Eat, sleep, race. Repeat for three weeks. That’s the simplistic summary of any Grand Tour, and once the race is underway, then what is happening on the other side of the barriers becomes – at least for the riders – a blur happening in the background.
Disruptions are rare but occasionally there’s a local protest or nature intervenes with some catastrophic event, or, the most common one, the closed level crossing interrupts proceedings. Whatever the disturbance, it’s a momentary blip, and the race soon returns to its detachment from the outside world, isolated but at the same time protected.
Only when that protection is breached does everyone wake up to the fragility of the interaction between the bike race and the people watching. Alasdair Fotheringham’s account of the scenes in Madrid tell a graphic story of the politics of the Vuelta a España and the effects on all who are part of the little world that moves around with the race.
But outside of the disruptions that have dominated the headlines at the end of the race, we still had three weeks of GC racing to decide the final podium – even if it did have to be celebrated on ice boxes in a car park.
What next for the Vuelta top three?
Protests aside, the Vuelta finished as expected with the top favourite Jonas Vingegaard adding Spain’s national tour to his palmares. Perhaps less convincingly than everyone predicted in terms of the time gaps, but more importantly, he took three stages along the way in varied circumstances.
Outsprinting Giulio Ciccone uphill on stage 2, an opportunist attack on a climb known for being non-selective on stage 9, and victory on the final mountaintop finish all prove that he’s progressed in his race craft without losing any of his innate abilities. Only his time trial was, for him, below par, but there have been mentions of slight illness so all in all a solid ride by the Dane.
He was also ably supported by a Visma-Lease a Bike squad that may have been outgunned by UAE Team Emirates-XRG on certain stages, but ultimately showed they were strong enough collectively to ensure their leader had the protection he needed.
A big part of that was that Vingegaard was always in the right place at the right time, no lapses in concentration, no hesitations when he had to attack, and he showed the…
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