August 27, 2009 - Just when I was in danger of going into hibernation a full three months early, the season has thankfully re-started itself and jolted me back to work. The Tour de France ended on July 26th and until I visited the Prologue of the Eneco Tour on 18th August no cameras or lenses had passed through my hands. Imagine, no travelling, no bike races, no late-night eating – and definitely no late-night editing! Yet the period of rest was a little too long for my liking - especially in an English summer that was noticeably more wet and windy than normal, and that inhibited many of my promised bike-rides. As nonsensical as it was, the trip to the Eneco Tour in Rotterdam brushed the cobwebs off and put me in a great frame of mind for the Tour of Ireland – surely a race more deserving of ProTour status than the Dutch/Belgium event? Never mind the abruptness of the three-day event, nor the torrential rain that almost made a mockery of the last stage: going to Ireland was like taking a trip to the past when amateurs, pros and part-time pros raced together as one in a country revered for its cycling heritage and challenging terrain. And now it is Vuelta time again, and I cannot wait for it to start!

This will be one Vuelta a España like no other before it, starting as it does in the centre of the Netherlands, about 1,500-kilometres and several cultures away from its mother country. The line-up for the race seems as uncertain as the reasons for starting the Vuelta outside of Spain, with the absence of any established grand tour champion unlike in the years gone by. No Contador, no Sastre, and no Menchov - all eyes will instead be on riders like Frank and Andy Schleck, on the ambitious Ivan Basso, the returning hopeful, Alexandre Vinokourov, and the desperate-to-win Cadel Evans. This will be a wide-open Vuelta that clearly favours the Spanish entrants, led primarily by Alejandro Valverde, Ezequiel Mosquera and Sammy Sanchez. It is hard to see Valverde not winning the one grand tour that seems designed for his talents, for the Murciano can look to win time bonuses in the opening stages and then solidify his advantage on all of the eight summit finishes that await in Spain, as well as on a few other hilly stages. We have seen so little of Sanchez this year, and theoretically it is hard to gauge his form. Make no mistake, Sanchez has been preparing for the Vuelta as obsessively as he prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games - with a gold jersey his aim instead of a gold medal.

From an Astana perspective, the return of Vinokourov gives the team a clear purpose that it might otherwise have missed following the fall-out from the Tour de France. Even though the Kazakh ‘star has not raced properly in two years, he will be one of the most motivated cyclists in this Vuelta, partly because of the chance to race again, partly because he craves competition – and partly because he knows he is building a future Astana team that will be led and eventually managed by him. Vinokourov has to try to command enough respect from his colleagues to re-build a team that now seems split in three following the great exodus to Radio Shack with Armstrong. No-one yet knows if Contador will stay at Astana or go elsewhere, but the challenge for Vino’ is to show his leadership qualities before everyone else goes with either the American or the Spaniard and leaves Astana’s founding member looking a tad isolated! We cannot expect Vinokourov to make the top ten or even top-twenty overall, but at least one stage-win will come his way, I’m sure of it. Can Basso re-start his career by winning this Vuelta? He comes to Spain with a superb team that includes the so-talented Roman Kreuziger; I believe this pairing is the great threat to Valverde.

With the first four stages outside of Spain and the rest-day that allows the entourage to transfer to Spain, the route is a compact version of a traditional Vuelta that usually manages to get itself around most of this vast country. With no Pyrenees, and none of the Cantabrian or Asturian mountains, the main guts of this race will be centred in the south-east, between stages eight and fourteen, a brutal series of climbing challenges that will establish a clear leader and make the closing days something of an after-thought with only the penultimate time trial capable of forcing last-minute changes to the G.C. Alto de Aitana, Alto de Velefique, Sierra Nevada and La Pandera – these are legendary ascents that strike fear into any cyclist, champion or otherwise, and they seem to come day-after-day-after-day, a fact that ensures this will be a Vuelta to remember for a long time to come. The sprinters are not forgotten either, with seven clear stages devoted to their skills. Tyler Farrar’s run of form is too potent to ignore, but he’ll find himself challenged the most by Allan Davis, the Australian with so much to gain if he can pull off a few sprint-wins. Other sprinters in the mix include Oscar Freire, Andre Greipel and Gerald Ciolek – I reckon they have a maximum of seven stages in which to perform to their utmost.

The Vuelta will not yet have reached Spain before news breaks, at last, of the comings and goings of cyclists for 2010. Embargoed by the UCI until September 1st, I’m looking forward to the news that day with as much fascination as for the whole race itself! The unexpected creation of Radio Shack and the arrival of another new team, SKY, for 2010, has caused quite a stir in a sport where there are usually too few teams for cyclists looking to move. SKY has found out the hard way that it takes more than money to buy talent, and although the team-to-be-announced has some great names in it, it falls far short of their bragging all season-long. Radio Shack has done as much as it can to deprive Astana (and therefore Contador) of a lot of its foot soldiers, making a move by Contador all the more likely. If he stays at Astana, a team that has soiled its reputation by twice failing to pay its riders in 2009, the Spanish winner of the last Tour might find himself with some impotent support, and therefore be weakened before the race has even begun. Leaving will cost him money, lots of it, but Contador has to find a team that gives him the best chances against Schleck and Armstrong in 2010. Either way, this Vuelta had better be a great one, otherwise the transfer market news – instead of the race - will dominate the next three weeks.

Graham Watson

Previous 2009 Views:
January 19
February 12
March 7
April 15
May 6
July 2