Alejandro Valverde Wins the Vuelta a Espana, His First Grand Tour Victory

Podium Cafe calls it a coronation or a parade into Madrid. It was just that as Alejandro Valverde, the Spaniard, won his first grand tour on Sunday, claiming the top spot on the podium in the 2009 Vuelta a Espana.

It was the 64th edition of the tour of Spain and it will be quite memorable for the home country as not only did Valverde claim the top spot on the podium, but fellow Spaniard Samuel Sanchez claimed second place and Australian Cadel Evans placed third overall.

Alejandro Valverde held firm in the time trial Stage 20 of the Vuelta a Espana and now he looks to have a celebratory ride into Madrid on Sunday. David Millar from England won the time trail, giving the Garmin Slipstream team their third win of the 2009 Vuelta.Valverde is sure to win his first grand tour in his home country with the largely ceremonial stage tomorrow.

With Alberto Contador taking the Tour de France, this has been quite a year in cycling for Spain.

Today’s hilly stage was all about Alejandro Valverde proving that he could hang on and not succumb to various attacks as it was the final day for riders to really pressure him for overall GC lead. Valverde held strong and it looks like he’s going to wind up taking the top podium spot when the field rolls into the Madrid on Sunday.As for Stage 19, Juanjo Cobo won on a wet, cold and rainy day as he was part of the eight-person breakaway. Samuel Sanchez, who is now second in the overall rankings thanks to Robert Gesink fading because of his injuries, was probably the last chance to attack Valverde and pose a serious challenge.

Valverde can see the end, but doesn’t want to celebrate too early.

Not to minimize Philip Deignan’s Stage 18 win at the Vuelta a Espana, but Alejandro Valverde is closing in on winning the 2009 grand tour. There is really only one more chance for anyone to make a move on the Spaniard and that would be tomorrow’s stage. We’re down to the final stages, gents.

As for Deignan, he’s the first Irish rider to win a stage of a grand tour since the 1992 Tour de France. Deignan was part of a 16-man breakaway in a cold and wet day in Spain.

France’s Anthony Roux survived one of the most pulse-pounding finishes of a stage of the Vuelta a Espana yet. The 22-year-old was part of a breakaway that the peloton was chasing right to the very end of the race and had the race been maybe even 20 meters longer, the peloton might’ve caught Roux. Roux wasn’t happy that some of the breakaway riders attacked with about 5 kilometers to go.

There was also pretty nasty crash during the stage today that involved second-place rider Robert Gesink of Rabobank. He did continue despite having some cuts and bruises. Gesink might pose one of the biggest threats to golden jersey holder Alejandro Valverde. Andre Greipel, owner of the green jersey, finished third and has come close to solidifying a finish in that green jersey. Podium Cafe wonders if this jersey would be Greipel’s greatest accomplishment in his career.

It wasn’t exactly a thrilling stage in today’s Vuelta a Espana (unless you count a nasty crash), mostly due to the lack of climbing. There was lots of flat road which meant that it was likely going to come down to another group sprint. And since Tyler Farrar was out, the field was seemingly wide open for Andre Greipel to win his third stage of the Vuelta.

Greipel wound up taking over the green jersey for points from overall general classification leader Alejandro Valverde who still remains in the golden jersey. With many of the other sprinters gone, Greipel seems poised to wind up in the green jersey at the end since there are only a couple of climbing stages remaining in the 2009 Vuelta. Especially given the way the course projects out tomorrow for stage 17.

American Tyler Farrar finally broke through and won a stage of a grand tour and he happened to do it in grand fashion at the Vuelta a Espana today. Farrar of the Garmin-Slipstream team had played the bridesmaid so many times on the grand tours but after falling back on the last climb of Stage 11, Farrar worked his way to get in position for a long sprint at the end.

Many experts felt like it was just a matter of time until Farrar broke through in a grand tour and he finally accomplished that goal. Alejandro Valverde remained in the golden jersey as the head of the general classification. Australian Cadel Evans is seven seconds behind.

Simon Gerrans of the Cervelo test team won Stage 10 of the Vuelta today and he proclaimed that he’s essentially checked off at least one of his goals this race.

“I came here with two goals — one was to win a stage and another was to get ready for the worlds,” Gerrans said. “I’ve done the first and now it’s a question of topping off my form before Mendrisio.” He became the first Australian to win a stage at all three grand tours, winning a stage in the Tour de France in 2008, a stage in the Giro d’Italia this year and now the Vuelta. It also gives the Cervelo team a win on each of the three grand tours this year as well.

The overall general classification list didn’t change at all. Alejandro Valverde remains in the golden jersey as the overall leader with Cadel Evans just a few seconds behind.

Stage Nine ended with a bit of controversy today as Alejandro Valverde wound up bumping Cadel Evans from the golden jersey. Evans was visibly upset at the end as he wound up getting pinched by Robobank’s Robert Gesink on the last right-hand turn and Evans couldn’t recover in time. Because of the allotted time bonuses for finishing first, second or third, Valverde wound up in gold at the end of the day.

There was an early breakaway and Gustavo Cesar Veloso wound up taking the stage. He held on for much of the stage. But the bigger story was Evans and how he was barking at other riders as they crossed the finish line.

The Vuelta finally hit some climbing in stage eight and thus, there was a chance for breakaways. Most of the time up until today, breakaways were quickly swallowed back up by the peloton leading to a lot of group sprints at the end of stages in order to win.

Italian Damiano Cunego put on an inspired attack at the tail end of the stage after six hours in the saddle. He left the leading group behind and wound up catching David Moncoutie in basically the final kilometer.

It was a sweltering day in Spain for Stage Six in the Vuelta, but that didn’t stop the first-ever Slovenian Borut Bozic from winning out on a group sprint. It didn’t change the overall general classification as Andre Greipel remained in the gold jersey.

Poor American Tyler Farrar was a bridesmaid once again, coming in second just a bike length behind Bozic. One of these days Farrar is going to break through.

It’s not shocking when someone from Columbia HTC wins a sprint at the end of a stage in the green jersey as points leader...hello Mark Cavendish, but today it was Andre Greipel winning stage five of the Vuelta a Espana. The victory over the last 100 meters of the 174km stage (and the first actually IN Spain) came in a bunch sprint and put Greipel in the Vuelta’s gold jersey, the equivalent of the Tour de France’s yellow jersey. The overall Vuelta leader for the first four days of the race Fabian Cancellara dropped to third overall in the general classification.

American Tyler Farrar of the Garmin Slipstream team keeps coming so close on the sprints but just can’t seem to break through. He finished fourth today and sits third overall in the points race.