On The Road
by: Bill Oetinger 10/1/2010
Yo, Vinnie!
I had not planned to write a column about this year’s Vuelta a España. But that was before I watched it. Looking back over the season, I have to think it was as good as either of the other two grand tours and possibly the best of the bunch.
Like all well-designed grand tours, it had a little bit of everything and a lot of the stuff we like best in a big stage race. It had, first of all, a great parcourse, with seven mountaintop or near-mountaintop finishes. There was the usual collection of stages for sprinters and for breakaways, but only a short team time trial and one long ITT. I read at least one journalist’s comments--before the race--that the mountain stages weren’t going to be that exciting. I didn’t know enough about the climbs to have an opinion ahead of time, but after having watched them--once live and then again at least once in replay--I have to disagree. They were all interesting and entertaining and, in some cases, dramatic and decisive. The best of them were epic at the highest level.
By the way, speaking of watching the Vuelta, I want to digress for a second and give a tip of the old chapeau to steephilltv.com. This is the cycling fan’s best resource for following races. (Forget Versus!) I understand that UniversalSports, available on some Comcast feeds, had coverage of the Vuelta on regular TV. But if you weren’t a Comcast subscriber, the best thing to do was to log on to Steep Hill each day and take your pick from all the international feeds they had available. Most days, I chose one with English-language commentary by Sean Kelly. Steep Hill searches high and low for the best video feeds for every significant race of the year, from spring classics to the world championships. Every fan of racing should have their site bookmarked.
In addition to having a good route, the Vuelta had assembled a good roster of racers, with plenty of big dogs in the GC fight. Notably absent was Alberto Contador, as well as the entire Radio Shack team. (They were the only ProTour team not invited, and Unipublic, the organizer, never really tried to explain or justify their exclusion. But then, after throwing all their top guns into the Tour de France--without much to show for it--you have to wonder who Radio Shack would have put in the Vuelta as a team leader with any serious GC aspirations.) TdF podium boys Andy Schleck and Denny Menchov were there (Menchov a two-time Vuelta champion). Frank Schleck was there too, as was Christian Vande Velde, both of them early departures from the TdF with injuries, now both supposedly recovered and rested. But what made this Vuelta interesting for me was that the eventual chief protagonists and the final podium did not include any of these “heads of state.” New kids asserted themselves and muscled the stars off-stage.
Normally, when I do my post-Tour de France reviews, I assume you know who won and how it all played out. With this somewhat more obscure Vuelta, I won’t make that same assumption. You may know who won but not the details. I’m not going to get into a stage-by-stage, blow-by-blow account. If you want that, you can find it on the ’net in several different places. This will be a digest…a highlight reel: three weeks of tough, ferocious racing compressed into a few paragraphs.
Before getting to the GC battle, let me quickly dispense with the side shows. Mark Cavendish won the sprinters’ jersey, taking three stages. But he didn’t really dominate. He was not unbeatable. Tyler Farrar took two sprints, and old war horses Thor Hushovd and Alessandro Petacchi took one apiece. And in the first sprint (Stage 2), Yauheni Hutarovich---excuse me, who?---skunked all the big hitters in a straight-up drag race. Two other stages that might have been considered sprints were won with superb panache by Philippe Gilbert. Both were a little too steep and a little too long to be true sprinters' finishes. Gilbert looked awesome in both of them, showing great form heading into the world championships. (I’m writing this just as the championship weekend gets rolling down in Australia. By the time you read this, we’ll probably know whether Gilbert’s great form carried through to the road race in Geelong.) Five other stages, including three of the mountain finishes, were won by lesser lights surviving out of breakaways.
Things kicked off with the short (8-mile) team time trial. This always strikes me as a silly exercise: all that fancy teamwork for just a 15-minute ride. But given my dislike of team time trials in general, I suppose I should want it to be short, if we have to have one at all. At least then the miscues or failings of a weak team don’t penalize a team leader as much. In this case, HTC-Columbia set the pace, but the gaps down to the slowest of the riders who might be considered overall contenders added up to just a bit over half a minute.
