Vuelta, Hamburg, Cycling Market, Worlds and more:

Ok dear readers, it's finally time we started talking about la Vuelta and other random randomness. Unfortunately I couldn't write anything earlier because of some little problems connected to university - and, unfortunately, I won't be able to write anything in the next two weeks, because my parents have decided that our family holiday will start on Saturday. And guess what? I still don't know whether during that holiday I'll be able to watch la Vuelta. I mean, Smiley Menchov is climbing the Angliru in a few days time, and I probably won't be able to witness that event. Isn't that annoying?

Anyway, let's start talking cycling before I get too angry. First thing to mention, the Italian races of the last few days, which saw a great Rebellin get a stunning victory in Trofeo Melinda. The other day I read on la Gazzetta that his team doesn't have the biological passport, so I now have an explanation for his last efforts. I usually don't have doubts about riders who ride really well (I never doubted guys like Gilbert, Cancellara, Evans, etc. ), but imo Rebellin's latest results are too good to be true. Riders usually struggle with finding the race rythm again when they come back racing after a 2 years ban, but right now everything looks terribly easy for Davide - just like, in 2009, everything seemed easy for Riccò.

Anyway, let's leave my suspicious thoughts aside. Italian summer races are always nice because they allow supporters (and the head of the Italian team) to uderstand who the best national riders are. And Trofeo Melinda gave us very good news the other day: in fact Moreno Moser, who is a stagiare, went on a breakaway with 30 kms to go and he was caught just 25 kms later. Moreover, another stagiaire (Moreno Battaglin) was 7th, whereas the young Ratto was 4th. It's great to see the Italian young guns riding so well!

Talking about another topic, Gibert has officially signed for BMC which, next year, will have a very competitive team formed by Hushovd, Evans and PhilGil. Although Phil and Thor may have little contrasts during Sanremo and Tour of Flanders, I believe BMC will be the strongest team of the world in 2012. In fact, no one else has 3 champions who can win every Classic and GT stage they want and who can be competitive from February to October.

Still talking about cycling transfers, Leopard Trek has recently given a contract to Gregory Rast, a solid helper. GreenEdge instead has signed the 'climbing sprinter' Simon Gerrans.

A breakout news of the other day instead says that Vinokourov is already planning to come back racing at the Tour of Lombardy. If he really makes it, I may go watching that race with a Vino 4 ever t-shirt on (ok, just kidding).

After mentioning Leopard Trek, let's talk a bit about los Schlecks: after taking part in different criteriums, the brothers are going to race in the Tour of Colorado, which starts this evening. I would have preferred them to race la Vuelta, but los Schlecks seem to prefer the new American races to the traditional European ones: not only did they race the Tour of California in May (when they could have taken part in the Giro), but now they've preferred the Tour of Colorado to la Vuelta. Less pressure, I suppose.

Talking about the good old European races, yesterday the Hamburg Cycleclassics was won by an amazing Boasson Hagen. I think it's strange for him not to race la Vuelta (after all, he's one of the main contenders for the Worlds victory), but the guy surely knows what's best for him. Second in the race was Gerald Ciolek, whereas third was Borut Bozic. Fourth was a great Simone Ponzi, a young Italian who would deserve taking part in the Worlds. Talking about La Squadra, Bettini will have a tough time in deciding the names of the Italian riders who will take part in the Worlds. In fact Paolo would like to create a team formed by guys like Ulissi, Ponzi, Malori and Modolo - but will these young guns be able to resist in a race as long as the Worlds? That is the question.

After talking about the Hamburg Classic, let's talk about la Vuelta, which took off with a TTT in Benidorm. Unfortunately I couldn't see that stage, but of course I do know the result: an amazing Leopard Trek won in front of Liquigas and HTC. There were many crashes on the first stage and amongst the crashers du jour there were also Davide Viganò, David Blanco and Nick Nuyens. Brajkovic, on the other hand, had a mechanical right after the start. Cavendish instead didn't have any crash / mechanical, but he crossed the finish-line 2' 40" after his teammmates. Strange, isn't it?

