The End of an Era

Much time has passed since our last publication; much water has flowed down the bed of the eternal Rioni. How changeable its character is: at times the flood-like phantom of surging waves swallows the primordial white stones, at times, wearing the greenish-blue mask of a stream, it traces each of their wrinkles yet again, to sing once more the praises of time and wisdom. After all, wrinkles always point to time and wisdom.

To our regret, we have still not managed to move Velorbola from a hobby onto the path of becoming a professional news outlet. However, we do not intend to give up on this intention, and we hope that this very publication will turn out to be the watershed bridge — or crossroads, if you like — after which a new chapter in the history of our site will begin to be written.

We have chosen a historic day, too: the start of the 2017 Vuelta. What makes the season’s third Grand Tour so special? Held since 1935, this year we will see its 72nd start. The Italian and French three-week races have, after all, already passed the hundred mark. And still historic? Yes — the start of every Grand Tour is historic, but this year’s Vuelta will nevertheless be written into cycling history in a special way.

This Vuelta is the end of an era — an era called Alberto Contador (El Pistolero).

 

 

Against the backdrop of his last, unsuccessful Tour de France, the legendary Spaniard announced back on August 7 that the 2017 Vuelta would be his final race.

Today the cycling world begins to say goodbye to Alberto.

The organizers’ decision is also telling: El Pistolero will race the Vuelta wearing number one!

 

 

We will stop here for now, and for these entire three weeks we, too, will devote ourselves to saying goodbye to Alberto — a farewell during a race whose line-up is worthy of the end of an era. But more on that later!

 

 

 

Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

 

Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.

 

 

 

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.