I got a chance to catch up with American Chris Horner of Team Astana after the first road race of the final Grand Tour of the year - La Vuelta a Espana. Today's race, almost pan flat, was contested over 110 miles (204 km) in The Netherlands, of all places. The constant small roads, combined with numerous changes of direction and some wind made this first mass-start day a tricky one for riders looking for a good overall finish on September 20th - three weeks from today.
Starting the day, there were 198 riders, but by the finish of this flat, aggressive day, there were only 173 riders remaining. And, almost 100 of them lost some time in the final 3 miles as the sprinters teams battled for control at the front of the field. Many of the pre-race favorites lost valuable time, including:
Andy Schleck at 30" (the Luxembourger who took 2nd place in this year's Tour de France),
And a bunch at 18":
*Alexander Vinokourove (the Kazak, the winner of the 2006 Vuelta who is coming back from a two year suspension)
*Samuel Sanchez (the Spanish Olympic champion last year in Beijing)
*Linus Gerdemann (the German hope, a stage winner of the 2007 Tour de France, and as a consequence of that win, he led the overall classification for a day)
*Frank Schleck (brother of Andy, a stage winner at this year's Tour de France)
Here's a link to my interview with Chris Horner, from after the race on Sunday:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ChrisHornerInterviewVueltaDay2
Looks like Horner is going to make the move to Lance's new team, RadioShack for 2010. Officially, teams and riders are not allowed to say anything before September 1, but there are always plenty of folks who are willing to hint at what might be coming, and some will outright say where they are moving before the September 1 date. The penalty for making announcements before September 1 is nebulous. If a team wanted to make a stink over a rider leaving, they could, and the UCI (international cycling governing body) could impose fines, but most teams don't care to escalate things to that level. At any rate, we should have a ton of transfers to digest and talk about this week.
Tomorrow is another flat day at the 64th edition of La Vuelta, which again starts and finishes in The Netherlands, and briefly crosses the border into Germany. Another day for the sprinters.
As always, you can check out all the action on Universal Sports TV, check local listings here: http://www.universalsports.tv/Universal_Sports_on_TV or, there is plenty to view on the internet here: http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=13044&DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=204770092
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