The first rider to wear the red jersey was a happy Jakob Fuglsang, whereas a disappointed Carlos Sastre created a little polemic inside his team (source: Gazzetta dello Sport). In a few words, Carlos said that the team (ds, managers, so on) doesn't give enough support to their riders. According to some rumours, Smiley Menchov was even less smiley than usual after the TTT (after which he lost 39" from Nibali) and apparently he complained about his team as well. Geox guys must have done something very bad if they really managed to annoy Menchov: he never looks pissed off and he didn't even insult me when I stalked him heavily in San Pellegrino Terme!

Anyway, back to the TTT: another team who lost a lot of time was Sky (37"), who had some problems with riders losing contact from their teammates. Euskaltel did better than usual, whereas Astana was a good 4th (5" of delay from Nibali).

Yesterday the riders faced a 174 kms long stage from la Nucia to Playa de Orihuela. 4 brave riders went on a hopeless breakaway and the bravest amongst them was Adam Hansen, who probably wanted to put a remedy to his poor TTT (he lost contact from his teammates halfway through the stage). Everyone expected the sprinters to battle in the last meters of race, but no one (not even the race chronists and the journalists) had considered a little climb (about 300 meters with an average of 5%) that the rider had to face with about 800 meters to go. Also many riders looked shocked by that little climb and this makes me wonder why they didn't know about it.

HTC started pulling with 10 kms to go and that was a suicide-move. In fact Cav soon found himself with just 4 helpers, whereas other teams still had lots of riders ready to help their sprinters. With about 3 kms to go, Leopard Trek took the lead. Cancellara, O'Grady, Viganò, Bennati: everything was perfect. Unfortunately in the last curve of the race no one could keep Viganò's wheel, therefore Davide found himself at the head of the race, without knowing that his teammates weren't following him (at least, that's what Bennati said). However, Viganò wisely decided to try his luck, but he was swallowed by the peloton on the little climb before the finish-line. At that point HTC and LT's leadout trains broke down and Boonen tried to attack. Unfortunately for the Belgian, it was still too early and he was soon outsprinted by other guys. Sky's Christopher Sutton followed Omega's Reynes as the Spaniard attacked and he outsprinted the Vicente in the last meters of race. Third was Marcel Kittel, whereas 4th was Farrar, 5th Breschel and 6th Bennati.

"I knew it was a hard uphill finish", a happy Sutton told Cyclingnews. "Someone from Lotto accelerated and I jumped on his wheel. I thought, 'This is a long way to go.' But I looked back and no one was there. I thought, 'Alright, I've got this one.' To win today is a dream come true. I can't believe it". Reynes instead almost broke into tears after the finish-line, whereas a happy Bennati received the fourth red jersey of his career.

Today the Vuelta riders will face another flat stage which features a little climb with 13 kms to go. The victory will probably be decided by a sprint, in which Matthew Goss surely won't take part. In fact the HTC rider abandoned the race yesterday because of some physical problems.

La Vuelta: parcours and start list (plus other randomness)

Lots of things going on in Cycledom in the last few days, my dear readers.

First of all, Rebellin won the Tre Valli Varesine at the tender age of 40. This makes me wonder: if he goes so fast now that he's 40 and that he's not doping, how come that he didn't win the 2008 Olympics? Secondly, one recent news says that just four Swiss and Norwegian riders will have the chance of taking part in the Worlds this year. In my opinion this is absurd, especially if you consider that Iran and Morocco will have the chance of bringing 6 riders each to Copenhagen. Now, does anyone know at least one rider from Iran or Morocco? Personally, I don't. On the other hand, instead, I do know more than 4 riders from Switzerland (or from Norwegy). Cancellara, Bertogliati, Albasini, Frank, Morabito, Schaer, Tschopp Zaugg... It will be hard to pick just 3 of them, won't it?

