Home | Mobile | E-Mail Us | Privacy | Mtn Bike | Ride Director Login | Add Century/Benefit Rides
Home

Adventure Velo


Additional Info

Official Site

Final general classification:

1. Chris Horner (US - RadioShack-Leopard) 84hr 36min 4sec,

2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita - Astana) 37sec,

3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa - Movistar) 1min 36sec,

4. Joaquim Rodríguez (Spa - Katusha) 3min 22sec,

5. Nicolas Roche (Irl - Saxo-Tinkoff) 7min 11sec,

6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita - Ag2r-La Mondiale) 8min,

7. Thibaut Pinot (Fra - FDJ) 8min 41sec,

8. Samuel Sánchez (Spa - Euskaltel-Euskadi) 9min 51sec,

9. Leopold Konig (Cze - NetApp-Endura) 10min 11sec,

10. Daniel Moreno (Spa - Katusha) 13min 11sec.


About Bill
Past Columns

 

Bill  On The Road

 by: Bill Oetinger  10/1/2013

Another Amazing Vuelta

Once again this year, the Vuelta a España has proven to be the most exciting of the three Grand Tours. I keep saying this every year, and I keep wondering what their secret is: how do they keep staging the best stage race around? I have heard it said in past years—and I have accepted it as fact—that at least part of the winning formula is shorter, punchier stages, with lots of action packed into the last few miles each day.

Vuelta 2013But I just checked this year’s stats, and the "shorter" part of that premise doesn't really hold up. (It may have in past years. I'm not going back to check.) This year’s Vuelta totaled 3361 K (2084 miles). The Tour de France was 3408 K (2113 miles). So okay, the TdF was longer, by a grand total of 29 miles over 21 stages, or a bit less than 1.4 miles per stage. Aside from two time trials and the short, final ceremonial promenade into Madrid, there were only three stages under 100 miles. The longest stage was 140 miles, featuring five summits in the high mountains.

So the stages may not have been all that short, but they certainly were punchy. There have been lots of hilly stages in recent Vueltas, and I guess the organizers have been hearing us saying we like it. This year, they really went over the top on the deal. Of the 21 stages, 13 were mountain stages, with 12 of them offering significant uphill finishes…difference makers. Indeed, nine of those uphill finishes produced time differences between the top two riders. Taken with the two time trials, that makes 11 out of 20 stages where the top two protagonists took seconds out of one another…back and forth.

Who were the top two riders? In the end, the only two who mattered were Vincenzo Nibali—the Giro winner and former Vuelta champ—and the evergreen Chris Horner, who turns 42 this month. Allejandro Valverde and Joaquin Rodriguez were worthy adversaries who ended up just out of the limelight, in third and fourth. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, we can salute them for their efforts but essentially dismiss them from any further consideration regarding the final prize. In the end, it was all about Vinnie and Chris...and what a marvelous battle they staged for us!

Chris HornerI'm assuming you know that Chris Horner, from Bend, Oregon, was the winner, finishing :37 big seconds ahead of a very game Nibali. When folks were kicking around possible winners before the Vuelta, I don't think anyone beside Horner himself thought he would be one of the favorites. People—including this scribe—talked about Nibali and Rodriguez, with a polite nod to Valverde as having an outside shot at victory. Most of the money was on Nibali. Horner? No way! He was, first of all, way too old. No one older than 36 had ever won a grand tour before…ever. Second, he had almost nothing to show for this season. He had knee surgery early in the year and had been rehabbing from that most of the year. His only notable result was a second place at the Tour of Utah in early August (winner of the second-to-last stage, but beaten by Tom Danielson on the final stage).

The tour began with a team time trial. This was not one of the Vuelta's usual silly TTT prologues, but a fairly substantial test of 17 miles. Nibali's Astana team finished first, with Horner's Nissan-Radio Shack team second at :10. Valverde's Movistar team was at :29 and Rodriguez' Katusha team dug him into a :59 hole right from the get-go.

