A Good Vuelta?
Barring accidents or a dreadful time trial on Saturday it looks like Alejandro Valverde has stitched up his first Grand Tour (at last!). At the end of all of the big stage races we need to ask some questions and La Vuelta a España throws up some thought-provokers!
Was it a good Vuelta?
Yes, I think so. The start in Holland was a great success, personally I was wrong about the time trial on a closed circuit, it had a big crowd as did all the Dutch roads, and it was the same in Germany and Belgium.
Often correspondents watch La Vuelta on TV and they don’t see any spectators, then report that no one watches it and the Spanish people are not interested and the race is dying on its feet.
They couldn’t be further from the truth; there are large crowds on the mountains, in the villages and towns. The starts are overrun and trying to get near the finish is a battle, but then those correspondents wouldn’t know as they are sat at home watching Eurosport. So yes, the Vuelta was very popular this year.
Valverde is likely to win his first grand tour in Spain, whilst being banned in Italy and with an outstanding case with C.A.S. Guess we won't know if he's the actual winner for another month or two yet.
Was it too hard?
Yes, probably. It’s a long season and many of the riders have been racing since January (on and off).
If you look at the top six riders they hadn’t had full seasons for one reason or the other. As always there were rider who were only there to prepare for the World Champs and where never going to go to the finish in Madrid.
Did La Vuelta miss Alberto Contador?
I thought that maybe it would, if you look at the course it was designed with Bert in mind with all those summit finishes. If Contador had ridden then maybe it would have been a walk-over, he would have won the time trials and could have won all the mountain stages. Better he wasn’t here then?
Will it be a good win for Valverde?
Yes, he dominated and consolidated and didn’t have his usual bad day, it looked like he faltered on the stage to La Pandera, but back he came and took time from his closest rivals. The sign of a good champion?
The best thing about La Vuelta 2009?
Apart from the podium girls (and you can see my photos of them on Pez here), this Vuelta threw up some new young names:
Robert Gesink was having a great Vuelta until Friday when it all went wrong for him, possibly because of the bad crash he had the day before.
Andre Greipel (probably) taking the points jersey, we knew he could sprint, but to take the green all the way to Madrid is a feat.
Philip Deignan’s stage and top ten overall is good to see, as is the stage wins of Borut Bozic, Simon Gerrans and Ryder Hesjedal - all men for the future.
Andre Greipel.
Disappointments?
Cadel Evans again, he either has bad luck or bad form or a bad team or something, maybe Silence-Lotto is correct in having another option for GC. Tom Boonen? 2nd on the first time trial and what else? Nothing. As I have said before he should stick with the Classics.
So I think it was a good Vuelta, if it was at the same time as the Giro then it would get the riders when they were fresh, and if it was in the middle of the national summer holidays it would have the same crowds as the Tour.
Roll on next year in Sevilla!
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- Adam Hansen – The Vuelta isn’t his Favourite Race Anymore!
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I don’t think what ever CAS, WADA or UCI decide will affect the result of La Vuelta or any other race that Alejandro Valverde has ridden this year, or the year before. Unless he has done something he shouldn’t have at the Vuelta. If they decide to ban him it will be from the time of their meeting (mid October?). They said he was OK to race at present, except in Italy, until they make their decision.
Puerto was a long time ago and I’m sure Valverde has been tested many times since and because he is in a ProTour team he has had to be part of the health passport system and nothing has been found wrong, so….
What is he guilty of? Storing blood in a hospital? Talking to a dodgy Doc?
We shall see….
Well, storing blood in a hospital is one thing, but visiting a dodgy gynecologist and having him take a few pints of blood that's swimming with EPO, and storing it in his fridge, with a view to seeing him on a Stage Race rest day and banging it back in is surely something else, no?
The age-old "I've been tested lots of times and nothing has been found" lament we all now know is redundant. Any rider on a top-notch program is going to be closely monitoring his parameters so he knows exactly what is going on before he gets tested by the UCI. A UCI biological passport test is not going to tell Contador, Armstrong or a Schleck anything he doesn't already know.
Whilst Bernhard Kohl was a cheat, and so arguably can't be trusted, his evidence given to the UCI and WADA concerning his visits to the Human Plasma Lab in Austria accompanied by his manager Stefan Matschiner, and the many Austrian triathletes and cyclists, such as Lisa Hütthaler, who have confessed to doping and have named Matschiner as their supplier of EPO, together with Kohl's admission that he had been doping for most of his pro career with testosterone patches, caffeine, pseudo-ephedrine, analgesics, EPO, growth hormone, insulin, and on, and on, and that he therefore should have been positive many times, ought to make people realise by now that "being tested lots and never being positive" means absolutely nothing.
I totally agree with you JamieG. The people in charge have made a right arse of it, the whole Puerto thing.
I'm reminded of Tricky Dicky Verenque, who denied all his bad doings and even wrote a book about how clean he was. He got away with it until he admitted in court what everyone knew. They banned him, but they didn’t take any of his wins or wages for the time he was still racing between the Festina affair and him admitting.
As I said before, we will see....