The Vuelta a España begins this Saturday and an especially mountainous edition awaits. Jonas Vingegaard is the obvious pick for the win in Madrid, it’ll be interesting to see if a rider from outside of UAE or Visma-LAB can stand on the podium there too.
Route summary
An improbable start in Italy – right now the local media in Italy are barely mentioning the race – but very much the Vuelta in course design throughout: short stages and summit finishes that are often not preceded by another climb, or if they are there’s still a flat approach to the final climb.
There are ten summit finishes but of varying difficulty, ranging from the opening Sunday’s big ring kind of climb to Limone Piemonte; the likes of the Angliru, Farrapona and Bola del Mundo, all of which feature later on, the middle phase of the race is the hardest on paper and things ease off for the third week. There’s a 24km team time trial on Stage 5 which is flat but watch out for the wind, and then Stage 18 is a flat 27km solo time trial.
There are only three nailed-on sprint stages which means few sprinters start and other days may not have a summit finish, if anything they’re harder with a succession of climbs, for example Stage 11 to Bilbao has over 3,000m of vertical gain but without going higher than 480m above sea level.
There are time bonuses of 10-6-4 seconds at the finish, and also one intermediate point each day denoted with a “B” on the graphics, it can an intermediate sprint but also on a mountain pass.
The Contenders
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) is the clear favourite. Beaten in the Tour de France, he still put over six minutes into the next rider. He’s the deductive pick in the absence of Pogačar. He can climb better than anyone in the field, and on a good day time trial better than all his rival GC candidates too. He’ll be hoping to do his best but outside the team bus, media and public expectations are framed such that he needs for a win, to turn around a (relative) losing streak. The Vuelta is often a race of revenge, or for the softly-spoken Dane, making amends both for 2025 and landing the win that came close in 2023.
So far so easy but his form is not obvious. He has not raced since the Tour where he was below his best. Pick your own outcome where either he’s had the Vuelta in mind since mid-July and so coming in as good as can be; or he’s turned more stale since July and could fade more. The first scenario seems more probable. He’s backed by a strong team with 2023 Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss – the only past winner of the Vuelta taking to the start – and Matteo Jorgenson for high level support. If everyone assumes Vingegaard is going to win it’ll be interesting to see how because it might pay to sit back in the first half of the race and mark rivals and wait for the bigger mountains of the second week.
João Almeida and Juan Ayuso (pictured) are the twin leaders of UAE and this brings the promise of a three-week telenovela to see who is the leader and, crucially, who isn’t. There’s no house sprinter, they’re all in for the GC although Marc Soler can do his version of a drum solo and raid a stage, and Jay Vine could be a joker card to play too. Almeida started out as a punchy rider and seemed to trade some of this to become a turbo diesel in the mountains, now he’s starting to combine the two this season but even if he’s in form – and he hasn’t raced since crashing out of the Tour in early July – how to get ahead of Vingegaard? Ayuso’s finished no worse than 4th in the Vuelta but that’s one of his problems as he’s been third in the 2022 Vuelta, fourth in the 2023 edition and hasn’t completed a grand tour since. Now at his home grand tour he’ll have support but daily pressure too as he seeks to turn around his fortunes after fading out of the Giro, plus the subplot of whether he’s preparing to break his contract and move to another team.
Good luck to the others trying to get a look-in, it’s easy to see the podium crowded by UAE and Visma-LAB riders, and it’s not delirious to imagine that these teams could take the first five places, but rivals will try and see what happens in the opening mountain stages and go from there.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain) is in good form but would prefer more time trial kilometres while Santiago Buitrago might sign for a stage win today.
Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) is incisive on the climbs and while everyone says he struggles to put a three week grand tour bid together… well this Vuelta suits as the third week eases off and if he’s never going to thrive in a time trial, his team are good for the TTT in Figueres.
Once upon a time Jai Hindley was a star signing for Bora-hansgrohe, these days he’s almost been relegated to a mountain lieutenant. Giulio Pellizzari should be worth watching, strong in Burgos recently he’s here to bank a grand tour in the legs after an excellent Giro. He can shine on a stage or two and place high.
Ben O’Connor is back after his surprise long spell in the lead here a year ago. He’s had a tricky season but salvaged a stage win at the Tour, turning things around after a crash on the opening day while Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper give more options in the mountains.
Fifth in the Tour de France, Felix Gall (Decathlon-Ag2r) didn’t rest on his laurels but went straight to altitude and the climber finds a race to suit as the approaches to the climbs are often more straightforward. He’ll have grand tour débutants Johannes Staune-Mittet and Léo Bisiaux to watch too.
How’s your summer been? Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quickstep, aka T-Rex-Quickstep here) has spent his in rehab after a horror crash in the streets of Tirana at the start of the Giro and anything here will be a bonus. Valentin Paret-Peintre is keen to learn from his leader and could even complete the set of a stage win in all grand tours here.
Egan Bernal (Ineos) is gradually improving to the point where he could finish high on GC but also grab a stage win, but perhaps not the two combined.
After a chaotic 2024 season David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) took a lot of satisfaction in sixth place here a year ago as a base on which to build, only to keep up the chaos this season. First being felled by a cat when training in the spring, then going into the Giro short of form but still talking up a GC bid, crashing but soldiering on which left him stale and out of the Tour. So he’s back at the Vuelta for some rattrapage.
