The Cycliste Moderne, September 12, 2005

Vuelta Recap

Sunday will likely prove to be the decisive stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Liberty Seguros’ Roberto Heras attacked on the second to last climb. Until today, Rabobank’s Russian leader Denis Menchov had proven to be the equal of the three time Vuelta winner, Heras. Heras had been unable to shake Menchov on any of the climbs and had been unable to compete with Menchov in the time trials. Menchov’s forty-seven second lead looked like it might be enough to give him his first Grand Tour victory.

Menchov ended up losing 5:17 to Heras on the last mountain stage and certainly the hardest stage of the Vuelta. With five categorized climbs on the day, Heras attacked more than 60km from the finish on the second to last climb up the Alto de la Colladiella. The stage was cold and wet, which is a sharp contrast to the high temperatures that had been present for much of the first two weeks of the Vuelta. Heras attacked early and then steadily rode away from Menchov, both on the climbs and on the descents. On the final climb up the Valgrande Pajares, Heras caught what was left of the day’s big break and rode past them to the stage victory and likely a victory in the Vuelta.

I had been surprised by Heras’ performance to date in the Vuelta. He had not shown the ability to ride away from people like he had in past years on the climbs. Heras has had fairly good time trial results at the Vuelta, just not as good as Menchov. I had expected Heras to have taken control of the race by now. The field in this year’s Vuelta is nowhere near as deep as that at the Giro or Tour. With poor form by such other Spanish leaders as Aitor Gonzalez and Iban Mayo, and Alejandro Valvarde’s non participation, I had figured Heras would have taken control much earlier than he did.

He probably has the best team at the Vuelta this year and with a lead of over four and a half minutes, the last week of the Vuelta should not result in any real surprises. Heras is on track to win his fourth Vuelta and third straight.

Discovery Difficulties.

After winning the first two Grand Tours of the season, Discovery Channel did not come with any intentions of winning the Vuelta, just hoping for some good results. Amazingly, Discovery Channel is down to just four riders with only Tom Danielson, Michael Barry, Stijn Devolder and Benjamin Noval still in the race. All four are relatively well placed in the General Classification. Mounting three Grand Tour campaigns in a single season has obviously taken its toll on the team. Much like the Spanish teams that did nothing during the Giro d’Italia, Discovery is taking its time, just slogging through because it has to as a ProTour team. However, even with just four riders, the team sits seventh in the team classification ahead, unsurprisingly, of all of the French ProTour teams.