 The top four riders from the 2015 Tour de France all chose to start the Vuelta . These were Chris Froome ( Team Sky ) , Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde ( both Movistar Team ) and Vincenzo Nibali ( Astana ) , all of whom had previously won Grand Tours . The most notable absentee from among the general classification contenders was Alberto Contador ( Tinkoff – Saxo ) , the winner of the 2014 Vuelta . Oleg Tinkov , the owner of the Tinkoff @-@ Saxo team , had challenged Contador , Froome , Nibali and Quintana to attempt to ride all three Grand Tours in 2015 ; none of the riders took up the challenge . Froome , Nibali and Quintana all declined to ride the Giro and , as Contador was attempting to win both the Giro d 'Italia and the Tour , he did not aim to ride the Vuelta . Valverde and Nibali were the only two previous winners of the race to start the 2015 edition . 
