Vuelta a España 2024

Alberto Contador received a hero’s welcome upon his return to Spain on Monday, with politicians toasting him and thousands of fans cheering him upon his arrival in Madrid’s Barajas airport. But before the recently crowned Giro d’Italia winner had a chance to celebrate his unlikely victory, there’s already growing speculation the 2007 Tour de France champ can complete cycling’s “grand tour triple crown” with a run at the Vuelta a España this fall.

The 62nd Vuelta a España wasn’t without its controversies. Carlos Sastre accused race leader Denis Menchov of forming alliances. Universal criticism rained down on a long, boring 52km time trial in Zaragoza. Riders complained that the top-heavy course, with its most important stages packed into the opening 10 days, left for a dull and unexciting second half. But one thing was largely missing from this year’s Spanish tour – doping scandals. The Vuelta has been wracked by its fair share of doping controversies the past few years, including the disastrous EPO positive of 2005 winner Roberto

After three long weeks of sometimes exciting racing, the remaining 145 riders rolled into a festive welcome in the heart of downtown Madrid to conclude the 2007 Vuelta a España with an exhilarating finishing sprint. Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) used his lethal bike stab to hold off Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) to win his third stage in Sunday’s final romp into Madrid and bring an end to the season’s final grand tour.

Samuel Sánchez delivered his third stage victory of this year’s Vuelta a España to secure his Basque Euskaltel-Euskadi team its first-ever podium finish in a grand tour in the team’s 14-year history. Sánchez roared over Saturday’s short 20km individual time trial in the suburbs north of Madrid to knock Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) off the podium and give compatriot Carlos Sastre (CSC) a good fright for the second spot on the podium.

Yesterday it was Vladimir Efimkin, today it was Cadel Evans. Team CSC’s Carlos Sastre played executioner for the second straight day and clawed his way ahead of Evans into second place overall Friday at the Vuelta a España after a grueling, six-climb stage finishing atop the rainy and foggy Abantos summit. Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won ahead of ahead of Dani Moreno (Relax-GAM) to score his second stage victory of this year’s Vuelta while Sastre crossed the line third just ahead of race leader Denis Menchov (Rabobank) at three seconds back.

Team CSC’s Carlos Sastre has been complaining all week that the 2007 Vuelta a España just wasn’t hard enough. With the top GC spots jammed in a deadlock since the climbing stage to Cerler in the Pyrénées, it seemed the relatively easy second half of the Vuelta was dooming the 32-year-old Spanish climber to yet another fourth-place result in a grand tour. Sastre – already twice fourth in the Tour de France and once fourth in the Vuelta -- was so frustrated, so fed up, that he even said he wasn’t going to attack anymore.

A second sprint victory in the Vuelta a España couldn’t erase disappointment for Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) after being overlooked for a spot on the Italian national team for next week’s world championships. The Liguigas-bound rider found out overnight he was left off the Stuttgart squad and smashed that frustration into his pedals Wednesday to beat the men whom he wanted to support, Paolo Bettini, and compatriot Alessandro Petacchi in the 175km 17th stage from Ciudad Real to Talavera de la Reina.

Colombians made a name for themselves in the 1980s and 1990s by winning when the road turned uphill. Such stars as Lucho Herrera, Fabio Parra and the latest incarnation in the form of Mauricio Soler put Colombia on the international cycling map thanks to their bird-like builds and innate ability to soar like condors up Europe’s steepest roads. Santiago Botero broke the mold with his consistency in the race against the clock, but Colombians and summit finishes were synonymous in the peloton.

When the road drops downhill, there’s no one faster than Samuel Sánchez. Perhaps Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital) didn’t know what was in store when Sánchez disappeared off the Cat. 1 Alto de Monachil summit some 20km from the finish line in Granada. But Manuel “Triki” Beltrán (Liquigas) sure did.

Iowan Jason McCartney (Discovery) attacked out a breakaway group of 11 to win the 14th stage of the 2007 Vuelta a España, a hilly 207-kilometer ride Puerto Lumbreras to Villacarrillo, on Saturday.

Just when it looked like the Vuelta a España was stuck on the repeat button, all hell broke loose in Friday´s 176km 13th stage. Take away the wild battles in the Pyrenees, and it seemed the Vuelta had stolen the script from the movie “Groundhog Day.” Day after day, the same plot unfolded: an early break, lots of TV for Spain´s second-division no-hopers, the peloton on siesta, the sprint teams revving up the chase, the breakaway caught with 8km to go, a sprinter sweeping across the line in the fight to see who gets kisses from the podium girls.

If there was any doubt that Alessandro Petacchi was back at his best, he erased them with an emphatic finishing surge Thursday to claim his second straight sprint victory at the Vuelta a España. On a day when another breakaway attempt fell short, Milram did the heavy lifting to reel in the attackers to put Ale-Jet in position to win the 173km 12th stage from Algemesí to Hellín.

Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) made yet another comeback after sprinting to victory in Wednesday’s otherwise routine 11th stage at the Vuelta a España. It was his first major victory since the Italian ace tested non-negative for Salbutamol at the Giro d’Italia and his career teetered on the edge of disaster. The Italian cycling federation eventually cleared Petacchi of what could have been a two-year racing ban, but the proud Petacchi was forced to sit on the sidelines during the Tour de France.

How much is Denis Menchov dominating the 2007 Vuelta a España? If the amount of lipstick on his cheeks from receiving kisses from the podium girls is any indication, a lot. The 29-year-old Rabobank captain won the longest and hardest stage of this year’s Vuelta on a sunny and windy Monday high in Andorra to carry a solid lead of more than two minutes to compatriot Vladimir Efimkin (Caisse d’Epargne) into Tuesday’s rest day. Just add up the quality podium time Menchov enjoyed: stage winner, race leader, mountain jersey and the combined jersey. That’s a lot of kisses.

Monday’s exciting stage at the Vuelta a España saw the return of polemica, a tried and true European journalistic tradition of a battle of words fought out in headlines. The “he said-she said” tug-of-wars used to fill the pages of European sports dailies until the dirty business of doping scandals took all the fun out of being a cycling journalist. Those glory days returned briefly Monday as exhausted and frustrated riders started to point fingers at one another at the finish of the frenetic 214km “queen stage” across the Spanish Pyrenees. The first salvo came from Team CSC’s Carlos

[nid:40410]Two years ago, Denis Menchov was declared victor of the Vuelta a España months after Roberto Heras tested positive for EPO and was eventually dethroned. The Rabobank rider never enjoyed his moment on the winner’s podium and remains bitter about the whole business. Flash forward to Sunday’s first of two decisive climbing stages across the Spanish Pyrénées, when the soft-spoken Russian followed the attacking Leonardo Piepoli to climb solidly into the leader’s jersey .

Stijn Devolder (Discovery Channel) became stronger as the 52.2km individual time trial into Zaragoza unfolded to surge into the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Vuelta a España. His rivals are hoping that trend doesn’t continue going into a pair of decisive climbing stages in the Pyrénées, or this Vuelta might well be over.

Perhaps Oscar Freire has a sixth sense. After winning three out of the first six stages at the Vuelta a España, the Rabobank sprinter had his crash radar up and decided to take himself out of Friday’s sprint into Zaragoza. Sure enough. There was a nasty spill with about 30km to go that took down American Christian Vande Velde (CSC) when the peloton was roaring at 65kph to erase the day’s main breakaway.

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) is slipperier than a fish in the fast-moving waters of the bunch sprints at the Vuelta a España. For the better part of Thursday’s 184.3km sixth stage across Spain’s Rioja wine country, Freire was jabbering with friends at the back of the peloton, flitting around as if killing time before getting down to the business end of the stage.

With a few short weeks before the 2007 world championship road race, Oscar Freire (Rabobank) looks almost unbeatable in the sprint as he aims for his fourth rainbow jersey in Stuttgart on September 30. [nid:40358]The three-time world champ scored his second win in five days in Wednesday’s 157.4km fifth stage at the Vuelta a España with an explosive sprint that left the rest in the peloton shaking their heads in disbelief.

[nid:40341]Good thing Vladimir Efimkin's twin brother, Alexander, isn't at the Vuelta a España. Just moments after surprising the favorites on the Vuelta's hardest climb to surge into the overall leader's jersey, the 25-year-old Caisse d'Epargne rider was beating the drum of Alexander, who rides on rival Barloworld. "My brother is the one who you will be hearing about in the coming years," said Efimkin, who soloed to victory in Tuesday's epic climb to Lagos de Covadonga. "He trains harder than me, he's a better climber than me.

Reigning world champion Paolo Bettini says he’s not superstitious, but he was probably having his doubts after what’s been a long season for the usually prolific Tuscan tiger. Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) came into the Vuelta a España with just one victory on the 2007 season and was relieved with his sprint victory Monday ahead of Óscar Freire Gómez (Rabobank) and Allan Davis (Discovery Channel) to end a winless streak dating back to February’s Tour of California.

A day after finishing second, Spanish ace Oscar Freire (Rabobank) got it right in Sunday’s crash-marred second stage to win and move into the overall lead at the Vuelta a España. And a day after American climber Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) was KO’d with a broken shoulder, it was Christian Vande Velde’s turn. The Team CSC rider crashed twice but was able to finish the hilly stage despite some nasty road rash.

[nid:40251]Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) picked up where he left off, putting a nice bookend victory in Saturday’s 154.4km opener at the Vuelta a España to go along with his triumph in the final stage on the Champs Elysées at the Tour de France. The brawny Italian hitched a ride on Milram’s setup train and out-kicked a superstar field to win for the eighth time this season ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who came through third.

Cofidis’s David Millar stopped half a meter short of the finish line of the Tour of Spain's killer 15th stage on Sunday in protest at the conditions on the Vuelta's most feared and notorious climb. Millar refused to cross the line after climbing to the top of Angliru. According to Victor Cordero, sport director for the Vuelta a Espana race organization, Millar arrived to the finish line but declined to cross it.