Velominati Super Prestige: 2011 La Vuelta a España
Spain is an awesome country. It has amazing scenery, culture, cities and chicas… oh, the chicas. Its football competition features the world’s best players, their national team are the reigning World Cup holders, and they boast world champions in tennis, Moto GP, Superbikes and Formula 1. They regularly kick the collective asses of France and Italy, and a lot of other European countries when it comes to bicycle racing, although most of their recent heroes have somewhat of a cloud hanging over them. So why does their Grand Tour hardly raise an eyebrow when compared to the other two big tours, and why the fuck do they still allow cowards on horses armed with poison darts to taunt and kill a beast as noble as el toro for ‘entertainment’?
I can’t really answer the last one, but the fact that La Vuelta is treated like the road racing equivalent of a red-headed stepchild is about as fair as the Corrida itself. To me, and to many pros, it is seen as a tour of redemption. Those who, for one reason or another, either due to bad luck, bad management or bad form suffered a less-than-stellar Tour de France, now get a chance to make something of their season and add a ‘major’ to their palmares. Riders like Jan Ullrich, who in 1999 took the amarillo jersey after sitting out Le Tour with a dicky knee. 2008 saw Contador make amends after his Astana team was prevented from starting le Grande Boucle under a doping cloud. In fact, La Vuelta and doping have more than a passing aquaintance, with Valverde winning while under a pending hearing in 2009, and of course little Robbie Heras getting stripped of his 05 title after an EPO positive. Last year wasn’t without its own scandal, with a positive for 2nd place ‘sensation’ Ezequiel Mosquera dragging La Vuelta’s name through the red dust again. It could well be the dirtiest tour of them all, a race that itself seeks atonement as much as those who race it.
This year’s edition has the same sense of redemption written all over it, with some of Le Tour’s unfortunates having a crack at it. There’s Wiggo, who was in the self-proclaimed form of his life before snapping his twig-like collarbone early on. Can he show us what he had promised on the roads of France in the Dauphine, or will the Spanish heat and steep, long climbs be too much for him? How about Jurgen Van den Broeck, also looking great before his own clavicle calamity ended his July. Invisible Denis will also be there, his Geox team considered not good enough for the Tour, out to show that he’s still a force and add to his two Spanish victories. Other battered old warhorses who will never give up easily are Andreas Klöden and Carlos Sastre, but father time may have finally taken its toll on this duo.
In reality, it’ll probably come down to the younger brigade made up of last year’s winner Vinnie Nibali, J-Rod, Scarponi, and Anton. It could be a blow-out, or one of the best races of the year. We may even get another drug controversy to keep up the status quo of years gone by. Whatever happens is anybody’s guess, which is why this race is one of the hardest to pick for VSP contenders, and one that might even be as exciting, vibrant and colourful as the country it traverses for three hot weeks.
So pour yourself a glass of Sangria, give the start list a long or glancing look, and post your picks before 5am Pacific time (yeah, I don’t know when the hell that is either…) and if you have any doubts, confusion or questions, head to the VSP page for clarification, rules and/or rebuttals. No horsing around, no bullshit.
Buena suerte!
Marvellous!!!
Rrrrrraaaargh! Busting into the Vuelta VSP with some US PRO Cycling picks:
1. Tommy D!
2. The Climbing Dutchman
3. Tejay van Garderererenrenennen
4. Rory Sutherland
5. One of the Grimps
It looks like BIG MIG needs a haircut!
I don’t know who 2/5 of the top five are. I had to add one of them to the database because he wasn’t in there. WTF?
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what happened to the points….?
Gerard – Looks like Fronk neutralized today’s VSP because he was pissed he didn’t know 2/5 of the top 5. Makes sense to me! We all get zero points.
why the hell do i keep believing in Kloden….arrrrgh! I mean…12minutes man
@Souleur
And Menchov. The Tour is looking pretty smart for stiffing Geox…
@frank
This is my only chance to stay in contention for the overall VSP… Allez Podgornyy!!!
@brett
Rule #31a… No posting pocket contents on rapha.com… Have some self respect, man!
@Dr C
Going to get the bike out of it’s bag shortly and put it back together, will it be mashed? Aluminium not carbon though. Got some insurance before I left just in case!
I’ll hit the hills this evening
Whoo Hoo! I rock again!
I’ll quietly ingnore the fact that I’m coming all over Steven Bradbury
@mouse
you may wish to rephrase that….
@mouse
Edit be damned!
@Gerard
Dude! Just shot beer out my nose!
Ah, whoops.
Had my double entendre filter turned off. Just another example of cross cultural turn of phrasage non-compatibility where ‘becoming like’ is conflated with ’emission onto’.
Pretty fuckin funny though.
More importantly though, I suddenly feel a desire to move to Spain, if only to occupy the same region as beautiful creatures such as this:@RedRanger
Thanks Redranger.
@sgt
Well, I did say to “get creative”, and to post V-jerseys… I want to see floor pumps, cases of beer, whole fried chickens… not your frikkin puncture kit!
Ah crap, I wanted the picture.
@Steampunk
Yeah, +1 to that.
I would imagine that Geox would be kicking themselves for their recruitment choices.
Menchov really does seem invisible, and Sastre just doesn’t do it for me.
I recall reading about how Sastre behaved like a Prima Donna when at Cervelo, holding his domestiques back at the year following his tour win when ge was well down in GC and when they were clearly stronger than him. Can’t remember who it was, but think they ended up top 20ish.