Is Tom Pidcock here for GC? He’s interested in it but presumably on his terms, playing a role on the climbs rather than grinding out a win. Q36.5 team might welcome the UCI points from a good finish so this might at least mean he does not sit up one day to lose time in order to win a stage. He’s more capable of winning from the breakaway and happier trying too.
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Jonas Vingegaard |
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João Almeida, Juan Ayuso |
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Ciccone, Pellizari, Tiberi, Jorgenson, Vine |
This Vuelta seems more locked down than any GC we’ve seen for a while, but there are always surprises. Who would have guessed what would happen in the 2023 version? That said, Visma won’t likely have the internal drama they accidentally created in 2023, but maybe UAE will? I’m all for it. As for the other podium contenders, they all seem to have huge weak points, so it’s so hard to guess who will step up. My guess is that the Angliru will decide who is actually racing for GC, if it’s not already obvious before that. I can see a chaotic final week with not many riders battling conservatively to hold onto their positions, but rather lots of “Hail Mary’s” to attempt to get something out of the race.
I would like to see Vine get through one of these things without crashing or flatlining but I suspect this is a wishful thought.
It’s interesting to read that a recent Grand Tour winner “has been” quickly dismissed as a domestique. I thought he was the team leader (?)
How will it work out in 2025? It will be 2023 all over again. The Danish “awesome garden” discovers he is well behind one of his teammates. This time it is Jorgenson (properly pronounced using Merican, “‘G’organson”). What does he do? Unlike then, when Landa saved the much-beloved within the peloton and on social media Kuss, Jorgenson is unable to secure the necessary support.* Consequently, Vingegaard pulls out the win at the end. Jorgenson leaves VLB for Red Bull, allowing him to win at least one 2026 tour.
* Landa lives a short, but happy, life because Kuss buys him every alcoholic beverage for the rest of his life.
The UAE GC battle could be the best of the Vuelta. Maybe back to the great Movistar days.
I reckon this will be the race when Ayuso will be hit with the reality that he’s not a grand tour GC rider like a slap in the face with a wet fish.
Yeah I’m not really a fan either, but 3rd place in his first ever 3-week GC and he’s not a GC rider?
I was wondering if there might be a hat trick of pre-GrandTour moan fests here to match up to the years ‘second tier contenders’ at the Giro and ‘foregone conclusion’ at the Tour but heartening to read the above. Then realised there’s only four comments and am now thinking ‘bring back the moaning all is forgiven!’ cause I guess there’s a distinct lack of interest in the Vuelta. No surprise I guess, sure it’ll come by the end unless Jonas steam rollers the competition.
I think the Vuelta always takes people by surprise a bit – there’s a natural come-down after the tour, and then no real high-profile races in late July & August to keep audiences interested. There’s no obvious build up races for the Vuelta to build intrigue (Poland isn’t the most interesting, and I don’t think Burgos is even televised?), and then the startlist is often in flux as riders assess their form & fatigue (and contract situations!?)…so all in all it doesn’t create the same suspense & appetite as the Giro & Tour. But I think the intrigue builds as the race goes on during its first couple of weeks, certainly helped by some great racing and surprising performances in recent years.
I sort of wonder if the lack of interest is due to the one track nature of the Vuelta. I mean we are mostly bored by the flat boring sprint stages in the tour, but as there are no sprinters at the Vuelta there’s a missing narative (or two)? part of the beauty of cycling is there are lots of interesting things going on outside the overall winner, sub stories and races within races. Concentrated attention on the GC maybe leaves us a bit cold especially if we think we already know the result?
The Vuelta a Burgos is televised (last 90 mins or so), and it is quite a nice race. But few of the serious Vuelta candidates race it: this year it was “contested” between Del Toro and Ciccone, neither of whom are racing for GC in the “Vuelta”. Most of the GC candidates for the Vuelta are coming in without any kind of warm-up race, which makes it difficult to assess their form.
I definitely agree with the “comedown after the Tour”.
@Davesta – that’s a pretty accurate summary. The Vuelta sneaks up and then gives a good account of itself. You’d think we’d all learn!!
The Vuelta is and always has been the ugly duckling of the Grand Tours. It can throw up decent racing, and had a mini golden age when Froome, Contador, Valverde and Purito Rodriguez contested it seemingly every year, but I find it a bit samey. Both in the style of racing and the scenery, which is perhaps unfair. Throw in that Eurosport/TNT tend to give the Vuelta to Carlton Kirby after he and Rob Hatch have shared the Tour and Hatch has had the Giro, and I often don’t bother watching it.
I’m sure it’ll be decent this year, but I fully expect Vingo to win and Ayuso to not live up to his billing.
At least you can’t say nobody has moaned now!
Yeah, though the ugly duckling occasionally, and seemingly out of nowhere, sometimes sneaks up on you and turns into a swan. Any sprints are usually ho-hum, contested largely by second- and third-stringers; there are few, if any, breakaway royales and people are [reduced?] to getting enthused about this year’s unknown Spanish ProTeam rider who gets a stage win after doing very little all year; and even Rogla’s mum can’t be too surprised when the “oh, it’s Wednesday so that means another hockey-stick stage with a GC sprint in a punchy final won by Roglic” doesn’t send the crowd absolutely wild with excitement.
But then it goes and conjures a Fuente De out of nothing; and a Froomigal ditto; and a MAL meltdown on the penultimate stage; and the Jumbo grand drama of two years ago where they seemed to ignore the elephant in the room until way too late in the day.
