Video: Vuelta Rider Diaries Episode 1

The video Rider Diaries it produced during May's Giro d'Italia proved such a hit that GCN has decided to repeat the format as the Vuelta a Espana unfolds over the next three weeks.

While the focus during the Italian race was on youth - RadioShack-Leopard's George Bennett, Alex Dowsett of Movistar and Cannondale's Elia Viviani were the subjects there - this time the three riders chosen reflect a blend of youth and experience.

The younger end of the age spectrum is represented by the 24-year-old South African rider, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, who joined Argos-Shimano at the start of this season. A power sprinter who can also time trial, he's making his Grand Tour debut.

Danish rider Michael Mørkøv of Saxo-Tinkoff is aged 28 and career highlights including a World Championship win in the Madison in 2009, and team pursuit silver at the Beijing Olympics. This is his first Vuelta, but the attacking rider, now Danish road champion, has ridden the Giro twice, plus last year's Tour de France, where he wore the polka dot jersey for several days.

Finally, there is Adam Hansen of Lotto-Belisol, who hit the headlines last year for completing the Giro, Tour and Vuelta in the same season - he'll repeat that feat again should he make it to Madrid, and incredibly the 32-year-old is riding his seventh straight Grand Tour. What's more, this season he took his maiden stage win in one of them, as he broke away to take Giro Stage 7 in Pescara.

So, introductions done, here's the riders in their own words: