Blazin' Saddles: Vuelta ups the ante once again

Oh, to be the third Grand Tour. You can sit back and take in what your rivals produce and then – bang – trump them both by raising the bar that little bit further.

All eyes may be on a little race involving myriad Australians and a spattering of weary-legged stars of the calibre of world champion Peter Sagan, but the main news of the week came from Spain with the announcement of the 2017 Vuelta route.

Just four days before the season's curtain raiser of the Tour Down Under, the sport's third Grand Tour stole some of the Australian limelight (as if they haven't got enough sunshine this time of year, anyway) by unveiling a course heavy on brutal climbs and long transfers.

Aptly kicking off with a team time trial in Nimes, the bullfighting capital of France, on Saturday August 19, the race may feature one less summit finish than last year's offering, but it's upped the major mountain-top finale count by two. So it's very much a case of tit for tat – and take that! Pow.

While there is one long pan-flat time trial, all eyes will be on the high mountains of Andalucia, Cantabria and Asturias; the Pyrenees also get a look in as early as stage 3. All in all, it's a race that should excite and enthrall if not all the way to Madrid (is the final stage ever anything beyond the processional?) then at least until the penultimate stage – which sees the return of Spain's toughest single climb, the Alto de l'Angliru (last tamed by king Kenny Eissonde back in 2013).

With many riders busy Down Under, on team training camps, or still sulking about Bradley Wiggins' crafty use of the TUE system, it was hardly a star-studded line-up that featured at the route presentation in Madrid. Indeed, when the main protagonist is a rider who has recently retired, you know you're scraping the barrel (not that the charmingly provincial Vuelta will care a jot).

Joining Joaquim Rodriguez (Bahrain-Merida) on stage was a man who, to all intents and purposes, resembled a university lecturer at a garden party, but was actually fellow veteran Spaniard Samuel Sanchez (BMC), sporting the tightest pair of white trousers you're likely to see this year (discounting FDJ riders at Paris-Nice, that is).

At least Dimension Data's Omar Fraile got into the true spirit of things by donning a dark red shirt – the only maglia rossa he'll be wearing this year (he's more of a blue polka dots kinda guy). Further cameos came from Cofidis's Luis Angel Mate (and his trusty rat's tail) and Lotto Soudal's Kris Boeckmans, the Belgian rider whose nasty fall in the 2015 Vuelta left him in a coma for over a week.

A ubiquitous flat team time trial in Nimes is followed by an equally flat long transitional second stage (one of only two over 200km in length) that will have the sprinters grinning. Not that there will be any pure sprinters present: what comes next is sure to put most of them off.

You see, the mountains raise their head as early as stage 3 to Andorra, although race director Javier Guillen has been magnanimous in gifting the riders a downhill finish after three testing climbs as the race leaves France and edges closer to the host nation.

What? It cannot be! A second sprint stage in four days then follows ahead of stage 5, which boasts the race's first (but gentle) summit finish, and then another hilly stage with a flat finish in Sagunto, north of Valencia.

The longest stage of the race is a breakaway's paradise with three Cat.3 climbs over 205km and a flat finish in Cuenta after a flagstone climb to the walled city at the end of the opening week. Stage 8 sees the riders hit the Costa Blanca with an undulating schlep that culminates with a heinous 20% climb of the Xorret de Cati ahead of a fast finale.

We're nine days in before the second summit finish, which spices up an otherwise flat stage with successive climbs of the Alto de Puig Llorenca and the double digit Cat.1 ascent to Cumbre del Sol (where Tom Dumoulin soared to victory in 2015 to prise the red jersey back off the shoulders of Esteban Chaves).

After a rest day in Alicante, the race resumes with a stage 10 that features the solitary Cat.1 climb of Collado Bermejo ahead of a downhill run to the finish. The third summit finish of the Vuelta comes in the 188km stage 11 that concludes on the Calar Alto after two climbs and more than 3,000 vertical metres of climbing.

There are yet more climbs in stage 12 ahead of a flat finish in Antequera on a day that should suit the breakaway specialists – like that man Luis Angel Mate. A hilly opening tranche gives way to a largely flat race to Tomares in stage 13 as the sprinters are given some scraps to stave off their chronic depression. A fourth summit finish – the first of two back-to-back mountain-top bonanzas in the Sierra Nevada – then comes at Sierra de la Pandera in stage 14, which should entice the GC riders out to play.

Then comes the hardest finish so far with the gruelling climb of Alto Hoya de la Mora at the end of a short 127km stage that promises fireworks. Chris Froome – caught napping last year on the race's most dramatic stage to Formigal – will have to have his wits about him ahead of one of the longest ascents in Spain which, peaking at 2,490 metres, is also the race's highest point.

A long 800km flight north will be followed by a much needed rest day in Logrono and then a flat 42km time trial that could end the hopes of riders in the Chaves mould. But fear not: the out-and-out climbers will have the chance to regain some ground in stage 15 with the race's fifth summit finish at Los Machucos. More climbs pepper the final third in stage 18, which climaxes with the short 2.5km climb to the Santo Toribio de Liebana monastery.

Stage 19 to Gijon is hilly rather than mountainous on the eve of the race's final test: the all-important – and eye-catchingly short – 119km stage 20, which includes three testing climbs ahead of the fearsome Angliru.

The riders then take a 400km train ride to Madrid ahead of the final stage which will see the best man enter the Spanish capital in the maglia rossa and Froome, inevitably, in second place.

Well, it's the usual slim pickings for the sprinters – which, if last year is anything to go by, is great for us fans. The increase in major summit finishes also means there's less room for those short, uphill punchy sprint finishes that have become synonymous with the Vuelta over the past few years (you know, the kind that used to have Philippe Gilbert go weak at the knees).

Despite all the rumours, the race will not tackle the highest paved road in Europe – the 3,400m high Pico de Veleta – nor will it culminate with a three-day extravaganza in the Canaries. The Vuelta organisers sensibly deciding to keep a few tricks up their sleeves for future editions of many people's favourite Grand Tour.

So, who'll be there? The usual mix of those riding the Giro but not the Tour (Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru, Esteban Chaves, Tom Dumoulin, Tejay Van Garderen), those wishing to build on their victorious Tour (Chris Froome), those snubbed for both Giro and Tour (Mikel Landa), those wishing to save their season after crashing out or struggling in either the Giro or the Tour (Alberto Contador, Richie Porte, numerous Dutch and French GC hopes and, presumably, Van Garderen), and those deciding, what the hell, to join Adam Hansen in riding all three Grand Tours (Nairo Quintana).

All in all, then, it should be a pretty stellar startlist – as per usual. The Vuelta is fast becoming the most exciting and fiercely competitive three-week race of the season, after all.