After a long season which saw him win his third Tour de France before taking a bronze medal in the individual time trial at the Olympics in Rio, Chris Froome comes into the Vuelta hoping to improve as the race unfolds. 

"I'm going to see how the first week goes to hopefully try to build through the Vuelta and be stronger towards the end. Obviously the condition is not the same as in the beginning of the Tour de France. But we'll see how it goes in the second half", he said before the team presentation.

"It's definitely going to be a very tough Vuelta- if there is such a thing as an easy Vuelta –, with ten uphill finishes. it's going to test us. Obviously after the Tour I haven't trained specifically for the Vuelta, I tried to recover as best as I could between the Tour and the Olympics and the same thing coming here. It's going to be interesting to see what the form is," he added.

The Briton, who repeated he had "unfinished business" with the Vuelta after finishing second in 2011 and 2014, is one of the few riders at the start in Ourense - with Alejandro Valverde - to have ridden the Tour and the Olympics. But he has a past experience of such a tight schedule.

"I did the same in 2012 and I ended finishing fourth. But it's tough for sure. Let's see. I'm definitely going to try to stay out of trouble in the fist week and see how it goes."

His Tour de France victory in July unveiled a new Chris Froome, relying less on his climbing and time-trialling abilities to opt for more improvisation. He does not rule out the same approach on this Vuelta.

"Every year I'm learning more and more. I came into the sport quite late. We're really going to take it one day at a time. The descent on the Tour for example was not something I planned before the Tour. We saw an opportunity and took it. We have to see how the race unfolds here and probably try to do the same," he said.

The Team Sky leader is not the kind of rider to come to a grand Tour to play second fiddle and he made it clear his ambitions were high.

"My focus to the season was the Tour de France and then the Olympics, now I'm here on the back of this and so I didn't train specifically for the Vuelta. But I'm here, I'm motivated, I'm happy, I have a great team around me. I look forward to doing the best race possible," he said.

While he will have to do without Spanish climber Mikel Landa, who pulled out through injury, the Briton knows he can count on the motivation of last minute replacement David Lopez:

"David is a great team-mate, he trained for this, he was hoping to be in the Vuelta team already. We still have a very strong team."