The BMC free-spending summer continues as Andy Rihs and Jim Ochowicz seem to sign any athlete that’s available. Gilbert confirmed what was reported in Equipe over a month ago – a 3 year deal with BMC. This comes on the heels of Thor Hushovd’s 3 year deal. Rumor also says they have Tejay van Garderen already signed (presumably to another three year deal).
The team has wisely combined some veterans with the best young talent coming out of the United States – they now have future TT and classics contender Taylor Phinney and now future GC contender Tejay both locked up for when their current crop starts to fade… But are there enough races to win to keep this crew happy? Cadel has already complained about how Thor can’t take his support at the TdF as he want’s 100% support in his title defense…
Next year’s teams are starting to become clearer even as the third Grand Tour of the season builds to it’s start tomorrow. With the demise of HTC there are a lot of good riders available – also as Omega Pharma and Lotto split the future of half that team is still unknown. Will they join antoher team like Leopard-Trek or Vacansoleil? Both have been rumored to be getting some Belgian Lotto money – or will they try and run their own team? And who controls the contracts of the riders who still have agreements? No one knows and the UCI seems unwilling to offer any help.
Again the season has started to wind down and the future of the sport is very much unknown. However a clear pattern of free spending billionaires with their teams is starting to become clearer. All the top teams heading into next year will have some sort of private money or a single Super-Fan spending his companies marketing dollars to allow him to hang out with pro cyclists…
The Vuelta – yes it’s still important…
Does this man look like a Grant Tour winner?
So you might be excused for not knowing the Vuelta starts tomorrow… a quick look at Velonews today has stories on Junior Track racing and a women’s stage race in Aspen as higher priority then the Vuelta preview story. And no news today – the day before the race. I think the US media has made their choices clear.
So why is the Vuelta actually important – turns out if you do some research the winner of the World Championship road race for the past ten years has always ridden the Vuelts – and in almost all years has won a stage there too… So a guy like Thor Hushovd who will miss out now as team politics boils up at the end of season will have to use races like the Tour of Britain and GP Ouest France to get ready… Not exactly optimal preparation.
Also the Vuelta is usually the first grand tour for many young racers – there are always empty slots on most teams in the 7, 8 and 9 positions… this will be Taylor Phinney’s first attempt at three weeks of racing. I predict he won’t finish – but will issue a lot of humorous tweets about how hard the racing is and how he almost missed the time cut… again.
So if the Vuelta is the stepping stone to future grand tour success how many Vuelta winers have gone on to win other grand tours? Actually not very many.
In the last 20 years a grand total of three winners have won Grand Tours after their Vuelta win – Tony Tominger took three Vueltas from ‘92-‘94 and won the Giro in ’95. Denis Menchov won in 2007 and won the Giro in 2009. Alberto Contador won in 2008 and won the Tour in 09, maybe ’10 and the maybe the Giro in ’11.
More often the Vuelta is the consolation prize for riders who couldn’t get it done at the Tour. Ulrich won in 1999 after missing the Tour. Roberto Heras never did much at the Tour and once he signed with US Postal as a worker for Armstrong he had the Vuelta as consolation. Menchov, Vinokourov and Valverde are all riders who never quite managed to be real contenders at the Tour but won the Vuelta.
This year three Tour potentials who crashed out; Bradley Wiggins; Jurgen Van den Broeck and Janez Brajkovic are back to try and salvage their season (and get some UCI points) with success in Spain. Add to that a list of climbing Spaniards and climbing Italians and the race is shaping up to look like the flight for 10th place at the Tour looked. Exciting but ultimately missing the highest level of racing.
Tomorrow’s TTT starts the race – almost all the climbing favorites will lose time as Lampre, Euskaltel and Katusha aren’t known for their TT prowess. Look for Wiggins and Sky to win the stages with Garmin, Radio Shack, HTC, Saxo and Rabobank rounding out the top 5. Wiggo won’t want to keep the jersey – but should do everything he can to look good. This is going to be his best chance for race leadership – next year in the Tour he’ll be so blown out by the Schleck-mountain express that he’ll need these fond memories.
Predictions:
Vuelta Stage 1: 16km TTT in Benidorm
Winner: Team Sky
Red Leaders Jersey: Bradley Wiggins
To get ready for Vuelta here's a clip of Jan Ullrich putting the hurt (on himself) in the '99 Vuelta - plus it's got a great sound-track!
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