JENS VOIGT
What makes the Vuelta a España, the last grand tour of the year, different to the others?
Our race columnist on the latest events
"What makes the Vuelta still a very important race is he fact that every year almost the complete top 10 at the World Chamionships has come out of the Vuelta"
Let’s face it, the cycling season has only three parts. Before the Tour, the Tour and after the Tour. And that’s where we are now: after the Tour. It’s a strange part of the year. For a lot of riders who had a great spring or a good Tour the season is slowly coming to an end. These riders still race but with less panache and less determination – you can’t keep that intensity all year, anyway. Most contracts are signed by now and most riders know where they are going to ride next year. And who couldn’t understand this? It has been a long season since the Tour Down Under or the Tour San Luis in January. The riders are mentally and physically tired by now.
With the Vuelta going on as I write, we can see that it is a race mainly in the interest of Spanish riders and Spanish teams. Most other riders look at the Vuelta as a training camp de luxe while preparing for the upcoming World Championships, like Vincenzo Nibali for example. Whether that is right or wrong is another discussion, but that’s how I see it at the moment.
The positive side of this is that we see some more interesting action and more open racing, because there is less pressure. We still see races where the breakaways in the first week can take a lot of time, because the other teams don’t want to chase any more. If you are a fresh rider in good shape now you can make a bunch of great results and get a lot of precious points for the WorldTour. But the flip side of this is that no rider dares to play poker and wait until after the Tour to start getting results - they all want to win early in the season to take some pressure off and have something in the bank already, like we say in the peloton.
Apart from Adam Hansen, the last few seasons I don’t know anyone who does all three grand tours in the same year, and in general it’s pretty much impossible to keep shape and focus all season long at the highest level. Back in my day, I started full gas into the season and by the end of the Tour I normally had already 65 or so days of racing. I just kept riding until the wheels fell off and my body started to shut down. This normally happened around the beginning of October, and so my end of season fell in time with the school holiday for my kids so we could have a family holiday together. I still finished an average season with between 90 and 100 days of racing, though.
To my shame, I never rode the Vuelta - it was always late in the season. Already, the whole setup is an invitation to take it a little easier – most stages start in the afternoon, with late dinners and a late bed time. It all makes it seem a bit more like a holiday. Don’t get me wrong, there is still hard racing going on, but we also have some early and very large gruppettos. What makes the Vuelta still a very important race is the fact that every year almost the complete top 10 at the World Championships has come out of the Vuelta. So the Vuelta might be smallest of the three grand tours but nevertheless it is a very important and beautiful race.
Jens Voigt retired in 2014 following an 18-year career as one of the sport's most loved and attacking riders. He held the Hour Record for 42 days. Commentators never did agree how to pronounce his name.