Translated material
In someone else's garden
The Italian won the Vuelta for the first time in 20 years
Vincenzo Nibali from the Licuigas team on Sunday evening became the winner of the third most important cycling stage race, the Vuelta a España, which started at the end of August. Representatives of Italy have not become the best on the roads of the Iberian Peninsula for exactly 20 years. At the same time, the Spaniard has won the Italian Giro only once over the past 17 seasons - this was done by Alberto Contador in 2008. Such rare forays into “someone else’s garden” are made by riders from two cycling powers.The leader of the Russian Katyusha, Joaquim Rodriguez, who twice tried on the red jersey of the leader of the general classification during the race and won one of the stages, eventually finished fourth, 4 minutes behind Nibali. 20 sec.
Let us remember that for the second time the Spaniard Rodriguez led the overall standings after the 16th stage, that is, before the 46-kilometer time trial. This discipline is not his specialty, but Joaquim hoped that he would not lose much to Nibali and would retain first place. However, the “cutting” put everything in its place. Having already lost his chances for something serious, two-time Vuelta winner Denis Menchov, who was finalizing his contract at Rabobank (Holland), completed the distance excellently and became second in time, losing only a dozen seconds to the quick Slovakian Peter Velitz (HTC-Columbia). The third place was taken by the recognized master of time trials and one-day events, Swiss Fabian Cancellara. By the way, he soon left the race and announced his decision to leave Saxo Bank.
The main intrigue of the “cut” was the absentee struggle of those who intended to take away or defend the red jersey. Nibali pedaled at a decent pace and achieved 15th time with a 1 minute deficit. 55 sec. in relation to the Slovakian from the American team. Rodriguez frankly failed this start - 105th place, losing to the Italian for more than four minutes, losing the leadership tights and any chance of his return. If a cyclist wants to win Grand Tour stage races, then he shouldn’t ride so poorly in the individual race.
The next stage on the plain from Valladolid to Salamanca passed without shocks and ended with another triumph for the British sprinter Mark Cavendish, who had been in the lead in the sprint classification since the middle of the Vuelta. A native of the Isle of Man, which has a special status in the United Kingdom, scored a personal hat-trick at the current Vuelta, plus he also won the team time trial. Thus, Cavendish already has 25 victories in Grand Tour competitions, and all this over the last three seasons. Mark has 15 victories in the Tour de France, six in the Giro d'Italia, plus four in the Vuelta. Menshov again got out of the peloton and arrived at the finishing town a minute after the bulk of the participants.
Friday marked the longest stage with the caravan arriving in the beautiful old city of Toledo. At the beginning of the route, the peloton overcame a mountain of the second category of difficulty, but otherwise the terrain of the route did not hide anything difficult. A completely logical victory for the Belgian Philippe Gilbert, who scored a double at the Vuelta (he had previously distinguished himself in the third stage). The Italian legionnaire of “Katyusha” Filippo Pozzato, besides Gilbert, let only the American Tyler Farrar advance. Liquigas confidently controlled the course of events in the race, and Nibali finished in the first group.
The closest pursuer of the Italian, Ezequiel Mosquera, who defends the colors of the Spanish “Sacobeo Galicia”, once led by the current general director and head coach of football “Spartak” Valery Karpin, shot on Saturday on the steep climb of Bola del Mundo (2250 meters above sea level). Nibali did not let go of his competitor, although he did not respond to his decisive attack, nobly allowing him to win. Rodriguez was also good in the mountains. He turned out to be the strongest in his mini-duel with Frank Schleck (Luxembourg) and finished third, losing the inseparable pair of leaders by only 23 seconds. The stage with endless ascents and descents pretty much sifted the peloton, almost everyone recorded different times, Pozzato dropped out of the race. This, in fact, was the end of the Vuelta. The last day on super multi-day races is usually considered a formality, and the route profile is always chosen to be the simplest. There are, however, exceptions, like last year at the Giro, when the race closed with a short time trial, and Menchov almost lost first place due to a fall on a road slippery from the rain.
Vincenzo Nibali, born in Messina, will turn 26 in November. He rose to the top gradually, progressing rapidly since 2007, when he entered the top 20 at his home Giro. This season in the Apennines he strengthened his rapidly growing authority, finishing third in the overall standings. A triumph at the Vuelta will allow Vincenzo to go down in history. The Mountain King's jersey is taken to France by David Moncoutier, "Katyusha" is the first in the team competition, which few people are interested in.