Another hot topic in these days is cycling market. Talking about that: Langeveld has recently announced he'll join GreenEdge next year, whereas Degenkolb has officially said that he's joining Skil. The Pozzato-saga, on the other hand, has a new coup-de-scene, since Pippo has recently stated that Katiusha is trying to prolong his contract. Was Tchmil brainwashed, me wonders?

Fourth (and penultimate) interesting thing to say, in the last few days some interesting facts took place in the Blogosphere. First of all, our blogmate and Banana-reporter Susanne has recently decided to open her own tumblr. What are you waiting for? Check it out at http://themagicalpen.tumblr.com/ ! For other blog-related fun, take a look also at the last two posts on 'Bananas About Bikes' ( http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ ): our banana-reporters Lee and Mar have been to Eneco Tour and to Post Denmark Rundt, so you now have the chance of enjoying their hilarious tales!

Fifth topic du jour (and main topic of this post) is la Vuelta. Oh yes. The last GT of the season starts on Saturday and it features a very nice parcours and a wonderful start list. Let's now take a look at the parcours and at the start - list - and let's also make some random predictions.

PARCOURS:

The 2011 Vuelta takes off with a 16 kms long TTT in Benidorm. The following stage is likely to suit sprinters, who may battle for victory after racing along the Spanish coast for a lot of kms. The second stage features a little climb with 10 kms to go, whereas the third one ends on the top of Sierra Nevada. This will be a pretty important stage, because some riders may have problems due to the fact that the first uphill finish arrives after just 4 days of race. Moreover, the Sierra Nevada isn't an easy climb: in fact it is 23 kms long and has an average of 5.7 %. In addition, at the top of the climb the riders will find themselves at an altitude of 2000 meters. Tough stage, isn't it?

On the following day, the wind may play tricks on the riders. However, the main obstacle du jour arrives in the last 3 kms of race, when the cyclists will have to face the Valdepeñas de Jaén wall, whose ramps' average is (fasten your seatbelt) up to 23%. Joaquim Rodriguez, Igor Anton, get ready for that - Nibali, Menchov, do whatever you can to stay glued to the wheels of the Spaniards.

After these two hellish days, the riders will face a stage ending in the astonishing city of Còrdoba, where the sprinters are likely to fight for the stage victory. That area of Spain is usually very hot and some riders may have problems because of that. The following stage will suit sprinters as well, although the fastest rider will have to sweat a lot in order to resist on the hilly terrain and in the windy and hot heart of Spain.

Next Saturday the riders will face a hilly terrain and one of the steepest walls of the world. The final 3 kms of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial stage in fact have ramps of up to 28 % - guys, be careful not to fall backwards while riding up that wall!

On the following day, some other pain is on the riders' menu: in fact they'll have to face another uphill finish. The last climb, La Covatilla, is 10 kms long and its average is 7.4%. Ouch, my legs are hurting - and I'm not even a rider!

On Monday, the GC riders will have another tough day ahead: a 40 kms long TT in the heart of Salamanca, a wonderful city. Nibali and Menchov will have the chance of gaining some time on their adversaries here, and they should really give their best in this stage: in fact, it is the only TT featured in this year race.

After a well-deserved rest day on Tuesday, the peloton (which, by now, might have lost many riders because of the upcoming Worlds) will head towards Galicia, where the cyclists will face another uphill finish. El Alto de la Manzaneda is 19 kms long and has an average of 6%. The GC riders who don't use their rest day properly will risk to blow up on this climb, so this stage may give us some surprises.

On the following day, the sprinters who have survived the first week of race will be able to show their skills in the stage to Pontevedra. 24 hours later, they'll have to face the Spanish version of Galibier, which is called Puerto de Ancares. Unfortunatey on this occasion the organisers have decided to create a stage 'a la Tour': the toughest climb du jour in fact is placed with more than 60 kms to go.

On the following afternoon, however, the supporters will be able to enjoy the show of the Lagos de Somiedo stage, which features lots of climbs and an uphill finish.

