 Vincenzo Nibali , who had won the Vuelta in 2010 , had struggled in the opening stages of the Tour , but had recovered to take a stage victory in the final week . The Astana team also included Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa , second and third respectively at the Giro d 'Italia ; while this made a strong team it was unclear which rider would be favoured by the team and given the assistance of his teammates . There was a similar situation at Movistar , as Valverde , who had won the Vuelta in 2009 and had finished on the podium on four other occasions , was also in strong form and was well suited to the course . Also among the general classification contenders were Joaquim Rodríguez ( Team Katusha ) , Rafał Majka ( Tinkoff – Saxo ) and Tejay van Garderen ( BMC Racing Team ) . 
