All three have flat stages, all three have mountains. So, what’s the differences? How about weather extremes. As I sit here ant read about the weather at this year’s Vuelta, I am looking at a framed picture of Andy Hampsten atop the Passo di Gavia in 1988.
It looks like the big hurdle in this year’s Vuelta is the heat. Stages are regularly hitting 40C (104F) and start times are pushed into the morning. Riders are complaining that they are now starting pre-race routines before sunrise. What about the siesta?
Not that I want to baby the pros on tour but I think this is a bad omen for the Vuelta. Having severe weather in the first week of the the Vuelta may cause an inordinate amount of the sports top names to drop out. Even the sprinters may exit before the mountain stages. That should remove some of the excitement from the race and leave no viewers for the final week. That would be a shame.
September 18, 2006 at 2:09 pm |
[...] The return of “Alexandre the Great.” Don’t let the blonde locks fool you. Inside there burns a fire that rivals the heat from the first week of the Vuelta. Keeping with the heat theme, this man has been to hell and back this season. It seems that the pilot light is always lit but when given a cause to ride for, Alexandre Vinokourov turns in performances that have us all wondering where the phone booth was that he changed into his Superman outfit? This season’t cause was the public flogging team Astana took as a result of Manolo Saiz playing Igor to Dr. FUentes’ Frankenstein. [...]