24 hours later, the riders are likely to see mirages as they face one of the toughest climb of Europe: the Angliru. The last 6.5 kms of this climb have an average of 13% and this should be enough to make you understand the difficulties that the riders will face on that day. Luckily the boys will have the chance of resting on the following day. The GC riders will start battling again after two days, when (after the flat stage to Haro) they'll have to face a 212 kms long stage to Pena Cabarga. The boys will have to use everything that's left in their tank in order to survive this long stage, which ends on a climb that isn't particularly steep but that, at this point of the race, may offer us a very interesting show.

The three following stages are likely to award the brave riders who'll choose to go on a breakaway. In particular, the Bilbao and Vitoria stages will be a Basque delirium, since thanks to them la Vuelta comes back in the Basque Country for the first time since 1978.

On the 11th September, in the end, the Spanish GT will be over with the usual parade in Madrid. Bennati won there in 2008 and, if he doesn't abandon the race because of the Worlds, he may win there also this year. Finally, after 3 weeks of pain the riders will be able to get off their bikes. Some will be rejoicing, other ones will be disappointed, but everyone will be happy to have concluded one of the most brutal GTs of the year. And then, the attention of the cycling world will immediately move to Copenhagen.

START LIST:

This year the battle for the overall victory in the Vuelta will be very tough and some of the best riders of the world will all be at the start of the race on Saturday. Here are the line-ups of the teams with some little remarks about them:

AG2R: Roche, Bonnafond, Champion, Dessel, Houanard, Le Lay, Mondory, Montaguti, Perget.

The hilarious Irishman Nicolas Roche is back racing after his knee problems in the Tour. Will he manage to race better than his cousin Daniel Martin? Time will tell. His team is formed by attackers like Dessel and nice guys like Houanard, who'll go looking for stage victories even in the TTT.

Andalucia Caja Granada: Bernabeu, Benitez, Cabello, Lobato, Palomares, Piedra, Ramirez, Roldan, Rosendo.

The Frenchmen offer their wild cards to the French teams, the Italians offer them to the Italian teams, the Spaniards give them to the Spanish equipos. The question is: what team does Bernabeu support?

BMC: Burghardt, Frank, Kohler, Phinney, Quinziato, Santambrogio, Santaromita, Tschopp, Van Avermaet.

A very good team for BMC: attention to them for the TTT! Phinney will be under special observation in the first days of race, whereas the other guys will battle for a stage victory.

Cofidis: Bagot, Edet, Mate, Moncoutie, Monier, Saramotins, Sijmens, Taaramae, Vogondy.

The French team has a good line-up: Moncoutié is a good climber who doesn't fear tough climbs, Taaramae has a very impulsive racing style, Vogondy was born to attack. Monier, on the other hand, is still astonished by his victory in the 2009 Giro ;)

Euskaltel:  Anton, Isasi, Martinez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Txurruka, Velasco, Verdugo, Nieve.

This will be a very important edition of the Vuelta for the Basque team. Anton wants to win the race after he had to abandon it because of a crash last year, whereas Nieve has showed us his skills during the Giro. The rest of the team will help the team leaders and will attack a lot in the Bilbao and Vitoria stages.

Geox-TMC: Cobo, Blanco, De La Fuente, Duarte, Duran, Florencio, Menchov, Sastre, Valls.

A good team of climbers for Geox. Cobo, De La Fuente, Duarte, the promising Valls... And I still haven't mentioned Carlos 'Carlito' Sastre and Denis 'Smiley' Menchov. Of course I'll be supporting the Russian in the next three weeks and I'm sure he'll do his best to win his third Vuelta. Allez Denis!

HTC - Highroad: Albasini, Cavendish, Degenkolb, Goss, Grabsch, Howard, Martin, Sivstov, M. Velits.

Ok readers: read these names carefully and read the name of the team with respect. This is the last GT for HTC Highroad and this is extremely sad for every cycling lover. Let's enjoy every single action made by the boys in yellow and let's enjoy the stage wins that they're really likely to get. Cavendish, Degenkolb and Goss will use the Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Martin will pay attention to the GC. Look out for this team during the TTT, they're dangerous!

