The Season’s Last Grand Tour Gets Under Way

This weekend the season’s final Grand Tour got under way in Spain — the Vuelta a España (literally, the “Tour of Spain”; vuelta means a lap or a round). The Spanish tour is the youngest of the three Grand Tours; it has been held since 1935, and this year’s is the 71st edition.

The whole cycling world awaited the 71st Vuelta with enormous interest, because every great rider of our time who is in racing shape will compete in it.

First of all, attention goes to two occupants of this year’s Tour de France podium: the triumphant Briton Christopher Froome and the third-placed Colombian Nairo Quintana.

 

 

Add to them the legendary Spaniard Alberto Contador, forced out of the Tour de France early by injuries from his crashes. El Pistolero belongs to the historic six-man group of triple-crown winners: in his career he has won all three Grand Tours more than once, he graces any race, and he has never lacked motivation.

 

 

Also in the spotlight will be Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, Colombian Juan Esteban Chaves and several second-tier favorites, whom we will mention if they make their mark.

 

 

This year’s Vuelta is decidedly mountainous: suffice it to say that ten stages end with uphill finishes of different kinds, which gives connoisseurs of the genre high expectations.

Four stages have already been raced, and some preliminary thoughts can be formed. Let’s take them in order.

Stage 1 was a fairly long team time trial. This is a very specific discipline: the teams’ special preparation comes to the fore, which also means having riders of the right specialization in the lineup. Under these conditions, among the teams fighting for the general classification, the clear advantage belonged to Spain’s Movistar, though looking at Britain’s Sky lineup, they too should not have had a bad race. Good results can always be expected from the specialists of the genre, BMC and Orica.

 

 

Sky beat Movistar by just four tenths of a second, with Orica and BMC trailing them by six and seven seconds respectively. As expected, the main loser was Alberto Contador: Tinkoff gave away 52 seconds, and from the very first stage El Pistolero was cast in the role of the chaser.

 

 

Stage 2 was, you could say, the only chance for the sprinters. Looking at the teams’ starting lineups, Belgium’s Quick-Step had clearly marked this opportunity. The race went under their control, and the team worked superbly. At the last bend before the finish, in a narrow corridor, they left Belgian Gianni Meersman in a perfect position, and he didn’t let his teammates down: Etixx took the stage they had planned for.

 

 

Stages 3 and 4 were the first two of those ten planned uphill finishes. The first of them, the finish at Mirador de Ézaro — 1,810 meters long at 14.36% (max. 25%) — demands exceptional qualities from the riders. The difficulty comes not only from the extreme gradient but also from the concrete surface on the upper part of the climb. In such conditions Joaquim Rodríguez (Purito) used to shine. He won on the previous ascent, and only El Pistolero was able to challenge him. As you know, Purito has retired from top-level sport, and in his absence other Spaniards, Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador, could be considered favorites, presumably competing with the Colombians. But this is the start of the tour, and how far the favorites were in proper condition we would find out on the climb. The teams fighting for overall victory did not make the effort needed to win the stage, and as a result success went to the attacker from the breakaway, Frenchman Alexandre Geniez of FDJ. It is his second win at the Spanish tour, undoubtedly a great achievement.

 

 

The greats, meanwhile, staged their first sharp showdown. On such a gradient a mistake costs dearly, so overall their climb turned out academic. Movistar tried to use their team advantage, which showed in an attack right at the foot of the climb. Chavito and El Pistolero answered the attack, while Froome switched to his own pace. On the steepest section Alberto fell behind the attackers; as he later said, his heart rate went above the permissible level (200), which could have cost him dearly, so he switched to a tactic of minimizing losses. After that section, in his usual style, Froome managed to pass Alberto and draw level with the attackers. Near the finish Movistar sent Rubén Fernández on the attack, and he crossed the line first from the group, celebrating. Later they said they had celebrated the red jersey, but I still think the Movistar riders had simply missed the Frenchman. As a result they were left with yet another gift of a red jersey — which for any rider is a truly historic moment. The main loser once again was El Pistolero: he added 28 seconds to his earlier deficit, making it a worrying minute and a half in the general classification. Whether Alberto can wipe out this deficit in the remaining mountains we will find out; but the losses of the other favorites, whom we haven’t even named so far, I think proved decisive. I doubt they will get close to the top ten — and I’ll be glad if it turns out I’m wrong.

 

 

The stage had another notable casualty, knocked out of the fight for the top ten not by his condition but by a crash. This was another rising star from Colombia. This year’s Tour de Suisse winner, 22-year-old Miguel Ángel López, crashed, dashing the hopes of Kazakh team Astana and forcing a change in its strategy. Fortunately Miguel Ángel stayed in the race, and he will gain invaluable experience.

 

 

The finishing climb of stage 4 was 11.2 kilometers long at 4.8% (max. 13%), passing the sanctuary of Saint Andrew the First-Called at Teixido and up to Mirador Vixía de Herbeira (San Andrés de Teixido, Alto Mirador de Vixía). Teixido means “yew” — a tree that apparently once grew in abundance in this part of Galicia. On this climb it is hard to gain any advantage unless something unexpected happens to a rival. For a long time no breakaway could form, because it was clear that its members would have a good chance of winning the stage. In the end the main favorite in the group became Puma — another well-known Colombian, Darwin Atapuma of BMC — and he also had a very real chance of pulling on the red jersey.

 

 

As expected, when the fight for the stage began on the final climb, Puma, preparing for his decisive attack, bravely fended off attacks from every side. He let only one go, because the attacker was a young Frenchman from Direct Énergie, Lilian Calmejane. Riders like that are usually let go without worry, and there was still quite a way to the finish. Nobody knew Lilian: this is his first Grand Tour, he has started only one Monument, and he is a debutant at WorldTour level altogether. As it turned out, letting him go was a mistake: Lilian held on — which is very rare — and took his first professional win at the start of his career, while Puma got the red jersey as a consolation.

 

 

The greats rode the climb calmly; stage 4 changed nothing in the time gaps between them, and we probably shouldn’t expect any until stage 8. Today’s and tomorrow’s routes have nothing that could cause the greats problems. But this is a Grand Tour, and you should always expect anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.