The first bit of excitement involving an uphill finish came on Stage 4. It was an urban climb in Valdepeñas de Jaén; a brief, 1-K sprint up the narrow, twisting street of an old hill village, with all of it double-digit steep and some spots over 20%. I love this sort of finish: one thousand meters of all-out, balls-to-the-wall, show-me-what-you-got frenzy. Several riders took their shots at busting off the front, but the steep pitch caused each to blow. Finally, Basque rider Igor Anton (Euskaltel) timed his surge perfectly, passed all the other gasping, wobbling riders, and had enough left to be first over the line. Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali was one second behind. Several riders were seen nearly falling over as they crossed the finish line, including Gilbert. Afterward, Anton compared it to the Mur de Huy, the leg-breaking final pitch at the spring classic Fleche-Wallone. It reminded me of a stage from last year’s Giro: Stage 14, finishing on the San Luca climb in the Centro Storico of Bologna. I dug up the report on that stage to refresh my memory about it, and noticed that the winner--Simon Gerrans--compared it to the Mur de Huy as well. I guess the Mur is the gold standard for these short, steep, super-nasty finishes. (Trivial aside: did you know Mur literally means a wall? It comes from the Latin “murus” or “muralis,” the same root for our word mural…a painting on a wall.)
No major time gaps for such a short climb, although a few big hitters lost a few seconds and looked a bit vulnerable. Next up in the GC mountain sweepstakes was Stage 8, finishing with the brutal Xorret del Cati, only 4 K long, but most of it over 15% and some of it over 20%. (Think about pitches in the high teens for two and a half miles…that is wicked.) This was kind of half way between that short, fierce wall on Stage 4 and the longer, tempo-riding climbs in the big mountains. David Moncoutié, on the way to winning the KOM jersey, won the stage as the last survivor of a breakaway. Behind him, Anton, Nibali, and Joaquin Rodriguez came in together to establish themselves as serious contenders for the overall. Frank Schleck and Denny Menchov lost large chunks of time on this short but brutal climb, signaling that this was probably not going to be their year.
(Schleck hung around the front through most of the race, actually appearing to get stronger near the end and finishing respectably in the middle of the top ten; Menchov suffered, then crashed, then faded from view entirely, never being in contention, although he did finish well in the individual time trial. Meanwhile, fairly early in the Vuelta, Saxo Bank boss Bjarne Riis kicked Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady out of the race for violating team rules. Recall that both Schlecks, O’Grady, and Fabian Cancellara are all leaving SB for a new, Luxembourg-based team, and that their status on SB at this point is decidedly lame duck. The rules violation? Andy and Stuey went out on the town one night for a pub crawl. Andy says it was one drink. Others said a bit more than that. Then, a couple of days before the end of the Vuelta, Cancellara simply stopped riding on a stage, went back to the hotel, checked out, and left Spain, apparently without a word of explanation to the team. To say that Riis and the other SB management were a little miffed would be putting it mildly. We used to hear that Saxo Bank had just about the best team esprit de corps around, but you have to wonder if that's the case anymore. The departure of those riders isn’t looking too amicable these days.)
