Saturday, when the international peloton of professional riders takes on the last Grand Tour of 2009, Vuelta a Espana it will be with a Team Saxo Bank delegation of pure world class: Jakob Fuglsang, Andy Schleck, Fränk Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Matti Breschel, Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Karsten Kroon, Alexandr Kolobnev and Stuart O'Grady.

The race opens in Holland and continues to Belgium where stage four will have its finish line. Then the whole caravan will be lead to Spain on the first rest day of the Tour of Spain.

The course of the race surely favors the climbers with five mountain top stage finishes with a myriad of steep and tiring climbs in between. In addition to the 4,8 kilometer long prologue in Assen, the Netherlands, the race provides two time trials of respectively 30 and 27.8 kilometers. For sure, we will also get to watch nerve-wrecking breakaway and sprint decisions on the way to Madrid and Team Saxo Bank's Danish champion will be determined to try and repeat last year's stage win on the very last stage of the race.

Team Saxo Bank will be participating with riders suited for a broad variety of terrains. However, it is the first time Jakob Fuglsang will be riding a three-week stage race, but the winner of Tour de Slovenie and Tour of Denmark is not nervous about his new role.

"Kim Andersen asked me if I would like to go for the general classification in the Vuelta where I would get the team's full support. It was an offer I could hardly say no to, and in principle it is my ambition to go for a position in the top 15”, states a purposeful Jakob Fuglsang, who right now prepares for the race in Luxembourg together with teammate Kurt-Asle Arvesen.

"It's obviously an ambition which can be adjusted over time. If I have come too far behind in the GC after the first week of racing, I will adjust my objectives. Several stages seem interesting in the terms of stage wins. But since this is my first big tour, I take one day at a time. On the whole, we are in Spain with a team with many opportunities. Fabian will go for the time trials, which are flat, Matti and Stuart will be going for the bunch sprints and the Schleck brothers will be feeling right at home in the mountains. Although the brothers did a great effort during the Tour de France and subsequently had a long break from races I am sure that they have something to show for. We have a really good team and there is no pressure on my shoulders from either team managers or teammates”.

The race ends in Madrid on September 20th after 3292 tough kilometers in the saddle.