In just a short world tour career, the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider’s back to back Vuelta a España stage wins shows he’s ready to make his markIn the history of Australian cycling, only a few dozen cyclists have won a grand tour stage. It is a mark of distinction, beating the best in the world at one of the three races that stand out on the annual calendar: the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. Fewer still have won stages at multiple grand tours, or at the same grand tour across multiple years. Those honours belong to some of the greats of the sport in Australia: the likes of Phil Anderson, Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans, Richie Porte...
Fewer time trials and steeper hills await a field of previous winners and bright prospects in the year’s final Grand TourA shadow was cast over the Vuelta a España by Thursday’s withdrawal of Nairo Quintana as the Colombian prepared his appeal against a positive test for the painkiller tramadol during the Tour de France, but even without the 2016 race winner, the final Grand Tour of 2022 is set to be contested by the race’s strongest field in recent years.The unexpected return of the triple winner Primoz Roglic after his crash in the Tour de France means there will still be five previous winners in the field when the race begins in Utrecht on Friday – Alejandro Valverde (2009), Chris...
Chris Froome is only the third man to complete the double after managing to hold his form for 12 weeks after coming into the Tour slightly undercookedAs Chris Froome flew south from Asturias to Madrid for a final, ceremonial Vuelta stage in the Spanish capital on Sunday morning, Bernard Hinault was standing with his gun on the edge of a maize field in Brittany, waiting for wild boar to emerge from cover. The last man to win the double of Tour of Spain and Tour de France in the same year, back in 1978, the “Badger” said he believes that Froome, who was set to emulate him after 39 years, should go on next year to attempt a grand slam...
Articulated race hub for the Vuelta a España shows not only the disparity between teams but also how far cycling has moved away from its more rustic pastIn these troubled days, we’re learning that you can watch a bad thing developing in front of your eyes, in real time, and yet feel utterly powerless to stop it. Fill in the blank with your own choice of contemporary socio-political phenomenon. But it can happen at a much more modest level, too, even in something as essentially trivial as sport. Which is how we come to the appearance of Team Sky’s “race hub” at the Vuelta a España.The race hub is a large articulated vehicle decorated with the team’s logo and those...
No one has won Tour de France and Vuelta in same year since it switched dates and Chris Froome is taking nothing for granted in race that he calls brutalIt is 22 years since the Vuelta a España was shifted from its late April slot in the calendar to its current position after the Tour de France with the world championships on the horizon. The notion then – propounded by the architect of the move, the late Hein Verbruggen – was that the race would be a post-Tour revenge match, where the riders who had slipped up in France could try to salvage their seasons.It has taken a while but that is now how the Vuelta looks, partly because Team...