JENS VOIGT
All the grand tours are done and dusted, but who does Jens think will be the most satis ied?
Our race columnist on the latest events
The Vuelta a España just finished with the first triumph of Simon Yates in a grand tour. He’s still young, but he’s been around a few years, so some might say, ‘Well, finally…’ But I would say, ‘Let’s see how many more he will get.’ Since the 2017 Tour de France, every single grand tour has been won by a Brit. Chris Froome won the Tour and Vuelta last year, then the Giro this year, then Geraint Thomas won this summer’s Tour and now Simon Yates has made this incredible series into five. And counting – because Yates has said he may target the Giro next May. So the last non-British rider to win a grand tour was Tom Dumoulin in May 2017. Chapeau, Brits – that’s an impressive run.
But the Vuelta wasn’t just about Yates. Rohan Dennis caught my eye with his two time trial wins in Spain, which were really convincing. I’ve been told this magazine comes out after the Worlds TT, but I’m so confident that he’s going to win the world title that I’m going to predict it now!
Another impressive ride was the double win of Michael Matthews in the GP Québec and GP Montréal. I couldn’t believe it when I saw him do this, because they are such hard races to win. But he is a class rider. Sometimes it goes like that – form is so good that race wins come along. After his first win, the whole peloton must have known that they should not let him get to the finish in the first group in Montréal, yet it still happened and he beat all of them again. He probably thought, ‘Thanks for coming, my friends.’
How many wins have Quick-Step taken this year? Julian Alaphilippe took what felt like victory 173 at the Tour of Britain, and I really think he showed his potential, especially for one-week stage races. He’s a great rider to watch – aggressive style, not shy to go in a daring move and if he wins he looks really happy. And if he doesn’t win, he just shrugs his shoulders and smiles anyway. He is able to win most of the big Classics
"Julian Alaphilippe took what felt like victory 173 for Quick- Step at the Tour of Britain, and I think he really showed his potential, especially for one- week stage races"
and almost all of the one-week stage races. In my opinion, though, he is not built to win a grand tour. I would love to be wrong and see a French grand tour win after so many years but I still think it won’t happen in the near future, and not with Alaphilippe.
Going back to grand tours leads me to think about the season of Alejandro Valverde, after his brutal crash in last year’s Tour. He came back at the age of 37 to have another fantastic and successful year. But his dream of winning possibly a last grand tour came to an end a few days too soon at the Vuelta. Like Alaphilippe, he is a great rider, but not really made for three-week grand tours. I loved his interview where he said, “You just have to accept defeat sometimes.”
And to end the column, let’s take a look into the future. Some top sprinters didn’t have their best years – I’m thinking of Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel. The question for next year is, will they come back, or did time finally get to them? Any thoughts on that, folks?