Well at least the commentary today was a surprise even if the overall winner probably won’t be! I too was expecting Carlton Kirby but no, it was Rob Hatch. Maybe TNT Sports decided to throw us a bone given they’re making us suffer through incessant adverts again.
Here in the US, we have Bob Roll announcing and commentary from Christian Vande Velde. A weak cast of characters but at least we don’t have to put up with Phil Liggett! Poor Phil usually has a case of mild amnesia as he refers to riders from 20+ years ago, who are either fathers,uncles or just have similar names of current riders. Wish we had Hatch here in the US he is class.
Bolstering that theme of a mini golden age of the Vuelta – yes, that time when cycling was supposed to be so boring compared to today – we are now exactly ten years after this wonderful little piece of craziness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDlsMPduHsM
Thank you for the preview, and the consistently excellent commentary.
This blog has played a huge part in my growing interest in pro cycling over the last few years. If things continue this way, I may even buy a bicycle.
I second that emotion. The depth of knowledge and insight on offer here has certainly stoked my burgeoning interest in the sport; it’s much appreciated!
That, and the entertaining give and take of views in comments… I’m not going to kid myself about getting a bike though.
RIP Bernardo Ruiz 8.1.25 – 14.8.25
“El Pipa”, winner of the 1948 Vuelta and first Spanish rider ever on the Tour de France final GC podium (3rd in ’52)
He’s also the rider who held the record for most consecutive Grand Tours completed which was broken by Adam Hansen ten years ago. His grand old age combined with reasonable health and a bit of serendipitous route planning enabled them to meet up at the race a couple of years later – https://www.facebook.com/TheCyclingPodcast/posts/this-is-adam-hansen-meeting-92-year-old-bernardo-ruiz-the-1948-vuelta-winner-who/754410874766075/
Stage 1 saw the sprinters sprint, and stage 2 should see which of the climbers have good legs. Not that the climb is hard (last 2km only by the looks of it) and this early in the race a lot of guys should be left near the finish.
Will Almeida lead out Ayuso or vice versa or will both sprint for the win? Visma are bound to lead the way but others might well take a flyer to win and grab the leader’s jersey (will Visma try to not take the leader’s jersey I wonder).
Mads might have 10 km of uphill in him this early in the race.
He did in the Giro! But he was a bit off the sprinting pace yesterday.
Is this a contender for the most pointless “grand depart” ever?
The Vuelta/Spain are just not made for this.
The TdF/France can do it, even if I prefer all in France editions and the Giro can pull it off every now and then, but for the Vuelta only Portugal really makes sense.
No.
Agree!
It never makes any sense to me when any of them start, or even just visit, one of the other countries that have a Grand Tour. The crowds are always punier than the home version or when they visit countries with less professional racing.
@Richard
I agree, with two exceptions: the Tour starts in Yorkshire and Denmark. I followed both in person and have to say the reception and crowds were phenomenal. Beyond that, it’s been pretty underwhelming.
I generally think the foreign starts if well chosen, like Yorkshire and Denmark are excellent and a great way to mark the start of the TOUR specifically. They feel special and celebratory.
But I agree overall there should be no need for these if countries with a real cycling fanbase/heartland etc were properly served by meaningful races that had a chance to build interest, support and a proper fanbase over time.
The weaker grand departs just serve to show that the system is dire and holding back any way of building lasting fanbases outside of a few key countries. We’ll just continue to have a decade of interest from places like Denmark, the UK and Eritrea for the moment they have a star which will evaporate as soon as those leading names retire because the sport has no way to support any interest longterm outside of the tiny fervent community… us!
It’s a real shame and doesn’t have to be like this but always will be.
The grand departs both good and bad are great way to see the overall issues.
I for one am looking forward to a future grand depart in the Cook Islands: it’s just what cycling needs to establish a truly global fan base 😉
And in the UK the “tiny fervent community” is probably getting even tinier thanks to the whacking price rise from TNT Sports.
I agree.
It’s interesting that Italy have hosted the start of 2 of the last 4 Grand Tours, but not its own Grand Tour, where it shipped the start off to Albania!
The old man in Catch-22 would have loved that.
After a brillant Giro and a horrible Tour its difficult what to make of the Vuelta. I expect Vingo to be the strongest (as he showed today), but looking for the internal UAE fight and – for the Vuelta – expected newcomer from a Spanish wildcard team.
I would really like to see if Pidcock can finally get his act together but for a winner not named Jonas, my money will be on Ciccone.
@Ryan
I wouldn’t call this year’s Tour “horrible.” It wasn’t very exciting (and that’s coming from someone who likes Pogacar), but it still had its moments. The Giro was good, though most in hindsight, as I didn’t find it *that* great until the final week. As for the Vuelta, I like Vingegaard as much as I like Pogacar, but I’m not a fan of races dominated by a single rider. Hopefully, someone in the ranks will step up to challenge the Dane.
After seeing the first three stages, it appears unlikely that Jonas will be challenged without something strange happening. Even if that is the case, the Vuelta often has odd stories that come out of nowhere, so I’m still optimistic. One storyline that I’m very curious about is what happens to UAE with their less-than-ideal leadership situation. I think the most likely scenario is that one of the leaders naturally drops out of the leadership position, but it would be really fun if that doesn’t happen and we’re still asking the same questions on the early slopes of the Angliru.
