Preview of the weekend's action on Cyclingnews

Image 1 of 5

Another day in red for Nairo Quintana (Movistar)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

The first weekend of September sees an action-packed couple of days of racing with some teams racing triple programmes between races in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Norway, the USA and Canada. Cyclingnews will have coverage from the Vuelta a Espana, the Tour of Alberta, the Tour of Britain, the Boels Rentals Ladies Tour and more.

First up for the riders is a brutal 194km stage 14 from Urdax-Dantxarinea, where the peloton must tackle three first category ascents before culminating with the special category Col d’Aubisque. Following the short trip into France, the riders return to Spain for Sunday’s stage from Sabiñánigo to Sallent de Gállego Aramón Formigal. It’s a short day at just 118km, but it packs a punch with three climbs including the summit finish in Aramón Formigal.

Defending champion Edvald Boasson Hagen will not be at the race, but there are a number of other big names, many of which are using the race to build up to the World Championships. Among those taking to the start line in Glasgow are Alex Dowsett (Movistar), Rohan Dennis (BMC), Taylor Phinney (BMC), Bradley Wiggins (WIGGINS), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Wout Poels (Team Sky) and former winner Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac).

After Friday’s largely downhill stage from Kananaskis to Olds, Mollema should be in the driving seat in the overall classification as the race heads into its crucial final three days. Stage 3’s ride from Rocky Mountain House to Drayton Valley is not the most challenging stage of this year’s race but its lumpy terrain could cause some splits in the bunch. It is the following day’s time trial that will give the first really big shake-up of the overall classification. The race will finish as it started with a up and down criterium, this time around in Edmonton. Stage one showed that anything could happen on a stage such as this one, and nothing can be taken for granted.

Chantal Blaak will lead the Boels Rentals Tour into its final two stages this weekend. Blaak has led the race since stage three, helped by a strong performance from her Boels Dolmans team in the stage 2 time trial, which saw them beat Canyon SRAM by 33 seconds. The Dutch squad also claimed victory at the hand of Amelie Dideriksen on stage one, with Rabo Liv’s Kasia Niewiadoma the victory on stage 3 and Sara Roy (Orica-AIS) winning Friday’s stage 4.