So, now we've finally got the hype of a (pretty decent) Tour behind us, we can look forward to the last three-week cycling feast of the year, which will start only slightly more than a month from now. And in anticipation of the race, I was struck by how mediocre the prospect of the GC battle looks. Based on the result from last year, four of the Top-6 guys will certainly not be there (Valverde, Evans, Basso and Gesink) while Samuel Sanchez (2nd) Joaquin Rodriguez (7th) and Paolo Tiralongo (8th) all skipped the Tour to focus specifically on the Vuelta in '09; whereas this year those three all rode the Tour pretty hard. On top of that last year's no. 9 Philip Deignan, and no. 10 Juan Jose Cobo have both been nowhere to be found this year, as far as I know. That leaves just Ezequiel Mosquera from last year's Top-10 who will be returning with the Vuelta as their top season's goal. Going further down the GC there are more names who (likely) wont return like Johnny Hoogerland, Daniel Navarro, Haimar Zubeldia, Manuel Vazquez, Vasil Kiryienka, Sylwester Szymd..... etc.
Now there might be some fresh new blood injected into the race vis-a-vis last year. For instance I'm pretty sure I read that Saxo were planning on sending Schleck the Elder to Spain (riding to win this time) after he withdrew three days into the Tour, although I have no idea how he is recovering from his injury. Vincenzo Nibali might ride the Vuelta for Liqui after sitting out the Tour, and Denis Menchov has ridden two GTs each year he's been at Rabobank (and he didn't do the Giro) but it's not like I've read anything confirming those last two to the race.
So my question is, does anyone have a list, or just know, of top GC men who have already pledged their appearance at this year's Vuelta? Or are we going to have to pay the piper for having witnessed two battles royales in the first GTs, with a mediocre battle (name-wise at least) in Spain?
Now there might be some fresh new blood injected into the race vis-a-vis last year. For instance I'm pretty sure I read that Saxo were planning on sending Schleck the Elder to Spain (riding to win this time) after he withdrew three days into the Tour, although I have no idea how he is recovering from his injury. Vincenzo Nibali might ride the Vuelta for Liqui after sitting out the Tour, and Denis Menchov has ridden two GTs each year he's been at Rabobank (and he didn't do the Giro) but it's not like I've read anything confirming those last two to the race.
So my question is, does anyone have a list, or just know, of top GC men who have already pledged their appearance at this year's Vuelta? Or are we going to have to pay the piper for having witnessed two battles royales in the first GTs, with a mediocre battle (name-wise at least) in Spain?
What about the 4th grand tour that starts next week 
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