I like the unpredictability of the Vuelta. Riders are tired, the teams aren’t as strong so strange things happen. Some of the stages can be really wild and GC hard to predict. Having said that, JV looks a pretty strong favourite. But you never know.
I’m hoping Bernal can stay up there on GC… would love to see some return to his former strength 🤞
@Andrew – I likewise love the Vuelta for these reasons.
Plus it gave us some of the best Grand Tour races of the 2010s so should be celebrated for that!
But I think we should probably also admit that looking forward to a race because it has a load of tired riders at race many don’t want to be at *(see Geraint Thomas podcast!) who serve up unpredictability simply because simply because the race is a bit of an afterthought is a VERY low bar for pro cycling fans to get excited about!
We follow a sport where the best riders are only turning up to races in peak form with their best game-faces on for a three/four week span of the classics and a three week span of the TDF. That’s six-seven weeks max per year if you throw in the Worlds. Yes some riders do the Giro, Vuelta then Lombardia and draw it out, plus this generation are far better at putting on a show year round – but really we’re only seeing the best of the best truly lock horns in the races we’ll remember for around six weeks a year plus the Worlds if we’re lucky. Everything else is a warm up race, a secondary race, or an afterthought. It’s bananas. Many won’t admit it but as fans we’re getting six weeks (or less!) of pure Van Der Poel, maybe six of Vingegaard, both in line with generations past (Froome, Boonen etc etc) and it’s only the absurdly generous Pogacar who rewards us with year round combatively…
We should worship the ground Pogacar walks on for bountiful entertainment he’s given.
Still it’s better than boxing I guess!
Yes we get year round entertainment through other means which is part of what makes cycling the rich and rewardingly beautiful sport it is but as a fan I often think the sport as whole is taking us for fools when we find ourselves looking forward to races where everyone’s knackered and just wants it over already.
So how do you propose we alter the fundamentals of human physiology to solve this problem?!
Clone Tufty the Conman, obvs 🤪
This is a good question.
Consultants, management speak is always gonna rile most people here so this is never going to be an answer that’s puts a smile on people’s faces but I guess it’s probably worth remembering that a lot of consultants, waffley managers were involved in many things that worked out well so shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand…
Because if you look at the current set up of the entire sport, especially the schedule – it’s totally random and a historic hodge podge that has now resulted in riders spending prolonged periods on training camps off camera and does little for many riders nor fans who want to see a more consistent season and not the drop off post Tour or the endless warm up races early in the year.
A revised schedule/overall sport that’s made in consultation with riders, races organisers, team owners who all have (or are given more) of a vested interest in sports overall success has the potential to learn from previous mistakes and revamp the sport in a way many other sports have successfully done. It will involve teething problems and nay-sayers (and as I always say is impossible so simply will not happen) but I think would surely have the potential to better use top riders peak battery-life (can’t think of another term!) in a more sustainable/entertaining way than what we currently have.
Especially because you get the feeling it’s the season structure dictating the riders peaks and troughs rather than this being the fundamentals of human physiology and the only way we’ll ever see riders/humans peaking for an endurance sport like cycling – so I find it hard to believe there isn’t an alternative structure that balances rest&recovery with racing to give a more manageable system for the entire pro-cycling circus that delivers a more consistent calendar for fans.
Seeing riders randomly drafted from Renewi across to a three Grand Tour in Spain is a great example of how mindless and difficult to fathom for even top-riders the current system must be – so my hunch is with proper thought and planning we could pretty easily do better for everyone.
Obviously there are a million questions that could/would/should be added to this (and many I’ve banged on about previously: rider safety, team sustainability, reaching new fans, the power of the TDF within the sport etc etc) – and I welcome and encourage anyone to shout me down for being a boring idiot holding onto a fantasy, as I clearly am especially as this only scratches the surface of what could/should be done… but tbh I will always think it’s possible for this sport to be better and judging by the amount of post here regularly saying **’that Giro was lacklustre, the Tour was a wash out, the Vuelta is an afterthought, who cares about Lombardia’** etc etc I can’t be the only one.
Plus… now just feels like a great time to make changes with the growth in women’s cycling and generation of riders who really pushed the sport to new heights giving a great run up to an overhaul. Anyway. Till next time… (in about a week…)
I’ve got no problem with changes being made (ideally for the better!) and I do agree that the pro cycling calendar is confusing and muddled and could be improved, and that the extent of the TdF’s dominance is an ongoing problem.
But I think you’re being naïve if you think physiology isn’t a limiting factor in riders’ ability to compete against each other at their best.
Compare cycling to other physiology-dominant sports (ie those sports where physical capacity is the dominant factor, as opposed to motor skills) – track & field is the obvious example, and particularly the endurance-based events. These sports work on a 4-year cycle, where we see athletes compete against each other at their very best once every FOUR YEARS!
Ok, we also get other championships such as the Worlds or Europeans (every 2 years), for which athletes will achieve a similar peak of form. And in between we’ll get regular meets like the Diamond league, where each event takes place 7 times a year from April-August, but athletes’ form will vary across the meets and the top athletes will be using them largely as ‘training’ events. There’s also the indoor season from Jan-Mar of course, but these are just warm-up events with very few athletes targeting them.
