Seems to me that the participating Vuelta teams did not bring along the top-tier flat stage sprinters this year. Cav, Greipel, Goss, Sagan, Kittel are all sitting out from the Vuelta. Without a top-tier sprinter, few of the teams are as commited to a race day strategy that sacrifices most of the teammates in support of a mediocre sprinter that has low odds of a win. The sprinters and leadout trains also just seem much less organized than the well-drilled final 5km efforts that were displayed at Giro and TDF.