INLSA

The 66th Tour of Spain offers an opportunity for some of the world's leading riders to make amends for crashes during the Tour de France.

Berlin – The 66th Tour of Spain which begins Saturday offers an opportunity for some of the world's leading riders to make amends for crashes during the Tour de France.

Many of the world's best sprinters also see the Vuelta as a chance to shine despite a demanding course with 10 mountain stages and six summit finishes.

It is seen as the ideal tune-up for the world championship road race in Copenhagen from September 19 to 25.

The tour, which returns to the Basque country for the first time in 33 years and ends in Madrid on September 11, gets underway in Benidorm with a team time trial.

The threat of terrorist action had kept the race away from the Basque region for more than three decades. It now returns and includes what could be a decisive stage 20 from Bilbao, the Basque region's biggest city, to Vitoria, its capital.

In all, the Vuelta comprises 21 stages covering a distance of 3,300 kilometres Germany's Andreas Kloeden, Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Belgium and Britain's Bradley Wiggins had gone into the Tour de France with high hopes but never made it to the finish in Paris.

This year's hard training work should now at least find an outlet in Spain even if the title is likely to prove beyond them.

This year's Tour de France winner Cadel Evans of Australia and Giro champion Alberto Contador are both absent, leaving double Vuelta winner Denis Menchov of Russia, last year's winner Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez among the favourites.

Contador had announced after losing his Tour de France crown to Evans that he wanted to rest. Evans had originally planned to race in Spain but then felt he would not have enough time to recover from the Tour given the earlier start of the Vuelta this year

Sprinters Mark Cavendish of Britain, world champions Tom Boonen and Oscar Freire as well as the likes of Alessandro Petacchi, Daniele Bennati and the German youngsters Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb will be looking forward to the flat stages. – Sapa-dpa