Vuelta a España - Exciting or Trying too hard

The Vuelta a España has been one of the Grand Tours and a regular on the calendar since 1955, but many people think it should hang it’s cycling shoes up and give the sport for another race.

Bing or Bust?

So what did the 2011 edition of the Vuelta a España do to quell its critics and was it exciting or just trying too hard. It certainly wasn’t the easiest, in a year where the Grand Tours have really challenged the riders in the extreme. The 2011 Vuelta was not one for the light hearted and I think it produced some of the most exciting racing this year. None of the “flat stages” were ever really flat and with gradients that reached 23%, you had t dig deep.

The Spanish race is often seen as the lesser cousin of the Tour and the Giro, with many riders favouring the Italian and French races. I certainly think the organisers Unipublic put together a much better performance than this year’s Giro. Despite a small hiccup with a roundabout, at the end of Stage 16, the race relied on the riders to keep the race in the papers.

Underdog

2011 was the year of the underdog with Juan Jose Cobo defying expectations and putting his “better” teammates to shame. Cobo certainly rode the race of his life, as he timed his attack on the Angliru to perfection. Chris Froome was the other surprise of the event, as the Kenyan-born rider beat his Olympic Gold-Medallist teammate Bradley Wiggins to Madrid. The pair was joined at the hip, for most of the race, but Froome put in almost the perfect time-trial and held his own in the mountains.

Froome and Cobo gave spectators a good old ding dong battle on Stage 17, for the right to wear the red jersey. Cobo would take the eventual victory but Froome’s stage victory put the Brit within 13 seconds of the Spaniard. Wiggins admitted he was disappointed with third, but he should be happy he fared better than many of his counterparts.

Who’d be a team leader?

While the race was one for the underdog, it was definitely not one for the team leaders. One by one the named GC men dropped like flies, as the heat and the hills took their toll. Michele Scarponi took second in this year’s Giro, but couldn’t even manage to finish the race. Igor Anton drop time like water in a sieve and only managed a lowly 33^rd, 55 minutes down. Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov said they would fight for the leadership of the team on the road, but neither won that fight.

Vincenzo Nibali definitely went in to the race as a clear favourite and looked like he had made the winning move, when he claimed 6 bonus seconds and moved within 9 seconds. Many expected him to dominate in the mountains, but he cracked and slowly slipped backwards. Joaquin Rodriguez looked unbeatable early on, but once the real mountains arrived he couldn’t keep up. El Purito added injury to insult, after he crashed and lost over 15 minutes and even lost the green jersey on the final stage.

Stick or Twist?

There have been talks recently of the USA Pro Cycling Tour becoming a two or three week tour, while the Vuelta may lose a week. After the issues the USA Pro had, last month, I think it might be a little while before this becomes a credible idea. Other thoughts were the World Championships could swap places with the Vuelta, on the calendar, so it comes up first. This is definitely a much more plausible thought and one I much prefer. Ultimately I think the Vuelta did enough this year to cement its position for another couple of years and I think it is a race that should keep Grand Tour status.