The marathon isn’t part of the Diamond League, but instead has the major city marathons, of which there are 6-7, and which take place either in the spring (Mar-Apr) or autumn (Sep-Oct). But of course, the top marathoners don’t race all 6-7 each – they’ll race maybe 2 per year, and will typically combine these with shorter events like the 5k or 10k in Diamond league meets.
So in track and field then, we see athletes competing at or close to their best form in around 6-10 races per year, but only at their very best form once every 2-4 years!
But track and field also differs from cycling, in that athletes don’t have to take part in all the other events in order to compete in their own – 800m racers don’t have to run the 5,000m the day before – but in cycling, Cav has to ride over the mountains for 3 weeks before he can duke it out on the Champs Elysee; Ganna has to survive sprint stages and hilly stages before he can lay down the power in a TT. If anything, cyclists are required to race far too much, in comparison to other physiology-dominant sports.
We could look at XC mountain biking as a different example then, where the calendar is set out with around 10 World Cup & World Champs races, between Apr-Oct. Perhaps road cycling could copy this format – do away with the stage races which require riders to race stages that don’t suit them, and boil the calendar down to just a series of one-dayers…
But even then, in the mtb world cup, riders can’t hold peak form for the whole season. The riders that dominate in April run out of steam by July (see the Specialized Factory team for this year’s case in point). Others deliberately start slow in order to peak for the world champs later in the season. Perhaps the most famous super-peaker in all of XC mtb – Pauline Ferrand-Prevot – has recently publicly stated that the peak she achieved to win the TdFF is unsustainable and unhealthy, and is warning young athletes not to copy her!
Even in those sports that are physically demanding but involve a higher degree of motor skill, such as tennis, competitors peak for just a handful of events each year, using other tournaments as warm-ups to hone their fitness & form.
The reason for this, is the fundamentals of human physiology, where fitness and fatigue combine to result in peak form only being achievable for small windows of time, and for a limited number of times in any given period, at least without it being of detriment to the long-term health and wellbeing of an athlete.
When we compare to other sports, we actually see that to have 6 weeks each year of the MvdP’s, Pogacar’s & Vingegaards competing against each other at, or close to top form is really quite remarkable and amazing. In other sports, we’d be lucky to get 6 DAYS each year!
Cycling actually does something really quite unique and incredible here, by pitting riders against each other for weeks at a time, ensuring they have comparable levels of fatigue and form, and thus providing us with many more days of high level competition than we see in any other endurance sport.
I was going to say, as Davesta has, that it could be a lot worse and we could follow a sport that works on a 4 year cycle, rather than a twice a year cycle, of peak form.
Riders seem to be able to peak twice a year. Pogacar has done the classics and the Tour and that has worn him out. But we can probably consider him as an outlier as 2024 was for him one massive peak and it has all caught up with him.
I think the current calendar, if you really looked into it to work out how best to get everyone at their best in most of the same races across a season, is too long and has too many events. If you had the classics, the Giro and the Tour with the worlds right afterwards as it used to be then you could probably get away with it. But then you’d have people moaning it was over too soon, and obviously that would be no good for the Vuelta. You could sling Lombardia into that fairly drab gap between the Tour and the Giro. It would work best as a season long championship of one day races, say 6-8, and the Grands Tours as standalone ‘championships’ in themselves. You could maybe have a (separate to the contests within the Tours themselves) season long sprint championship that takes into account all the stages classified as flat, and a season long king of the mountains as well. And people would have to accept that week long stage races are the cycling equivalent of pre-season friendlies. You can watch them if you want, but they don’t count for anything. That’s how I’d do it anyway, if I really had to.
In reply to Richard S…
I think what makes cycling doubly difficult with regards to the calendar, is that the races themselves aren’t standardised…
To use the track and field example again – when athletes compete in their respective events on good form ~8 times a year, they do the same event. 1500m runners race a 1500m race each of the 8 times per year, all on an oval synthetic 400m track. The only variation is the weather conditions and the lane they race in.
In cycling though, whilst the general theme of each race may be relatively consistent, the races constantly change shape. The Giro one year isn’t the same as the Giro the next year. One year might favour puncheurs, with short uphill finishes, whereas the next might favour the powerhouse sprinters with flat boulevard finishes. And so on.
To relate it back to athletics, it would be like our 1500m runner turning up to a meet and being told they can only race the 800m or the 5k!
At the same time, whilst the calendar for the top level of the sport is muddled and confusing, it’s still not the totality of all bike races – there are tiers upon tiers of other races that sit below the world tour. Reforming the world tour calendar wouldn’t occur in a bubble, but would affect these other tiers…
Any attempt to rationalise the calendar for top level races, such as your (quite sensible) suggestion of creating a 3-part calendar, will very likely reduce opportunities for certain types of riders to win those top level races…so what would those riders do? Would they accept they’re now unlikely to win anything, or would they turn to the other tiers of races that offer them opportunities? I strongly suspect it’d be the latter…and if those riders are talented and exciting, then the fans of the sport would want to watch them compete against each other. And so those lower tier races would rather quickly become top tier races…and so the current, muddled, confusing world of the cycling calendar is born all over again!
Davesta, your point about “types of riders” is a very important one, and one that often gets overlooked in these debates. If we really got a coherent calendar together, very few riders would line up with a chance to win from week to week. This is exactly the kind of scenario that the “muddled” calendar avoids. I love that on a given Wednesday there is a random, flat race somewhere in Belgium where a unique group of teams/riders shows up. Same for the smaller hilly races in Italy, France and Spain. Little Spanish guys have no chance to compete in Belgium, and the big Belgian diesels have no chance to compete in the races where the little guys dominate.
