La Vuelta - Week one Round-Up

The Vuelta celebrated its 75th birthday in an impressive fashion this year with a night-time team-time-trial. The starting ramp was placed next to Spain’s oldest bull ring with the 14km course going past some of Sevilla’s most stunning sights.

Another first was Mark Cavendish’s appearance at the tour; after just missing out on the green jersey in Paris the Manxman was looking to do the job in Madrid. It couldn’t have got off to a better start with his HTC Columbia team putting 10 seconds in to the rest of the teams and the sprinter donned the red jersey.

However Garmin Transition’s Julian Dean’s didn’t get the start to the race he intended after hitting a curb and going over his handlebars during a warm up. The Kiwi came to the starting ramp without his skin suit and was dropped almost immediately by his team.



Hutarovich Springs a Surprise
Stage two was a 173.7km ride from Alcalá de Guadaíra to Marbella was a bumpy route with a flat finish allowing the sprinters to make their mark on the tour. It looked like Cavendish was going to continue his form from the Tour de France, but with only meters to go Francaise de Jeux rider Yauheni Hutarovich passed the cream of the sprinting crop to take his first Grand Tour victory.

The next day proved to be a day for the climbers with a second and first category climb between Marbella and Malaga. Xacobeo Galicia rider Serafin Martinez looked to have his first pro tour victory within his grasp when he was caught under the 1k to go banner. Philip Gilbert of Omega-Pharma Lotto launched an attack with Joaquin Rodriguez close behind, but the Spaniard couldn’t pull the gap back and the Belgian took the stage and the red jersey.

A ledgend dies

The news that former Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon had lost his battle with cancer came through during stage four. Fignon had been diagnosed a few years earlier, but had been comentating on the race he had previously won only a one month earlier.

Málaga to Valdepenas de Jaen took the Vuelta up another notch with three categorised climbs. An attack from Igor Anton half way up the final climb gave the Euskaltel rider his first victory of this year’s tour. Left in his wake were some of the tour’s favourites including Rodriguez.

After a couple of mountain stages the tour returned to the flat and allowed the sprinters to stretch their legs. It was Tyler Farrar’s day beating the bunch to the finish line; the American suffered a disappointing Tour de France after injuring himself early forcing him to pull out later in the tour.

Stage six Caravaca de Cruz to Murcia was a tricky stage to predict with the majority of the profile flat the second category climb was going to make it difficult for the sprinters. Thor Hushovd was the last sprinter standing and beat the peloton to the line by a full second.

Alessandro Petacchi rounded of the first week with another victory and made sure that it was a different rider winning each stage so far. The Italian showed that age was no barrier bringing his Vuelta victories to 20 and Grand Tour stage victories to an impressive 52.