Horner wasn't shy about lighting things up early. On Stage 3—a moderate uphill finish—he attacked over the last 2 K and squeezed out a :03 victory ahead of his rivals. With bonus seconds factored in (:10 for first, :06 for second, :04 for third), he took the leader's jersey by :03. At that point, we all said, "Well, good for you, Chris! Nice win!" But no one thought he could maintain that sort of form all the way through a three-week tour. Frankly, I think the other "heads of state" didn't take him all that seriously at first. Almost as if to prove them correct, Horner gave the jersey back to Nibali the next day. Horner got bottled up behind other riders near the finish and lost :06 to Nibali, which put Nibali now :03 to the good.

Horner said he didn't mind losing the jersey and made the very pragmatic point that wearing the jersey means giving up an hour or more each day for podium appearances and press conferences, etc…time better spent resting or getting a massage or eating or in other ways staying fresh and preparing for the next day.

Vincenzo NibaliNibali maintained that :03 advantage for the next four stages. Then on Stage 8 and 9, things got shaken up a bit. First, Horner took :04 out of Nibali to go ahead by :01. Then on a short but very steep final pitch on Stage 9 (up to 27%!) Nibali finished :09 ahead of Horner to go ahead by :08. Mind you, these changes were not for the lead…not yet. The two of them were a few spots down the order for a couple of days as Nicholas Roche and Dani Moreno had a brief tussle over the leader's jersey.

The next change came the next day on the Stage 10 uphill finish to the out-of-category Alto de Hazellanas. This was one of the most dramatic and decisive stages of the tour. With 4.5 K to go, on a grade that was running around 17%, Horner attacked off the front of the lead group of six riders (Nibali, Valverde, Rodriguez, Roche, Thibaut Pinot, and Ivan Basso). He rather quietly rode away from the rest of them.

I have to say something here about Horner's attacks. When really explosive climbers attack—a guy like Rodriguez, for instance—you know you're seeing an attack. The cadence rockets up, the rider leaps out of the saddle, the bike dances all over the place…everything is in a tizzy. When Horner attacks, you hardly know anything is happening, except a gap opens up between him and the guys behind him. You can't say he's thrown himself out of the saddle because he's always out of the saddle. (I've never seen a rider who spends so much time standing.) He does not look like he's going all that fast, except that he just rides the rest of them off his wheel.

Once again, I'm not sure the rest of the leaders took Horner all that seriously. No one responded. They just kept riding tempo, with Basso of all people setting the pace, while the gap kept growing. Finally, at 2 K to go, Nibali decided something had to be done. He launched a furious sprint off the front of the little group, dropping them all instantly. (Now that's what an attack looks like!) But it made not one whit of difference. Horner was :47 ahead when Nibali attacked, and in spite of Nibali looking like he was going so much faster, based on his lively body language, the gap was still :47 2 K later, at the line. With bonus seconds factored in at the finish, Horner was now back in the leader's jersey, this time by a more comfortable :43.

Game over? Not hardly! The next day was the only individual time trial of the Vuelta. Horner is a decent time trial rider, but he hasn't really thrown down a killer ITT in a while. Nibali had the best credentials in that department among the GC men, and so it proved to be. Nibali beat Horner by 1:29 to retake the lead, now by :46. Surely, at this point, it was time for old man Horner to finally concede defeat? I mean, really, enough is enough. He'd put on a good show, and each time he donned the red jersey, he set a new record for the oldest person to ever lead a grand tour. It was an amusing sidebar, but wasn't it time for him to ride off into the sunset and let the guys in their fighting prime take over?

The gap stayed that way through two flatter stages, then Nibali and Horner finished second and third behind a breakaway rider on a miserable, rainy climb to Andorra. They were side by side the whole way up the hill, dropping all the other GC hopefuls. Then, in the last few yards, Horner seemed to ease off. He finished :02 behind his rival, and with the :02 difference on bonus seconds, Nibali's lead grew to :50.

But that was the high-water mark for Nibali. Two days later, on a relatively modest uphill finish, Nibali faltered a bit, and his various GC rivals were quick to pounce. They all put time into him over the final kilometer. Horner finished :22 up on him and reduced his deficit to :28. Wow! That was unexpected…that Nibali would show signs of weakness.