Next big test: Stage 11, with its long but never too steep grade up to the little country of Andorra. This is where another rider enters the picture: Ezequiel Mosquera. He’s a pure climber who hasn’t been seen much outside of Spain. Astute fans might recall that he mixed it up pretty well with Contador and Leipheimer on a big mountain stage of the 2008 Vuelta. From this point on in this year’s tour, he’s going to be mixing it up with everyone. On this stage to Andorra, fairly early on the long, final climb, Roman Kreuziger was riding steady tempo ahead of his Liquigas team leader Nibali, with a small contingent of survivors sitting in. Then Mosquera attacked. Off he went, and off went Nibali and Rodriguez in hot pursuit. After a few kilometers of this frisky pace, Rodriguez blew up. (He was wearing the leader’s jersey at this point, so this was big news.) He really cracked…pedaling squares and weaving all over the road. Nibali hung onto Mosquera for awhile, but then the pace got to him too and he had to back off. He didn’t blow like Rodriguez did though. He just dialed it back a notch and husbanded his resources, finding a tempo that worked for him. Meanwhile, Igor Anton had come out of the little pack and set off after the front trio. Slowly, slowly, he pulled each of them back and passed them, finally reeling in Mosquera near the end and beating him across the line by three seconds. This was a beautiful piece of riding, this steady, measured grind up the long hill. It made a nice companion piece with his short, ferocious uphill sprint win through the city streets on Stage 4. It also brought him the leader’s jersey, 45 seconds clear of Nibali. Another revelation on the day was young Xavier Tondo of Cervelo Test Team, presumably riding in support of team leader Carlos Sastre. He followed along behind Anton and finished third on the stage, pulling himself up to third overall at this point. I confess I had never heard his name before and I don’t know where he’ll be going next year, now that Cervelo is folding. He’ll be a prime catch for some team.
Onward and upward to Stage 14, with its 6-K final climb to Peña Cabarga, which ends with a final kilometer at 15%. Here we have the only serious, game-changing crash of the tour. Just as the leaders were cranking up the pace to be at the front for the final climb, Igor Anton and his own teammate Egoi Martinez crashed badly. It was immediately clear that both were out of the race, Martinez with a broken collarbone and Anton with a shattered elbow (and with his lovely leader’s jersey ripped to shreds). Afterward, Anton said he hit a pothole. But if so, what took Martinez down? Some people thought they touched wheels, but the videos are all fuzzy and inconclusive. It was the saddest thing. Anton had been riding a brilliant, inspired race. His team had kept him out of the Tour de France to save him for the Vuelta, and he appeared to be rewarding that decision with prime fitness and a superb performance. No telling how he would have done in the long time trial or in the remaining three mountain stages, but he was in command when it all came apart for him.
Meanwhile, the leaders were attacking the climb. (No one at the front knew about the crash until after the finish.) Joaquin Rodriguez, who had blown up so thoroughly on the last mountain finish, now found a new set of legs and danced off the front, leaving Nibali and Mosquera and the rest struggling to find an answer. That’s a lot of what I found so entertaining about this tour: riders would be out of it one day and dancing on the pedals two days later. It seemed as if every day brought us someone new to attack and force the action…an all-out free-for-all. The one rider who seemed to be the steadiest was Vincenzo Nibali. He wasn’t winning any stages, but he was always right there, always conserving his strength and metering out just enough energy to keep the assorted attackers within reach. In short, he was riding a very intelligent race. On this stage, after being gapped by Rodriguez, he dug deep and clawed back most of what he had lost and finished just 20 seconds down, with Mosquera nipping at his heels. His plucky ride was just good enough to earn him the leader's jersey after Anton crashed out. (He had some kind and classy things to say about Anton at the finish, showing a nice bit of sportsmanship.)
Next up: Stage 15 and the monster ascent to Lagos de Covadonga, one of Spain’s better-known climbs. After weeks of mostly lovely weather, this day turned ugly, with driving rain all the way to the lofty finish: 11 K, averaging about 8%, with the final kilometer at 12%. Carlos Barredo won the state out of a breakaway, but behind him Mosquera was once again on the attack, trying to crack Nibali. He took off very early on the long climb, flying off in a way that looked as if it would yield him tons of time at the top. But Nibali didn’t make the mistake of chasing him straight away. He stuck to his own tempo and chugged up the hill at a very steady pace, for a great deal of it paced along by his super-domestique, Roman Kreuziger. Finally, in the end, after hammering his brains out, off the front, for the whole climb, all Mosquera had to show for his efforts was 11 seconds in hand over the trio of Nibali, Rodriguez, and Slovakian Peter Velits. (This is the first time I’ve mentioned Velits, but it won’t be the last. This 24-year old Slovak riding for HTC-Columbia is someone to watch in the years ahead.)
