The XXL casting of the Vuelta has not yet kept all its promises. Despite a very lively race which has already crowned five different red jerseys, the Tour of Spain is disrupted by unpredictable weather making racing conditions difficult. To make matters worse, the organizers seem torn between the demands of the riders and the obligations of a grand tour worthy of the name. After nine stages, the French have already shone and the suspense remains intact even if the Jumbo-Visma already dictates its law.
With only one stage victory on the first two Grand Tour of the season (Paret-Peintre on the Giro and Lafay on the Tour de France), the tricolor camp was afraid to leave this Vuelta empty-handed. The Tour of Spain is not known for having a very strong sprinter field, so all hopes were turned to Bryan Coquard, author of a good season. The Cofidis sprinter is looking for his first victory on a grand tour at 31 years old. Only here, the Nazairien fell heavily in the final of the 4th stage, forcing him to give up. A few days after this hard blow, his compatriots Lenny Martinez (FDJ) and Romain Bardet (DSM) put on a show at the front of the 6th stage. Unfortunately second at the finish, the young hopeful of Groupama FDJ offered himself the leader’s red jersey, becoming the youngest post-war rider to lead a Grand Tour (20 years and 50 days ). After two days in red, the Habs swapped their leader’s jersey for that of the best young player. Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies) created a general surprise by taking the best step of his career. The 35-year-old pilot fish is not used to playing his own card when arriving at the sprint. On this seventh stage, the native of Viriat tried his luck by throwing from afar and resisted the return of Orluis Aular (Caja Rural) and Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek). A great story for the former Cofidis rider who was not even supposed to participate in the Tour of Spain until the last minute injury of his teammate Alexis Vuillermoz during the Tour de l’Ain.
From the first step, the tone was set. In the pouring rain, the night-time individual time trial on the streets of Barcelona saw plenty of crashes. A first outing that irritated more than one leader: “We are not monkeys in a circus! » defending champion Remco Evenepoel got carried away. The winner of the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard even tried to convince another leader Enric Mas not to start the second stage to protest against the organization. Under the pressure and the rise of controversy, the organizers thought to calm things down by improvising. Faced with bad weather conditions and the technical end of the second stage, to avoid crashes, the overall times were taken 9km from the finish. Added to this, the awkward and impressive fall of the Belgian champion Evenepoe at the finish of the third stage which he won, causing a new big anger noticed: “It breaks my balls. The Vuelta has been gone for three days and the bullshit continues. It’s not normal to find people placed 50m just after the line. It is bullshit. “.
The race seemed to regain its rights in calm and control, the security services notably succeeded in thwarting several attempts at sabotage. But, this Sunday, the eve of the day of rest, a new decision by the bosses of the Tour of Spain made people talk. To avoid a new rant from the riders, when the finish was scheduled at the top of the Collado de la Cruz de Caravaca, it was decided to freeze the times in the general classification two kilometers lower. Believing that the rain had damaged the roadway too much, which some images actually suggested. The marshals therefore recorded the lap times by hand a little wildly using two signaling studs. An excess of precaution since the runners were able to complete the ascent without any problem.
We were expecting Primoz Roglic or Jonas Vingegaard at the head of the general standings, finally it was the luxury team-mate of the Jumbo-Visma Sepp Kuss who wore the leader’s red jersey after nine days of racing. Whoever could become the first rider in history to win all three Grand Tours in the same season as a team member is doing even better than expected with already a stage on the clock and more than two minutes ahead of the main leaders. If Remco Evenepoel made the yellow armada somewhat doubt by winning the third stage and the red jersey, Richard Plugge’s team quickly regained control of operations. The leader of the Soudal Quick Step has lost his tunic but remains the first overall leader at 2’22” from Kuss and 7 seconds ahead of Roglic. The world time trial champion should regain some time this Tuesday on a 25.8km individual time trial tailored for him. But in the mountains, the Jumbo rules and Roglic seems to be the strongest of the peloton. The Slovenian has already won a great stage victory. Among the other favourites, the UAE Team Emirates has already shown its limits, the Ayuso-Almeida duo respectively 9th and 10th overall is struggling to make people forget Pogacar. The first real climbs will arrive this week, enough to make a first skimming and clear a potential podium. The only certainty so far, Geraint Thomas, diminished by a fall, is already out of the race more than 12 minutes from the red jersey. Also fallen, the other leader of the Ineos team Thymen Arensman gave up. One thing is certain, the best is yet to come for this Vuelta.
