The third and youngest Grand Tour of the year starts on Saturday in Puerto Bans with a 7.4 kilometre team time trial. From then on the Vuelta a Espaa gets tougher as it works its way north towards the climbs Andorra and Asturias. Our most experienced GT follower, Ed Hood, runs his eye over the course and riders as the PEZ coverage starts to build.It seems like yesterday we were getting ready to go to the pink race colour clichs are hard with the Vuelta; whilst the leaders jersey is now red, it used to be gold and when I were a lad it was amarillo. No matter what the jersey colour, it starts this Saturday on that sun kissed, millionaires playground, Puerto Bans.You know the drill, you need the stats we got em . . .STATS:The Vuelta is the youngest of the Grand Tours; the Grande Boucle was first run in 1903 whilst the Corsa Rosa goes back to 1909 so with a birthday of 1935 the Vuelta is the youngest of the three greatest stage races on earth.It didnt have a good childhood, no sooner born than its growth was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War; its adolescence was through the dark days of Francos reign before becoming the fully grown and most relaxed of the triplet of three week stage races which it now is. This year will be edition 70 and of those the home nation has triumphed in 32 of them with France second on...
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