Vuelta 2008



Be interested to see how Pierre Rolland (21 years old) of Credit Agricole goes after winning the mountains jersey in the Dauphine.:)
 
Bikeridindude said:
What happenned to Samuel Sanchez? Too tired from the Olympics? He could have given Alberto a go, his TT was looking good.
Samu was always scheduled to ride Poland in preparation for worlds
 
Quick step ,after such a poor TDF, will astound everyone by setting a blistering pace most of the race and Contador will abandon in stage 7 after a bad crash.
Kloden will then finish first in a very close race.
 
The Spanish Vuelta — the cycling season's third major tour — gets under way this weekend against a background of successive doping scandals but with promises of greater controls and a glittering array of the sport's top riders.

"We've warned the riders and the teams that the controls will be the most modern there are," race director Victor Cordero told The Associated Press. "If there's no doping case, that's perfect. But if one arises, it'll be because there are still cheats. However, we're onto them."

The 21-stage Vuelta starting Saturday follows what was a mix of glory and disgrace for Spanish cyclists at the Beijing Olympics. Samuel Sanchez won gold in the men's road race but the country's women's champion Maribel Moreno became the first athlete to be kicked out of the games for doping.
Prior to Moreno, Spanish cyclists Moises Duenas Nevado and Manuel Beltran also tested positive for third-generation EPO during the Tour de France in July.

Spain was also the site of the sport's biggest doping bust, Operation Puerto in 2006, but because of a legislation vacuum back then no rider, team official, or doctor was ever prosecuted
It's total unfair to accuse Spain of dragging its heels on doping," said Cordero. "Nobody has imposed more sanctions than Spain. The thing is before we didn't have a proper law. Now we do, and things will be different."

He pointed out that the Vuelta was the first major race to take a trophy away from a winner, Roberto Heras, in 2005.
Cordero insisted there will be more controls than ever in this Vuelta, which will be overseen by the UCI, while Spain's new anti-doping legislation will allow authorities to go after offenders.

"There are sure to be cases but that's because we'll be putting on so many controls," he said. "There'll always be cheaters."
He said that in Beijing there were 4,500 controls for 11,000 athletes, while the Vuelta will have at least 385 tests for its 171 riders — or more than two for each cyclist.

The race, he said, will also be the first to put into practice UCI's biological passport, under which riders will give a series of blood and urine samples to create an individual biological profile. Doping offenses will then be detected as fluctuations from their norm rather than tests to find specific substances.
Kicking off with a 7.7-kilometer team time trial in the southern city of Granada, the Vuelta will feature 2007 Tour de France winner and reigning Giro d'Italia champion Alberto Contador as well as this year's Tour winner, Carlos Sastre.

Contador, who wasn't allowed to take part in the French tour this year because his Astana team had been barred for its doping record, could become the fifth person — and the first Spaniard — to have won all three tours.
The other four are Italian Felice Gimondi, Belgium's Eddy Merckx and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, all more than 25 years ago.
A win for Contador or Sastre would also make it only the second time that riders from the same country have won all three races in the same year. French riders accomplished the feat in 1973.

"If I win it will be a historic feat," Contador told sports daily As.
But he insists Sastre is the one to watch.

"He is the favorite and No.1," Contador said. "In the Tour, he showed his true capability."

Other top riders participating will be Alejandro Valverde, Ukraine's Yaroslav Popovych, Dutch riders Pieter Weening and Robert Gesink and Russia's Mikhail Ignatiev.
Time trial specialists on the starting list include Spaniard Oscar Freire, Germany's Erik Zabel and Daniele Bennatti of Italy.

French Tour runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia will miss the race because of an injury he picked up in Paris while two-time winner and defending champion Denis Menchov decided this year to skip the Vuelta and concentrate on the Giro and Tour.

Race authorities have continued their policy of moving away from excessively long — and often boring — stages and this year the race is the shortest of the three tours, covering 3,133 kilometers (1,947 miles), compared to 3,504 kilometers (2,177 miles) in the Tour.

The races includes eight high mountain stages, including the grueling Angliru in northern Spain, and three time trials.
 
Carlos Sastre tells Contador to stop wheelsucking:
"I might automatically be among the favourites because I won the Tour, but some of the other guys and teams will also have to step up and claim responsibility in this race – especially Alberto Contador, who's been preparing himself specifically for the Vuelta. I'm confident that we as a team will be able to put our mark on this race," said Sastre.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/aug08/aug29news2
 

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