Katiusha: Rodriguez, Horrach, Kuchynski, Losada, Moreno, Paolini, Pliuschin, Trofimov, Vorganov.

A very good line-up for the Russian team. Joaquin Rodriguez is already looking forward to the toughest stages, whereas Pliuschin will surely show us his talent in some breakaways. Moreno is a talented climber too and I'm sure he'll do his best to help his captain. Paolini is extremely likely to take part in the Worlds and in the 2012 Olympics and he'll do his best in this race in order to show that he deserves his place in the sun in the Italian team.

Lampre: Scarponi, Kvachuk, Marzano, Mori, Niemiec, Arrieta, Petacchi, Righi, Spezialetti.

A very good team that can win stages and that can also go for the overall victory with Scarponi. Michele is determined to win this race and to defeat his eternal rival Nibali, whereas Petacchi, if he's had his motivation back, may win some flat stages. Niemiec will surely rock the climbs, the other ones will help him in supporting Scarponi as well as they can.

Leopard Trek: Bennati, Cancellara, Fuglsang, Monfort, O'Grady, Pires, Viganò, Wagner, Zaugg.

The hottest team of the Vuelta is ready to rock the stages and the overall. Fuglsang really shone in his first Vuelta and this year he'd like to repeat himself. The magic couple Viganò / Bennati will rock the sprints (in Daniele we trust!), whereas all the other guys have the skills to go for a stage win. This is the last LT GT for Big Old Stuey and hopefully he'll say 'adieu!' to his teammates with a victory - what about the TTT?

Liquigas: Nibali, Capecchi, Caruso, Da Dalto, Dall'Antonia, Marangoni, Nerz, Sagan, Wurf.

Great, great team. Vincenzo won this race last year, but everything will be tougher this time. I'll obviously support him during the next 3 weeks (the Worlds are approaching, so my sportif patriotism has started to show itself off :P), just like I will support the young and brave Marangoni, the nice Wurf and all the other promising guys on this team. I like Capecchi because I was there when he first won a GT stage at the Giro and I have great expectations for Peter Sagan. Moreover, Fangirl will be watching Dominique Nerz in a very careful way - the boy broke his collarbone earlier in the season and I hope that by now he has fully recovered.

Movistar: Erviti, Vicente, Intxausti, Konovalovas, Lastras, Lopez, Pardilla, Plaza Molina, Samoilau.

While reading the line-up of this team, I couldn't help but think of Xavier Tondo - Vuelta was his home- race and Intxausti was with him on that cursed morning of May. The boys will surely do their best also for him, just like the LT guys will be racing also for WW Special in the next three weeks. Movistar has a good-line up, with a good climber (Pardilla), some good all rounders (Samoilau), a strong sprinter (Lastras) and a great time trialist (Konovalovas).

Omega: Bakelandts, De Greef, De Haes, Dockx, Hansen, Pujol, Reynes, Van De Walle, Van Den Broeck.

When I read that Bakelandts was taking part in this race, I had a sigh of relief. In fact, I was worried by Hoogerland and Roy's absences and I was already wondering who would have taken their place as 'most attacking rider du Grand Tour' during the Vuelta. Well, now the answer is simple: Jan is going to do it. The boy's got a lot of strength, too bad that he's never that lucky with breakaways. Together with him, Omega offer us a good line-up formed by a sprinter like Hansen, an old crush of mine  like De Greef and one of the comeback boys du GT: Jurgen Van Den Broeck (right now I'm wondering why I've just typed his name as 'Van Den Brown' :P).

Astana: Kessiakoff, Gasparotto, Kangert, Kashechkin, Kiserlovski, Mizurov, Petrov, Renev.

For the first time, Astana will face a GT while knowing that his founder, Vinokourov, won't race anymore (*girls of the AAVL mourn*). However, Vino leaves behind him a strong team. Petrov knows how to win GT stages, Kessiakoff is a great climber, Kashechkin was Vino's faithful helper back in 2007, Gasparotto is one of my favourite riders and Kiserlovski is the team's hope for the GC. Allez Robert!