No rest for the weary: another huge, uphill finish on Stage 16, ending with the Alto de Cotobello…7 K, with the last three kilometers at around 9%. Frank Schleck finally emerged from the shadows and launched a snappy attack on the big climb, motoring off into the distance, seated, most of the time. Of the assorted leader wannabes, Rodriguez made the best response, finishing just 16 seconds back. Mosquera was another 18 seconds adrift and Nibali lost a further 19 seconds. That was enough to cost him his overall lead, handing the jersey back to Rodriguez, who had lost it back on Stage 11. Rodriguez went into the second rest day with a 33-second lead over Nibali, but he readily conceded that that would not be enough of a cushion with the time trial coming up next.
He was right. In the Stage 17, 46-K, dead flat ITT, young Peter Velits stunned everyone by winning, beating a stellar line-up of time trial specialists (Menchov, Cancellara, Gustov Larsson, Dave Zabriskie, David Millar, etc.). Bear in mind, none of these other guys had been beating himself up on all of those back-to-back mountain stages the way Velits had. So his victory here is doubly impressive.) Nibali finished 1:55 back. Not too impressive, but he did have a puncture midway through the time trial, which required a wheel swap and cost him some time. He did better than the other guys duking it out for the overall (except for Velits, of course). Mosquera was only 18 seconds back of Nibali…quite a respectable time trial for a pure climber. But poor Joaquin Rodriguez tanked, losing 6:12 to Velits and 4:17 to Nibali and dropping to 5th overall. Frank Schleck did his usual mediocre time trial, allowing Velits to bump him off the podium. At the end of the day, Nibali was back in the lead, 38 seconds ahead of Mosquera and 1:59 ahead of Velits.
In theory, that just left Stage 20, with its steep, uphill finish as a possible spot for anyone to gain or lose time. Not so fast! Stage 19 had a mildly uphill finish in Toledo. Not a mountain finish, nor even a steep wall like Stage 4. Just a slightly uphill, tricky bit…just steep enough to foil the pure sprinters. This was the second of Philippe Gilbert’s semi-sprint charges, a very exciting win. Just a second behind him, a small, opportunistic group jumped off the front of the peloton and gained a few seconds. Included in this clever little group, along with Tyler Farrar and Pippo Pozzato, were Nibali and Velits…but not Mosquera. He got caught napping and found the gap between himself and Nibali extended to 50 seconds.
So then, finally, on to the penultimate stage and the ultimate climb: Stage 20 and the first-ever ascent of a hill called Bola del Mundo. A note about this climb: it’s a little spur road turning off from the summit of the well-known Puerto de Nevacerrada climb. Nevacerrada is often used in the Vuelta because of its proximity to the traditional finish in Madrid. (Nevacerrada is a 12-K ascent, with the final 8 K averaging about 7%.) Vuelta organizers have wanted for years to include the Bola del Mundo climb in a stage but were apparently stymied until now with logistical challenges surrounding getting all their infrastructure set up at the top of this remote, private road, which serves a cluster of radio towers up on the hillside. It's a tiny road, barely one lane wide, and paved in concrete because it's so steep. I've seen two profiles for this final, 3-K climb, and they both agree that the steepest pitches are around 13%. I suppose I have to accept this as the officially correct figure, but after watching the riders on this section, I have my doubts. Based first of all simply on how it looks, then again on how fast (or slow) the riders were going, and finally on their body language--rocking the bikes, struggling mightily--I would have guessed that most of it was over 13% and some of it was close to 20%. (And I'm not one to exaggerate gradient figures. Because it's a private, off-limits road, I wonder who generated those profiles and how accurate they are. Well, whatever the numbers say, this little bastard just looks brutally steep.)