That gap held for another day, and that brought us to Stage 18, with the brutal final pitch to Peña Cabarga. Behind the remnants of a breakaway, Rodriguez and two teammates launched a wicked attack with a couple of K to go. That exploded the leader's group, but Horner gamely bridged back up and passed the Katusha riders, while Nibali gamely hung on to Horner's wheel. (All this on a wall averaging about 20%.) Finally, with just 600 meters to go, Nibali cracked. He lost Horner's wheel. At the line, Horner took :25 out of Nibali.

In two stages, in less than the final kilometer each day, Horner took back :22 and :25 from Nibali. You wouldn't think you could gain (or lose) that much time in less than a kilometer, but when one guy is on the top of his game, dancing on the pedals, and the other guy is maxxed out, hanging on by his fingernails, it's entirely possible. A kilometer, or even half a kilometer, can seem like an eternity.

At that point, Nibali was clinging to a :03 lead and looking very vulnerable. Sure enough, on Stage 19, on a relatively moderate uphill finish, he lost another :06 to Horner (a few places and seconds behind a win by Rodriguez), so that Horner went back into the lead by :03. That left just the final uphill stage to the dreaded, mythic Alto de L'Angliru, sometimes referred to as the most feared climb in Europe. This was the shortest full stage of the tour at just 88 miles. But consider: that little 88-mile stage began with two short but steep, uncategorized climbs, then a Cat 3 ascent (1100' in 3.2 miles), a Cat 2 (1150' in 2.1 miles), a Cat 1 (1640' in 3.3 miles), and finally the out-of-category L'Angliru (3900' in 8 miles, with much of the upper half of the climb at between 20% and 23%).

Now, finally, improbably, people were calling Horner the favorite. Nibali appeared to be on the ropes, and Valverde and Rodriguez and the rest were further back. But anything can happen on a climb-from-hell like that final one. (Just ask Brad Wiggins, who cracked badly here and lost his Vuelta lead a couple of years ago.)

Young French rider Kenny Ellisonde won the prestigious stage as the last man standing out of a breakaway. Behind him, Nibali was not going down without a fight. Give him credit: he rode like a true champion, like a hero. Four times on the 20%+ wall he attacked Horner. The first time he did it, he got a gap of around seven seconds before Horner doggedly clawed back to him. After that, Horner never let him have more than a second or two each time he accelerated. And then, at about 2 K to go, Horner did his by-now-familiar move, quietly opening a gap on the thoroughly gassed Nibali. Horner just kept doing the same cadence, looking as smooth as ever, with that tranquil little smile on his puss. But he was going fast. At the 1-K kite, he was over a minute behind Ellisonde, and he almost caught him, finishing :26 seconds behind the 22-year old (20 years his junior). Nibali rolled in :28 later. Valverde pipped him for third and scooped up the last bonus seconds. So in the end, Horner's advantage worked out to :37. And so it stayed to Madrid.

Of course, the fact of Horner's age is going to be a large part of this story for as long as it's retold. But I almost wish we could get past that for a minute and just admire the man for the marvelous race he rode, regardless of the date on his birth certificate. He was magnificent throughout. In many an interview at the end of the race, he reminded people how hard he had worked all through the stages. He needed to remind them because from the outside, his wonderful climbs looked so effortless and graceful. I cannot offhand recall another race winner who looked so calm and unruffled during his moments of greatest drama and turmoil.

Horner is not ready to retire. As I write this column, one week after the L'Angliru stage, he is still without a contract or team for next year (at least as far as public announcements go; there are rumors aplenty, but nothing is confirmed). Can it be that teams still doubt him because of his age? Hey, how much would you be willing to invest in a racer who's 42? It's absurd…but then, how can you say no to the guy who just won the Vuelta? Fascinating…

Well, that's all for next year (although we still have the World's coming up in a little bit here, and he's on the US team). For now, let's just bask in the warm glow of this most recent and best grand tour of the year, and in the splendid performance of a wonderful rider and charming individual. If ever there were a case for refuting the cynical old bromide that nice guys finish last, this is that case.

Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net



Rides
View All

Century's
View All

Links
Commercial
Bike Sites
Teams

Other
Advertise
Archive
Privacy
Bike Reviews

Bill
All Columns
About Bill

Bloom
All Columns
Blog

About Naomi

© BikeCal.com 2023