Ion Izagirre and Alejandro Valverde will be hoping to end a historic barren run for Spain at the Vuelta a Espana this year.

With reigning champion Chris Froome absent it will be Izagirre, rather than Vincenzo Nibali, who will lead Bahrain-Merida's general classification challenge, as the Italian makes his comeback after fracturing vertebrae at the Tour de France last month.

The Basque rider will be taking part in his first Vuelta, which begins with an individual time trial in Malaga on Saturday, while history beckons for veteran Valverde.

With the assistance of Opta, we have picked out some of the best stats ahead of this year's event, which will cover 3254.7 kilometres and take in 46 summits.

- Spain is the most successful nation in the history of the Vuelta with 33 titles and 120 podiums. The next best country in the terms of wins is France (9), while Belgium is the country with the second-most podiums (19).

- No Spanish rider has finished in the top three in the last two editions of the Vuelta, something that is unprecedented in the history of the race.

- This will be Valverde's 12th participation in the Vuelta, more than any other rider in this edition of the race. He has finished on the podium six times, including his 2009 win, and doing so once more would see him equal Roberto Heras' record.

- The last five Vuelta champions have come from different countries: Chris Horner (United States), Alberto Contador (Spain), Fabio Aru (Italy), Nairo Quintana (Colombia) and Chris Froome (United Kingdom). For the first time in the race's history, there could be six successive winners from different nationalities.

- Nibali has finished on the podium in three of the four Vuelta editions in which he has finished the race (first in 2010, second in 2013 and second 2017).

- Peter Sagan has failed to finish two out of his three Vuelta entries (2014, 2015), his only completion coming in 2011 where he won three stages at his first ever Grand Tour participation.

- Elia Viviani already has four points classification wins to his name in 2018, two in the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and two in Italy (Giro d'Italia and Adriatica Ionica). This will be his first road race in Spain since 2015.

- If he wins a stage this year, Miguel Angel Lopez will join Francisco Rodriguez, Santiago Botero and Felix Rafael Cardenas as the Colombian riders with the most stage victories in the Vuelta (3).