Tour of Spain Off to Craziest Start in Years

We’re only 10 stages into the 2015 Vuelta a España and already, the 70th edition of the season’s final Grand Tour has been one of the craziest and most controversial events in a long time.

Before the race even started, two riders from Katusha (Yuri Trofimov and Egor Silin) were kicked off the Russian squad’s roster allegedly for drinking a bit too much while travelling from an Olympic test event in Brazil to Spain for the start of the race. The Vuelta already has a bit of reputation for being as much of a party as it a bike race: Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady were famously sent home from the race by their Saxo Bank team in 2010 for a similar “infraction.” However, this is the first time riders were punished for pre-gaming.

The race began on Spain’s Costa del Sol last Saturday with a 7.4km team time trial coursing over several different kinds of road surfaces, including sand, cinders, and a wooden bridge. Of course, there was a catch; after getting a close look at the route in the days leading up to the race, riders immediately took to Twitter to complain about safety. A resolution was soon reached: The stage would go on as planned, but times recorded at the finish would not count toward the General Classification, so riders not wishing to take any risks wouldn’t be forced to. The stage ultimately ran without incident. BMC’s Peter Velits took the Vuelta’s first red leader’s jersey after his team set the day’s fastest time.

But Stage 2 was even crazier. With a steep climb to the finish, the Vuelta’s first road stage was expected to provide the first GC shake-up of the race—but events leading up to it grabbed all the headlines as a crash took down a large portion of the peloton 30km from the finish. Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali was among the riders held up by the pile-up, but the Italian made a valiant effort to rejoin the leaders before the final climb to the finish—or so we thought.

After the stage, a video surfaced showing Nibali being towed by his team car back to the main peloton. It was a blatant rule violation, and after a few hours of deliberation, Nibali was thrown out of the race for the infraction. The day’s real loser was Esteban Chaves, a young Colombian from Orica-GreenEDGE who won the stage, took the red jersey, and should have been the day’s big hero. Instead, Nibali’s faux pas (albeit one committed by many riders when the cameras aren’t looking) was the day’s big story.

Things quieted down slightly after the opening weekend, with Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan winning Stage 3 to take his first Grand Tour stage victory since the 2013 Tour de France; Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde winning Stage 4; and Orica’s Caleb Ewan taking the biggest win of his young career on Stage 5. Stage 6 went to Chaves, who is quickly becoming the revelation of this year’s Vuelta, and Stage 7 went Lotto NL-Jumbo’s Bert-Jan Lindeman, one of the most aggressive breakaway riders of the race so far.

Then came the weekend, and all hell broke loose once again. With 50km left in Stage 8, a dramatic crash on a narrow descent ended the Vuelta for GC contenders Dan Martin of Cannondale-Garmin and Tejay van Garderen of BMC. Martin was sitting in third-place overall at the time, while van Garderen was hoping to rebound after failing to finish this year’s Tour de France. But their injuries pale in comparison to those of Lotto-Soudal’s Kris Boeckmans: The Belgian has been in a medically-induced coma since August 29, when he crashed out of the race.

Stage 8 was ultimately won by Trek Factory Racing’s Jasper Stuyven, who took advantage of the reduced peloton to earn his biggest victory as a professional. Unfortunately, the young Belgian’s Vuelta would end hours later when it was discovered that, despite recovering from the crash to win the stage, he had broken a bone in his wrist.

But the day’s most bizarre and frightening incident took place when Peter Sagan was knocked off his bike by a motorcycle with 10km to go. Sagan, justifiably angry at the motorcyclist, did little to hide his emotions: Cursing, kicking, and even spitting in frustration, he was fined 300 Swiss francs for his actions. He abandoned due to his injuries the next day. (The driver of the motorcycle was expelled from the race.)

Overall, it’s been a rough year for Spanish race organizers (although many of them bring it upon themselves). Timing issues plagued March’s Volta a Catalunya; four riders were sent to the hospital after Stage 1 of April’s Tour of the Basque Country because metal bollards weren’t removed from the finishing straight; and a motorbike took down Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet while he was seemingly on his way to winning July’s Clásica San Sebastian.

To add insult to injury, it hasn’t been a great year for Spaniards in their home Grand Tour. Valverde’s stage win is the only Vuelta victory for a Spanish rider so far, and he and Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez are the only Spanish overall contenders in the Vuelta’s top 10. With men like Team Sky’s Chris Froome and Movistar’s Nairo Quintana looking stronger every day, things can only get worse.

Whatever happens, it should be exciting, spectacular, and perhaps a little chaotic. Such is life when racing in Spain.

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