Quickstep: Bandiera, Boonen, Cataldo, Chavanel, De Maar, De Weert, Maes, Malacarne, Seeldrayers.

Seeldrayers is back in action after the Giro and is ready to show off his talent. Boonen will use la Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Chavanel will fight with Bakelandts for the 'most combative rider' award.

Rabobank: Barredo, Breschel, Freire, Garate, Kruijswijk, Martens, Mollema, LL Sanchez, Slagter.

A very good line-up for Rabo. Breschel and Freire will rock the sprints, Mollema and Kruijswijk will help each other in the GC (go go guys!), Barredo and Garate are great attackers, LL Sanchez is a victory-addicted in the Tour and Slagter is back in a GT after scaring us all during the Giro 'strade bianche' stage.

Saxo Bank: CA Sorensen, Christensen, Gustov, Haedo, Jorgensen, Majka, Marycz, Nuyens, N.Sorensen.

You've gotta love this team when it features two Sorensens in its line up!! Good old Bjarne offer us an interesting team for this Vuelta. Chris Anker is ready for his first GT as a daddy and he'll surely try to get a prestigious victory in order to dedicate it to Laerke and Michelle. Nicki will help him, Haedo will sprint, Jorgensen will show us his talent (and his cuteness), Nuyens is back from his post-Flanders holiday, Marycz will enter every single breakaway of the race. I really like Jaroslaw and I really hope that he and Chris will manage to win a stage each. Will it be possible?

Skil: Geniez, Doi, Frohlinger, Geschke, Hupond, Kittel, Sprick, Timmer, Veelers.

Will Kittel rule the sprints as he did in Poland? That is the question that everyone wants to answer.

Sky: Arvesen, Cioni, Froome, Lovkvist, Possoni, Stannard, Sutton, Wiggins, Zandio.

Wiggo is another rider who comes back racing after breaking a bone in the Tour. His team is really good: Cioni and Possoni are good climbers, Froome is an all-rounder, Arvesen is one of my favourite riders - too bad that he's ending his career at the end of the season. Lovely Lovkist is back in a GT for the joy of every woman in the world, whereas Sutton and Stannard will try to find a place in the sun during the Spanish sprints.

Garmin: Farrar, Fischer, Haussler, Hushovd, Klier, Le Mevel, Martin, Talansky, Van Summeren. Cyclingnews says that Hushovd will race la Vuelta, but I don't know if they're right. Thor, Haussler, Fischer and Farrar will prepare the Worlds in Spain and it'll be hard to name a captain amongst them. Le Mevel is a strong climber, just like Daniel Martin, who is riding really well in these days. Van Summeren is the boy we've all learned to love in Paris - Roubaix, whereas Talansky is a promising time trialist. Look out for this team in the TTT!

Radioshack: Brajkovic, Busche, Irizar, Kloeden, Lequatre, Machado, Oliveira, Paulinho, Zubeldia. Kloeden and Brajkovic are back after their terrible Tour and, hopefully, after a little pilgrimage to Lourdes (or to Santiago de Compostela). Machado will hopefully race better than he did during the Giro and Oliveira (a promising neo pro) may show us something interesting.

Vacansoleil: Carrara, Devolder, Golas, Keizer, Lagutin, Lighthart, Mosquera, Poels, Van Leiken.

Once again, Cyclingnews tells me that Mosquera will be racing - too bad that I remember reading an article in which Vacansoleil said that Ezequiel wouldn't have taken part in the Spanish race. Mystery! Apart from Mosquera, Vacansoleil has a good line-up: Poels is a strong rider, just like Lagutin. Carrara is fast, Devolder is an all rounder, Lighthart is the Dutch national champion. I'm looking forward to seeing him racing!

So, this was my little intro to Vuelta a Espana. My pick for the final podium is: Antòn, Nibali, Menchov - I'm sure that also Scarponi and Rodriguez will do a great job, too bad that a podium has just 3 spots...