I am a huge fan of cycling. The horrors and the kind of endurance these bikers posses to drag themselves and their machines to the finish lines everyday riding a course of 250 to 300 odd Kms, or climbing mountains with gradients as steep as 17%, 18.5% is tremendous. It is the very pinnacle of endurance sports. A cyclist may not look like much, he is not bulky or beefy but on the contrary he has a lean and lanky frame.. but it is all muscle, not an ounce of fat in that body.
The Tour De France this year - the pinnacle of cycling was a disappointment this year. No credit taken away from Vincenzo Nibali, who rode like a champion and won the Tour imposingly, but the sheen of his victory was dented due to the absence of big name contenders like Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde crashing out and subsequently pulling out of the tour.
The direct beneficiary of this is the Vuelta a Espana, smarting from not being able to compete in the Tour De France this year and wanting to prove a point all the big name contenders have chosen the Vuelta to make a statement and boy oh boy what a tour it has been so far....
With Vincenzo Nibali choosing to rest after a gruelling Tour De France, the Vuelta is a contest between Contador, Froome, Rodriguez, Valverde and Uran and competed they have. The flats were relatively easy with the sprinters taking out wins and overall GC contenders getting ready for the mountains. Alberto Contador took the Red Jersey from Nairo Quintana in the individual TT and Quintana subsequently abandoned the race after crashing on subsequent days and breaking his shoulder. This left the Movistar team relative free to let Alejandro Valverde as the Team Leader. There were talks and speculations of rifts within the team on behalf of Quintana and Valverde as they battled for the leadership of Movistar team. Quintana's crash put a rest to all that and let Movistar rally behind Valverde.
Since Contador took control of the Red Jersey it has been him pitted against the other GC contenders and they have done their best to take the time off him in the mountains, but so far none of the attacks on him have been successful. But the man to watch for, the man all the GC contenders are afraid of is not Contador or Valverde or Rodriguez or even Uran, its Chris Froome.
As the mountains have shown, time and again Froome has been dropped by the leaders accelerating on the inclines and putting gaps between them and him and time and time again he had dragged himself back to the group as they have slowed. Looking at the television footage of Froome as he rides is a relevation in itself, as the other GC contenders like Contador or Valverde or Rodriguez or Uran or even Aru from Astana dance on their pedals to get the tempo going and to put the burst of speed needed to take them clear of their rivals, Froome rides on an even tempo, its almost as if he is racing against himself, there are no hurried burst of speed which then put you in the red as you try to recover, just even tempo riding sitting in the saddle as he climbs the inclines, so as the other GC contenders put their burst of acceleration and then fade Froome continues to climb at a steady pace until the last 100 meters of so when he ups the tempo.
This to me is the mark of a rider who believes in himself and has the faith that he can be the best and the other GC contenders are right to be afraid of him. They are right to be wary of him because they know he is a spectacular climber and if they carry him with them near close to the summit he will pounce and when he does nobody will be able to catch him.
The Vuelta looks like heading for an exciting finish with the top contenders within 2 minutes of each other. So far Contador has been setting the tune for the Vuelta and others apart from Froome have been marching to his fife, but that can all change in the upcoming few days and I for one am finding the Vuelta more exciting than the Le Tour this time around...
The Tour De France this year - the pinnacle of cycling was a disappointment this year. No credit taken away from Vincenzo Nibali, who rode like a champion and won the Tour imposingly, but the sheen of his victory was dented due to the absence of big name contenders like Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde crashing out and subsequently pulling out of the tour.
The direct beneficiary of this is the Vuelta a Espana, smarting from not being able to compete in the Tour De France this year and wanting to prove a point all the big name contenders have chosen the Vuelta to make a statement and boy oh boy what a tour it has been so far....
With Vincenzo Nibali choosing to rest after a gruelling Tour De France, the Vuelta is a contest between Contador, Froome, Rodriguez, Valverde and Uran and competed they have. The flats were relatively easy with the sprinters taking out wins and overall GC contenders getting ready for the mountains. Alberto Contador took the Red Jersey from Nairo Quintana in the individual TT and Quintana subsequently abandoned the race after crashing on subsequent days and breaking his shoulder. This left the Movistar team relative free to let Alejandro Valverde as the Team Leader. There were talks and speculations of rifts within the team on behalf of Quintana and Valverde as they battled for the leadership of Movistar team. Quintana's crash put a rest to all that and let Movistar rally behind Valverde.
Since Contador took control of the Red Jersey it has been him pitted against the other GC contenders and they have done their best to take the time off him in the mountains, but so far none of the attacks on him have been successful. But the man to watch for, the man all the GC contenders are afraid of is not Contador or Valverde or Rodriguez or even Uran, its Chris Froome.
As the mountains have shown, time and again Froome has been dropped by the leaders accelerating on the inclines and putting gaps between them and him and time and time again he had dragged himself back to the group as they have slowed. Looking at the television footage of Froome as he rides is a relevation in itself, as the other GC contenders like Contador or Valverde or Rodriguez or Uran or even Aru from Astana dance on their pedals to get the tempo going and to put the burst of speed needed to take them clear of their rivals, Froome rides on an even tempo, its almost as if he is racing against himself, there are no hurried burst of speed which then put you in the red as you try to recover, just even tempo riding sitting in the saddle as he climbs the inclines, so as the other GC contenders put their burst of acceleration and then fade Froome continues to climb at a steady pace until the last 100 meters of so when he ups the tempo.
This to me is the mark of a rider who believes in himself and has the faith that he can be the best and the other GC contenders are right to be afraid of him. They are right to be wary of him because they know he is a spectacular climber and if they carry him with them near close to the summit he will pounce and when he does nobody will be able to catch him.
The Vuelta looks like heading for an exciting finish with the top contenders within 2 minutes of each other. So far Contador has been setting the tune for the Vuelta and others apart from Froome have been marching to his fife, but that can all change in the upcoming few days and I for one am finding the Vuelta more exciting than the Le Tour this time around...
Comments
Post a Comment