The fun thing about Grand Tours is that all of these riders (in theory) get a chance to shine on at least a couple of stages, and GT to GT you don’t get the same group of riders because it’s just too hard. For me, this is great, as I can choose to watch what I really care about, which will not be the same for others. I would hate to lose that diversity.
Another agree with these last two posts. I don’t want to watch Real vs. Barcelona every fortnight which is one of the problems with a putative SuperLeague in football.
Similarly I don’t want to watch Pog vs. Vin vs. MvdP every fortnight either. The excitement would pall. It did in the first week of the Tour and I was very ready for a change of gear in the second week. The rarity keeps the level of anticipation high. So does the knowledge that when they do meet they will be at the top of their game rather than merely fulfilling another fixture on the same endless grind.
Just to add, I wasn’t saying that we should do all of the things I said. I think a ‘World Cup’ of the big one day races has its merits, and a season long sprint points competition isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever had, but condensing all the major races into one block and getting rid of the Vuelta was just to say what a consultant might advise should you go down the road of getting them involved.
“a ‘World Cup’ of the big one day races has its merits”
Many of you have said something along these lines. But it has repeatedly been tried and repeatedly failed. Similarly, we have had a season long points competition for the “best rider” since the 1940s. And nobody has much cared.
The reason for this is that the races differ too much, and riders are specialized into the particular races they suit. Hence the individual races are not interchangeable (as they are in other sports), and each race has its particular charm.
I think we have to learn from the fact that no season long competition has succeeded, and stop trying to invent one (which will fail). Otherwise we are repeated trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
@Davesta – enjoyed your reply, small correction:
‘But I think you’re being naïve if you think physiology isn’t a limiting factor in riders’ ability to compete against each other at their best.’
No real issue with being called naive – but just wanted to mention that’s not what I was saying – my point was that this calendar is not a great measure of what is or isn’t possible physiologically as it is a completely random schedule made up with no view to rider rest, recovery, physiology etc.
I was trying to say that a calendar made with rider input (as well as all other interested parties) might give us a schedule that did do exactly what you argue and take into account rider physiology and then provide a better fan experience overall.
Your arguments that we may be already lucky to get what we’re getting are good points and may well prove true, but obvs I would rather get the professionals feeding in ever possible to make a judgement and see whether the sport to do something better than what it does.
@theothercraig @anonymous – I also get what you’re saying about rider types and random races, and it’s also slight misunderstanding of what I’m saying. I watch more cycling than is probably healthy and the average fan – so clearly I also love races that give opportunities to all types of riders! And in my ridiculous utopian vision, it would be one of the most important things to preserve in any overhaul. Especially as a lot of those races take place in cycling’s true heartland where grassroots need to be preserved and supported.
But you can’t outline every thought in a single post (albeit I often try!) especially when I’m not arguing for ‘my vision of cycling’ but rather an overhaul that involves input from all parties (riders, race organisers, teams, fans, media, even countries who allow the use of the roads and use state finance to promote) to get somewhere better than where we are.
Many riders clearly want the same, and Tao’s comments a few years ago about the current system making it hard to carry year long narratives I still think was one of the most observant insights from a sportsman in recent years and gives me confidence that we could find a leadership team with smart input from voices like Tao that gets somewhere less random than what we’ve got.
I doubt we would ever stop the complaints of boredom for one reason or another following every Grand Tour, Classics season and individual race though, because that’s what sport is really about!!
THE COMPLAINING!
Big love to all the moans and groans!
@oldDAVE That’s not true. Spanish riders target the Vuelta (maybe less so than in the past), riders who tanked/crashed at the Giro target the Vuelta, young riders target the Vuelta as a GT testing ground etc. It’s just the top, successful GT riders who tend not to target the Vuelta while some domestiques might not want to be there because they’d have preferred the Tour.
Two good finales so far … quite impressive the way that Gaudu came through on the inside of Vingegaard and powered on.
Reply to Cadence: was impressed too.
Reply to Daveste: very good and fundamented commentary
Reply to some commenters here: Do not agree that the Vuelta is the minor Grand Tour. By contrast, many years was the best of the three. In fact, was the GT where Pogacar began his upward journey. Remember?
I tried to watch the highlights of stage 3 on Quest last night/this morning after ‘recording’ it (I have streaming so it’s added to a playlist) and checking Quest on the Discovery app. It’s nowhere to be seen – only stages 1 and 2 are available. Anyone else having the same issue?
UPDATE:Yesterday’s highlights have now appeared on the Discovery app – I can only watch them as I’m not paying £31 a month for live coverage!
As the Vuelta is very much the inferior grand tour, it has to differentiate itself.
This route is tedious: ‘short stages and summit finishes that are often not preceded by another climb, or if they are there’s still a flat approach to the final climb’. (I don’t know who designs Vuelta courses, but they are not doing a good job.)
Imagine if the Vuelta had far more classics-style stages, and fewer mountain stages (with multiple mountains, not one). You would then have a different set of contenders and, crucially, something different from the Giro and Tour.
There’s no reason for the Vuelta to be in August. There’d be more interest if there was a bigger gap between the TdF and the Vuelta – and more people would want to ride it – plus it’s usually far too hot.
This year it’s 23/8 – 14/9.