I also feel like his tour win was more down to an amazing Saxo Bank team rather than his individual effort (yeah, in spite of his effort up Alpe d’huez.)
Also, I love the quote from Thor in this articleHere
He really has done nothing of note since.
@mouse
Let’s go a little easy on Sastre, who’s a bit long in the tooth at this point, but did finish all three GTs last year (with two top ten finishes to boot). Six podiums (at least one in every GT) and 15 top tens: guy knows how to ride a bike, especially when the road goes up. Much as I like Thor, he doesn’t seem to be especially good at making friends.
@brett
Ahh Rapha:
The ‘anti-Rapha’ site: http://internationale.teamjva.com/
@scaler911
And (that site is run by these guys): Local team, if I wasn’t happy with my team, might consider a change: http://teamjva.com/
@RedRanger
Nice. I found a much better photo, but decorum and the occasional presence of lady folk prohibit me from posting it. (google image search fyi)
Im damned if I do damned if I don’t.
@Dr C
Rule #9 compliant warm up, shake down ride, 30C+. Bike seems to have survived the evil leprechaun’s budget airline reasonably well although it wasn’t adhering to the principle of silence, work required there!
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/366259
@Chris
wildly jealous, but then I’ve just booked my bike onto my flight to Las Palmas Jan 2nd, so I’m over it already!
@mouse
Jesus H, what the f..uck!
Do you lot down there call your wimmin men’s names too?
If I hadn’t had the wierdest dream last night, one of those one’s you go in and out of 50 times, so you almost think it is reality, but I actually had an intense sexual relationship with the Queen of England (she was age 40 in my dream by the way, and QE2, not QE1) – how frickin wierd is that! Obviously I am limited in the detail incase I breach treason or similar rules, but she was……
@Chris
I actually looked that up – definitely qualifies as a shake down only – expecting daily route postings dude, plus some altitude for the Shropshire Hilly prep
@scaler911
yeeps, I’ve just had a cross cultural phraseage non-compatibility reference number two moment. Note to self, ensure safe search is engaged whilst Googling young miss Valverde.
Miss Valverde just caused an auto applied dose of Chamois cream to be released.
@TomB
TMI dude!
Cycling Stars – NY TIMES
Igorito! Que pasa??
Watched the last 5k of yesterday’s stage when I got home last night. First I’ve seen of La Vuelta this go-round.
I must say that the Movistar bikes are pretty slick. Really like the white, blue, neon green paint job. Helmets aren’t bad, kit is pretty cool too.
Even though it has only been a few weeks, felt like months since I’ve watched any racing. Ah, the joy of watching PROs turn the cranks. Never would have imagined I’d be such a fan of watching people ride bikes, but damn, it gets me stoked to get out on mine. I’m away on work so two weeks without a bike. Argh, never fun, but should be the last traveling I have to do for awhile. That means I’ll be home all fall for CX riding/racing and road rides. Going to be an incredible autumn.
>Cavendish quits
>Who would’ve guessed?
Antón lost time. A bad start.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Jeff, I’m not too sure on your identifications here. Pretty sure it’s the Schleck brothers in drag. Those look a lot like wigs and the body build is spot on for les freres. Andy in the Louboutins of course . . .
Sorry, @mouse – it appears you’re doomed any time anyone scores any points. As, apparently, am I. @heath takes the lead in a six-way tie for at 2 points.
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Would you look at that: Second! Now I just hope I’m not peaking too early.
@Netraam
He looked like nine miles of shit yesterday…….
@Chris @Dr C
First ride under 30C in about a month today. We’ve been in the high 20s with high humidity for quite some time.
Anton suffered today. I’d really like to see him pull it out. And what is up with Menchov? My picks, apparently, might be awful unless some people pull out some serious V.
@Bianchi Denti
Newsflash: Chavanel quotes Velominati poster.
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/9500/Sylvain-Chavanel-In-order-to-win-you-have-to-risk-losing.aspx
@Dr C
@steampunk too
Fail. Set the alarm for 6.30am it was pitch black so went back to sleep. Woke up bit quite a while later and got dragged to the beach, home too late to ride. Interval training comprises underwater lengths of the pool. Beer and wine tasting tonight, will try again tomorrow at 7am. Looks like it’ll be 38C by the end of the week!!
@Dr C
Ooh fuck yeah! Grey sea urchin!
@Steampunk
Correct Steamer – and also apparently one of the nicer blokes around. Cuddles mentions Sastre in his book, saying that in one of the Tours where he was completely isolated, Sastre said to him something to the effect of, “I know you are on your own, let me know if you need drinks and I will make sure you get them.”
Pretty classy move – certainly know I wouldn’t have done it if I was in Carlos’ shoes.
@Mouse Good God… I remember that event with Steven Bradbury (though would never have remembered his name) but had no idea about all the other shit.
That’s Jens and Stuey-type hard… 111 stitches, 4 litres of blood and all his quads sliced, with an encore of two fractured vertebrae and all that for racing in a sport where he didn’t make enough money to run a car.
Gold medal was the least he deserved.
@mouse
Also, I love the quote from Thor in this articleHere
Thor’s changing teams a lot. Doesn’t really inspire loyalty wherever he goes does he.
@minion
it’s a viking thing
I heard Anton quit. But then I heard he had continued. Did Anton quit or not?
@Netraam
I hope so. I mean, I feel badly for him, but I need him to quit so I can make a penalty-free change. Anton should stop being so selfish and think of me and what I need.