

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers)

23. Riding first Vuelta

A super talent with 16 pro wins already to his name, Hayter makes his Grand Tour debut off the back of an overall win in the Tour de Pologne. Hayter was denied sprint victories in the Criterium du Dauphine twice by Wout van Aert, and was beaten only by Van Aert and team-mate Filippo Ganna in the time trial – which goes to show just how strong and versatile he is.

Despite a tendency to ride out of position and towards the back of the pack, Hayter has what it takes to signal his arrival to the big time in this Vuelta – especially given the weakened sprint field. With younger – and arguably even more talented – brother Leo having recently signed a pro contract with Ineos, Hayter will be keen to establish himself in the team hierarchy before his sibling is snapping at his heels.

Ethan Hayter celebrates winning the Tour of Poland

Image credit: Getty Images

Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers)

23. Riding first Vuelta

Turner was one of the revelations of Ineos Grenadiers’ excellent spring classics campaign, the rangy rouleur ever-present in the engine room that paved the way for victories for the likes of Michal Kwiatkowski, Magnus Sheffield and Dylan van Baarle.

A superb 11th place in his debut Paris-Roubaix outlined his potential, and although Turner is unproven over three weeks and in the fierce Spanish heat, you sense that he’ll take to it like a duck to water or like an Ineos domestique to the cobbles this spring.

Vuelta 2022 route: Climbs galore and the team time trial is back...

Mark Donovan (Team DSM)

23. Riding second Vuelta. Best finish: 48th (2020)

The Cumbrian cyclist was a regular fixture in breakaways in his debut Vuelta two years ago, clocking up over 500 kilometres off the front of the peloton and coming fourth on the Alto de la Farrapona and fifth on the Alto de la Covatilla on days both won by the Frenchman David Gaudu. A Team Wiggins alumni, Donovan made his Tour debut last year and now rides his first major stage race of the season still in the hunt for that elusive first pro win.

Daniel McLay (Team Arkea-Samsic)

30. Riding first Vuelta

If McLay seems like an old hand now in the peloton that’s because he rode the first of his three Tours way back in 2016, where his best result was third place behind giants Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel in Montauban. Of all his 10 pro wins, his second – in the GP de Denain in 2016 – remains his most famous on account of his blistering return from distanced, McLay needing to weave through bodies while accelerating past his rivals like a heat-seeking missile to the line.

Yet to try his hand in the Giro and Vuelta, McLay will hope his versatility and staying power will put him in the frame for a first Grand Tour stage win. Out of contact at the end of the season, the 30-year-old could also do with catching the eye of a suitor.

Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ)

22. Riding first Vuelta

A one-day specialist with a fast finish, Stewart picked up his first pro win in the opening stage of the Tour de l’Ain earlier this month and is now making his Grand Tour debut. Stewart has been at the French Groupama-FDJ team since turning pro in 2020 after two years on their development team. He has twice topped the youth classification in short French stage races this year after a breakthrough runner-up spot in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2021.

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Quick-fire round regarding the British prospects

Most likely to win a stage: It’s a tough choice between Ethan Hayter and Simon Yates but we’ll go for the Ineos Grenadiers rider because the sprint field is demonstrably weaker than the stacked climbing roster.

Most likely to win the whole thing: With the likes of Primoz Roglic and Richard Carapaz on the startlist, a British rider in red come Madrid would be a minor miracle. But Simon Yates has done it before and has the skill set to do it again provided things go his way – and against others far ahead of him in the pecking order.

Most likely to don the red jersey at some point: Given Ineos Grenadiers’ strength in the opening team time trial, plus the bonus seconds available for the subsequent sprints, Ethan Hayter could feasibly be in red when the race arrives in Spain after the weekend.

Rider we’ll see most in the breakaways: Provided he maintains his form from the Tour, Fred Wright is bound to be a fixture in breakaways – although Mark Donovan may get more leeway for Team DSM given the GC options of Wright’s Bahrain Victorious team.

Rider with the most top 10 finishes: In other words – will Ethan Hayter perform better in the flat and punchy stages than Simon Yates in the mountains? Let’s go with Hayter – although Yates’ experience may be the clincher.

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