Change it to 13/9 – 4.10, and the only races you’d have to move are the World Championships, which could easily be in August (as they were in Glasgow), and the Canadian races (same).
It could easily be held in October, even into November. But the problem is the season is starting to wind down from mid-September for many riders, although in a relegation year maybe that’s not the case.
13/9 – 4.10 is still very much in the season. Also, a lot of the reason the season winds down is the placement of the Vuelta. And having a season that winds down is a problem for cycling – why have fewer big races at the end of a season? What others sport would do that? (One very simple thing would be to move E3 to October – it’s not that big a deal in the spring; it would be in Oct. Or DDV.)
Also, more riders might want to race if they have more of a rest post-Tour (e.g. Pogacar this year, perhaps). Plus doing the Vuelta would no longer wear you out, potentially, for the World Championships.
*Also, more riders might want to race THE VUELTA if they have more of a rest post-Tour
I suspect that the mind set is that Le Tour is seen as the climax of the year … everything earlier is part of the buil-up and everything after part of the denouement. Major tournaments in tennis and golf are more evenly weighted.
So it would require a change of mindset.
I have always liked the Vuelta … probably in part because the controllers of the Giro didn’t allow it to be screened in Australia for about a decade.
I think the Vuelta can, and should, be held in September. Holding it at this time will cause fewer problems with excessively hot weather. But it needs to be finished by the end of September. The Autumn classics (especially the Italian hill classics) start at the end of September, and are an important part of the calendar: the focus (in my view) needs to be on these end-of-season classics from the end of September.
This year, the only clash would be:
04.10 Giro dell’Emilia
I would go even further. Look at the date of the Vuelta during covid. The Vuelta could be the last race of the season, starting mid of october. In between tour and vuelta, the uci could establish a two week grand tour, every year in a different region of the world. Scandinavia, Australia, Canada, China, etc. It would be interesting for the “one cycling” project/argument. Even the organisation company can change every year. Something like a World Championship for tours.
You do know that the UCI do not actually organise any of the races in the calendar, don’t you? If you want “two week grand tour, every year in a different region” then you need somone to arrange it. They will need to take the commercial risk (races lose money unless supported by the local politicians), and arrange for the road closures etc. If there is no-one willing to do this, then the race won’t happen. And this is true for all the races in the calendar.
I hope nobody anywhere organises a two-week Grand Tour, not least because that isn’t a GT.
I think three weekends is worth a try … 16 days without a rest day or 17 with. No rest day would toughen it up and/or longer stages.
In the three week races there is always a phase where they all ease off for a few stages.
Yet because the Vuelta is now a three-week race and called a GT, all the times it wasn’t are now regarded as GTs in retrospect. See eg. Bernardo Ruiz elsewhere in these comments – some of his Vueltas were two-week-three-weekend races. Pro cycling is not and never has been set in stone.
There’s talk of the Women’s TdF eventually being two-weeks. Orla Chennaoui said (on Watt’s Occurring [a good interview, btw]) that she thought a 3-week women’s TdF might be less good for the sport (2-weeks a better balance of spectacle and difficulty)
WillC – I seriously think that Orla’s interview should be required listening for hardcore cycling fans. She’s a truly incredible person, and her perspective on women’s cycling is very insightful. I also happen to agree with the point about women’s physiology and how longer isn’t necessarily better.
It is not uncommon for women to place well and even win ultra-endurance races. I am under the impression that it is finance, not physiology, that rules out a three-week tour.
I didn’t mean for those two comments to sound so strident!
(I really wish this site had an edit function.)
Type in irritation; repent at leisure.
Nope I’m with you J Evans.
Not in what you’d change (I’d go way further) but you’re right – wind down is the issue. No other sport finishes their season midway through as we do with TDF, despite diehards like me watching to the end and remaining excited for the Worlds while I pretend slight stupidly that that is the true season finish even though we all know the air goes out when they hit Paris.
Season finishes at lombardia
Nah, it’s all about the Tour of Guangxi: such a hard race that even Merckx never won it ; )
This made me laugh, 100%
(But obvs I did make mistake by forgetting Lombardia after Worlds, one of my fave races as it happens)
Tennis and golf also “finishes their season midway”. The last major tennis competition (the US Open) ends in early September. But the other Grand Slam events are pre-season, early June and early July. The season lasts to November, without anyone much caring about the other tournaments.
In golf, three of the four majors are done by mid July.
In cycling we have the Autumn one-day races being run. It doesn’t have the GC battles of the Grand Tours, but it has puncheurs doing their thing. And the races are great. The calendar now is: Spring classics (Omloop to Liege) — Summer Grand Tours (Giro, Tour, Vuelta) — Autumn classics (thorough to Lombardia). I like this calendar where the races change through the season.
Why let facts get in the way of a good argument, John!?
Golf actually changed its calendar about 5 years ago, to further condense the major tournaments – the PGA champs was moved from August to May. So all 4 majors now take place between April – July.
The Ryder Cup takes place in Sept (but only every other year). And the season ends in Dec.
The difference to cycling is that there’s only an off-season of about 3 weeks, before the warm-up tournaments start in early Jan. Also the prize purses for even the smaller tournaments can, quite amazingly, be measured in the tens of millions!
So, in golf, you are saying that all four majors end by July, even though the season runs to December. I think this supports the original point.
Yes, exactly John, it does indeed.