This stage had a Cat 3 and two Cat 1 climbs before the final grinder. None of those summits was enough to break up the leading pack. But as soon as they hit that final, super steep pitch, the predictable happened: Mosquera attacked and opened up a gap on Nibali and everyone else. He danced off up the hill into a thick fog, with Nibali gamely soldiering on behind him, trying to limit his losses. 50 seconds is nothing if one rider does a superb ascent and the other cracks, so it all hung in the balance. But Nibali did not crack. He bent, but he did not break. Up and up they went, around one tight hairpin after another, with huge, crazy crowds pinching the road down to about four feet wide (think Alpe du Huez). Mosquera kept pouring on the coal; Nibali kept clawing along behind him. At one point, Mosquera had his gap up to about 20 seconds, but Nibali never let go, never caved in. Then, within the last kilometer, with the grade easing off just a fraction, he actually began to pull Mosquera back. Meter by meter, he drew closer. Finally, within sight of the finish line, he pulled up right alongside Mosquera and looked over at him, as if to say: “Remember me? I’m still here!” Mosquera looked like he’d seen a ghost. He put in one last surge and shoved his wheel across the line just ahead of Nibali’s. He got the win and took a grand total of one second out of Nibali’s lead (plus some bonus seconds for the placing).
It was magnificent stuff. Absolutely thrilling…elegant even. Nibali didn’t need to dig that deep to come back up to Mosquera. He had 50 seconds to play with. But in the end, he wasn’t content with just doing damage control. He showed us some serious class; some serious star quality. And he dished up a big helping of that trait the Italians call grinta: heart, fortitude, guts. Not only that, but smarts too. Intelligent decisions, all through the Vuelta: knowing when to attack and when to ease off and ride his own tempo. And he stayed awake for little opportunities like the one on Stage 19 that snagged him an extra 12 seconds. Not that he needed them in the end, but he might have.
So…Vincenzo Nibali. How about that? Is he a new star for the future? He’s the only rider in 2010 to stand on the podium in two grand tours (having finished third at the Giro behind his team leader Ivan Basso). Not Contador, not either Schleck brother, not Menchov, not Basso. Just Vinnie Nibali, from Sicily. Basso, by the way, has been very gracious about Nibali since the Vuelta, saying in essence that he (Basso) is the past and Nibali is the future, and that he will ride in support of Nibali next year. Nibali doesn't turn 26 until next month, so he’s only just coming into his prime. He’s not quite a pure climber and he’s not quite a pure time trialist, but he can do both very well. He also has a bit of a sprint and is a killer descender. In short, he’s a classic all-rounder. Add in the smarts and the grinta, and it’s a force to be reckoned with.
Who else came out of the Vuelta looking good? Certainly we have to mention both Ezequiel Mosquera and Peter Velits, the balance of the podium. Velits in particular is going to be fun to watch in the years ahead. Xavier Tondo too. (He ultimately finished 6th overall.) Two older riders who have had somewhat disappointing careers came out of nowhere to do quite well in this Vuelta: Nicolas Roche of Ireland and Tom Danielson of the USA. They both hung around in the mountains, stage after stage, never quite at the front but never far away. In the end, Roche finished 7th and Danielson 9th. And letZ’s not forget poor Igor Anton, who was looking so good when Lady Luck laid him out.
Finally, a salute to Carlos Sastre, the crusty old veteran. As far as I know--without doing extensive digging--he’s the only rider among the serious front runners to have completed all three of the grand tours this year. He finished 8th at both the Giro and Vuelta and 20th at the Tour. If there were an award for best overall time at all three grand tours combined, he would be the runaway winner. He has now completed 23 grand tours in his 12-year career, six of them podium finishes. I’m sorry to say that his 2008 Tour victory will forever carry an asterisk leading to the footnote: “Astana (Contador and Leipheimer) excluded.” But in spite of that, he has been riding at or near the front of the peloton for a long time now. He deserves a good measure of respect.
As usual, my “a few paragraphs” turned into two dozen. Hey, it’s a grand tour. Even a digest of a 21-stage race is going to burn through a fair amount of verbiage. If you stuck with it to this point, we can assume it’s because you enjoy this sort of thing. That being the case, if you have not already done so, drop by steephill.tv and click on the link to the 2010 Vuelta. They won’t keep all those links active forever, but they’ll be there for awhile, and you can take in the action in replay for some of these exciting mountaintop finishes. They really were excellent bike racing.
Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net