Back to cycling…
Since when has Ben Turner been a sprinter?
Am I going crazy, what’s this sudden change all about????
I think he’s done it before without quite getting the win. He’s got a huge engine and big levers as he’s about 10 foot tall so he’s good for an uphill sprint.
I really never noticed… I feel like a fool now but have thought when he’s been in groups previously ‘he better drop them as he’s got no sprint’ so am stunned by these recent wins!
Good for him. Maybe it’s not the radical shift I thought.
There’s definitely been a change in recent months, perhaps an increase in confidence, or more faith from the team so that he can go after his own results…
He’s always been a punchy, powerful rider – he was a top cyclocross rider in his youth (multiple U23 world cup podiums) which often translates into sprinting ability, and he’s shown his power multiple times on the cobbles, albeit without a final result to write home about.
It looks like he had his first real foray into bunch sprints in last year’s Cro Race with a couple of top-5s. Perhaps that motivated him to work on his sprint over the winter, as his foray continued into this year with sprint podiums in Andalucía and then the Giro.
His breakthrough result came in Poland with a sprint win (albeit against a weak sprinting field, it has to be said), and probably the confidence that gave him has continued into the Vuelta.
Winning a bunch sprint is as much about positioning as it is about power – you can be the fastest rider in the world, but you’re not going to win a bunch sprint from 15th or 20th wheel where you’re giving other a 20-30 metre headstart. So having the confidence, aggression and respect from other riders & teams to position yourself in the top 5-8 wheels is hugely important. Hopefully we’ll see more of that from Big Ben!
Throw into that mix his first win in Murcia at the very beginning of his second season. That was an uphill sprint with an interesting mix of puncheurs and strong sprinters in the Top 10 and was also a balanced combination of power and positioning.
Then he finished second in that new Spanish gravel race behind Pogacar and beating Wellens in a two-up for 2nd and third with Hirschi leading in the next group.
But then he crashed in OHN and crashed in the Dauphine TT leading to basically two lost years, not helped by a team which frequently seemed to lack direction and strategy and rarely gave the impression of being a particularly happy and settled crew.
His positioning has been very good in nearly every sprint he’s contested this year [sometimes more or less alone] and was much better and sharper in the finale than, say, Mads P yesterday. That skill and a sprinter’s instinct about picking your moment [also on show yesterday when boxing in Jasper P behind his leadout] was on display as early as Ruta del Sol in February when he nearly surprised Kristoff for waiting too long behind a slowing leadout.
Came here to inquire whether anyone else was disappointed that yesterday’s TTT used the 3rd rider across the line format, rather than taking individual times, which was tried at the last TTT I remember watching. I thought that was a much better format – more variation in tactics, a more interesting visual spectacle, arguably more obviously a team effort on behalf of a GC leader and slightly less dependent on strength in depth, so not as disadvantageous to GC contenders from weaker teams.
I’ve no particular preference either way on the 4th across the line versus individual times debate, except perhaps to note that the latter is benefitting from novelty value, might be more attractive with a rising finish, and likely doesn’t make all that much difference to the times anyway.
Which leads me into ……. I did hope we’d got away with no mention of this old and lazy canard about TTT being disadvantageous to the poor loves who are the GC contenders from weaker teams. It’s not. If anything, it’s beneficial to them.
Look at the times yesterday. Identify these possible GC contenders from weaker teams. Then ask yourself how much time they would have lost to, say, Almeida and Vingegaard in an ITT of the same distance. As an example, compare the time loss of Fortunato to Almeida yesterday against the last day of Romandie when both were riding full for GC and convert into time per kilometre. Who is favoured by the TTT? Fortunato. And Astana were bad yesterday.
That’s a consistent finding in today’s cycling. It’s much more of a level playing field in a TTT than many are willing to credit. Back in the day, Postal and Armstrong may have made mayonnaise out of the likes of Euskaltel and Ibn Mayo in a TTT but it doesn’t work that way now.
I think the TTT’s are more interesting to watch because there is normally someone giving themselves a hernia trying to latch onto the back of the train … fewer starts as well.
I prefer it when the teams have to get several riders across the line at the same time so I was quite happy with the format of yesterday’s TTT. The only thing I didn’t like about it was some of the TV coverage. I would have liked a lot more helicopter shots of each team on the course in formation/failing to stay in formation. Instead nearly all the shots were motorbike ones, and were interspersed with longer shots of the start ramp & the hot seat area than seemed necessary. Some teams were barely seen on the course at all.
Agree on the coverage. It was really poor.
But I much prefer TTTs to ITTs. So much more going on.
And a team in full flow is always a sight to behold.
And it’s quick!
Bah. Fourth rider across the line in yesterday’s TTT of course.
Welp, that’s one question answered. Still quite the logjam amongst the actual possible gc contenders. Tomorrow’s stage looks remarkably similar to today’s; will be very interesting to see if it’s raced the same way. Kind of looks like there will be more shaking of the tree to see if anyone falls out.
Any offers for the previous grand tour with quite such a dull first handful of stages?
On the other hand, it eases the way out of UAE for Ayuso even if he’ll have to take a serious pay cut in order to manufacture the move.
The Tour was terrible, and I fear the Vuelta won’t be much better.
I agree—Ayuso seems visibly unhappy and unmotivated. I really hope he can escape the horrors of UAE… 🙁
MellowVelo
Well, it seems your wish is his command @mediumMig !